At 193 centimetres tall and aged just 14, Allen Griechen is imposing his sizeable presence as one of Australia’s best junior male netballers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He represented both WA and Australia this year, including three games against New Zealand in the Pacific Horizon Cup for boys 17 and under.<\/p>\n
Australia won all three games, solidifying its series victory in the final match with a 48-41 win.<\/p>\n
Head coach Lorraine Ward said Griechen helped the Aussies secure success.<\/p>\n
“It was a real challenge for Allen and he really stepped up, he actually turned the game in the last game,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We were a draw at three-quarter time, and we put him on and he got three blocks straight away.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allen Griechen represented Australia at the inaugural 17-and-under trans-Tasman netball series. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Brianna Melville)<\/p>\n
Ms Ward said it was both Allen’s height and heart that got him selected for the Australian team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He really attacks the ball, he has that hunting ability that defenders need,” she said.<\/p>\n
“No-one could believe he was only 14 years old.”<\/p>\n
Too old for local team<\/p>\n
Back home in Geraldton, 450 kilometres north of Perth, Griechen has only a few games to go before he ages out of the local competition, which does not allow males over the age of 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He will be able to continue to play in Perth if his mum Robyn is willing to do the 900km round trip once a week.<\/p>\n
Robyn is already accustomed to the drive after doing it in the lead-up to Allen playing the nationals.<\/p>\n
“Perth are really receptive and they love him,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“As long as I’m prepared to drive him, he’ll still be able to go to [the] state [competition].”<\/p>\n
Griechen said it was watching his older sisters play netball that inspired him to begin playing the sport when he was just five years old.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allen Griechen hopes to help pave the way for males in the sport. (Supplied: WA Thunder)<\/p>\n
“I just thought, ‘That’s what I want to do,'” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My parents support everything I do and everything I want to be.”<\/p>\n
Challenging stigma\u00a0<\/p>\n
Griechen said it was unusual for a boy to play competitive netball in the regional town of Geraldton, where there were only two other male players, both of whom were younger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I feel like I’m paving the way for them, showing them that they can play as high, and achieve their goals,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the enthusiastic support of his family and the netball community, the young player said there was a “definite” stigma in the wider community about boys playing in the female-dominated sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, he said it usually did not take long to get people on side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There’s quite a bit of negativity but I feel as if they don’t really understand it, they haven’t really been introduced to it,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I just don’t let it get to me. I feel I’m good enough at my sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think once they hear or see how I play, I feel like they really understand what my skill level is.”<\/p>\n
Locally, Griechen plays for Kazuals reserves team in the women’s competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His coach, Kelsie Crowe, described him as an “absolute ball hunter” and asset to the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kelsie Crowe says there’s a lot of netball talent among boys. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Brianna Melville)<\/p>\n
Ms Crowe said his gender was of little importance to her or the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I just coach him the same as the girls and he just takes everything on board so well,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Crowe is hopeful there will be pathways for Griechen to continue playing netball into the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said in her view, there was no need for boys to be excluded from the sport.<\/p>\n
“There are females playing netball that are his height, and we get on with it,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We have so much talent [in boys] and I would hate to lose it to another sport.”<\/p>\n
Momentum in men’s netball<\/p>\n
Last month, top governing body World Netball endorsed the introduction of the first ever men’s netball world cup as early as 2028, as the men’s game was “gaining momentum rapidly”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association president Andrew Simons described the announcement as “the single biggest step in men’s netball history”.<\/p>\n
It follows a memorandum of understanding between the West Coast Men’s & Mixed Netball Association and Netball WA to develop and strengthen pathways for boys in competitive netball in WA.<\/p>\n
However, those living in the country face additional challenges to playing and progressing.<\/p>\n
“With Allen, it’s a little more difficult being a regional athlete,” Ms Ward explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lorraine Ward says work is underway to improve pathways for male netballers. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n
“We are going to continue his development by sending him some programs, hopefully bringing him down to Perth, so he can get into the WANL [WA Netball League] environment.”<\/p>\n
Griechen said he hoped more boys and men would play at a local level in coming years, and open up more possibilities for males in netball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That would be perfect, that’s exactly what I’m going for,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“To make sure other boys can get the same experiences and even more than I did.”<\/p>\n
He hopes negative attitudes about males in netball will recede as more boys and men enter the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“More exposure would definitely bring it out, and introduce it to a lot of people,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Definitely give it a go. Try your best.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 193 centimetres tall and aged just 14, Allen Griechen is imposing his sizeable presence as one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22875,64,63,17405,22876,22874,22877,9736,44,588,12628,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-22717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-allen-griechen","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-boy","12":"tag-geraldton","13":"tag-male","14":"tag-male-netballer","15":"tag-netball","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sport","18":"tag-teenager","19":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}