When former Australian Diamonds captain Liz Ellis was knocked back in her attempt to join Netball Australia’s board last June, she approached the rebuff in the same way she once attacked her sport — with resilience and tenacity.
Ten months later, on Monday, Ellis was unveiled as the board’s newest director as the governing body continues its recovery in the aftermath of its bitter pay dispute with its players.
Speaking of first being rejected, Ellis says she approached joining the board as a matter of not if, but when.
“Through your playing career, you learn to deal with setbacks and I just had it in my head that it was a setback,” she tells Wide World of Sports.
“This is: I’ve been told no but no is not the end. No is just go away and find a different way to get a yes.
“I knew that at some point the opportunity would come up again and I just had to be ready for it.
“I opened up a dialogue with [board] chair Wendy Archer and she and I had a lot of good, honest discussions over the last 12 months that were off the record — no one knew about them.
“But I knew that when the time came, she knew that I was serious.”