A year on from being knocked back in her quest to join the Netball Australia board, Liz Ellis has finally found a seat at the table.

The former Diamonds captain (2004-2011) has been appointed as a director and says she believes now is the right time to try and influence change.

Ellis spent 15 years representing her country at the top, appearing at four World Cups and three Commonwealth Games as she made her way to become our most capped player ever (122).

The Diamonds annual MVP award is named in her honour.

Off the court, Ellis studied law at Macquarie University and served on the boards of the Australian Sports Commission, NSW Institute of Sport, Sydney Olympic Park Authority and Players Voice.

She has also forged an impressive media career, previously commentating the Super Netball league for Channel Nine and 10, writing columns for the Sydney Morning Herald, appearing regularly as a panellist on The Project, and winning reality TV show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2023.

Ellis got a good look behind the curtain of her beloved sport when she led a State of the Game Review in 2020 that assessed where netball was at before making various recommendations to help maintain its status as Australia’s number one sport for women and girls.

Overall, many would argue there is no name more synonymous with netball in this country – perhaps even worldwide – so the news that Ellis’s expertise had been cast aside by Netball Australia to instead reappoint some of its existing directors last year definitely raised eyebrows.

Speaking of her appointment, Ellis told ABC Sport now felt like the right time for her to take on a governance position, three seasons since she last commentated a game and pivoted to a different area of the media industry.

“Look, I’m really excited and I think it’s the right time for me to be doing it,” Ellis said.

“I used to think I couldn’t do it while I was commentating, simply because it’s a bit of a conflict of interest, but I feel far away from those duties now to take it on.

“You should never waste a crisis and the sport has seen a series of crisis over the past 12 months, but it’s actually created an opportunity for some meaningful conversations to happen.”