AFTER a bitter pay war and a tough few years as head of Netball Australia, controversial Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan has resigned, effective immediately.

After only being appointed to the role in mid-2021, Ryan leaves Netball Australia a rocky few years for the sport in Australia that included several controversial decisions and a fair amount of financial trouble, and leaves only 10 days after reportedly ending the bitter pay dispute with the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) players.

There has been speculation that Ryan will be appointed the new head of the AFLW after Nicole Livingstone’s recent resignation, but time will tell where Ryan’s next career move will be.

“Having reached an in-principle agreement on the CPA pay deal, and watched with pride as our Diamonds won the Commonwealth Games and the Netball World Cup, the timing felt right to hand over the reins to a new leader,” Ms. Ryan said,

“During my time as CEO I have delivered on the objectives of the Board. We overcame the challenges of coronavirus pandemic to continue a national competition through border closures, experienced strong growth in the national competition, grew netball’s already strong participation numbers, and strengthened the games’ finances.”

Executive General Manager Performance at Netball Australia Stacey West has been appointed acting Chief Executive Officer.