The success story of Tonga Netball with the national team, 'Tala' was presented during an 'Oceania Step Up Conference' held by the Oceania National Olympic Commission in Brisbane, on 17-18 April.

It was part of the ONOC Initiative called “Creating A Home Games Advantage” to help raise the standard of the Pacific Islands, on the road to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brisbane.

Tonga Netball CEO, Salote Sisifa, was invited to speak about how Tonga Netball changed its fortunes from a first world ranking no. 32 in 2018, to now being no. 7 in the world, and becoming the top netball nation in the Pacific.

From a sports administration perspective, Salote shared this was achieved through assistance on and off the netball court, given to Tala ranging from best practices used, development overtime and consistency.

Her presentation, included a call for:

• ONOC to support World Netball and Netball Australia’s Lobby for Netball to become an Olympic Sport by 2032
• Oceania to be bold leaders in sports
• Challenging the status quo
• Governments and partners to Invest in high performance in order to compete with established nations.

Salote acknowledged the donors, partners and supporters who shared and inspired Tala’s journey.

Also at the conference were Dame Valerie Adams (five times Olympian, NZ-Tonga) and Dr Masaso Paunga (Vice Chancellor-USP) with officials Michael Bloomfield (TASANOC President) Paea Wolfgram (First Pacific and Tongan to receive an Olympic Medal), 'Onetoto ‘Anisi (Deputy CEO, Ministry of Internal Affairs) and Mosese Fonohema, MIA.