AIS Canberra Darters - History

History

Until the creation of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy in advance of the 1997 season, the Australian Institute of Sport had been represented by its own team in the ailing, state-level club-based national Mobil League. However, when this was replaced with the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, it soon became clear that there would not be an AIS team in the new league, which led to fears for the future of development programs at the institute. As a result, AIS players had no outlet in the competition between 1997 and 2002, when Netball Australia backed down and agreed to create an AIS team. Instead of expanding the size of the league, the national body eliminated the less successful of the two South Australian teams, the Adelaide Ravens, so as to allow the competition to remain capped at eight teams.

The Darters largely struggled in their first three seasons, due largely to the high turnover of players from year to year and their status as a youth team. Despite this, they managed to record several victories against more experienced clubs, and repeatedly finished above Queensland's only team, the Queensland Firebirds. The Darters remained an important development ground for Australian netball, with many players subsequently moving on to careers with other Commonwealth Bank Trophy teams.