Australian men's team cops backlash for Fast5 Netball dance

In a year where there have been so many positive things happen in men's netball, it's a shame the biggest story to capture the public's attention has been the backlash to a one-minute dance.

Last month, the Australian men swept the Net Blacks 4-0 to retain the Trans-Tasman Cup. Before they won a maiden Fast 5 World Series title last weekend in Christchurch.

The team did this in spine-tingling fashion too, as Jordon Webb sunk a four-point goal with just two seconds left in the final to steal victory from New Zealand, 32-30.

But instead of that being the focal point of the two-day tournament, a video clip of the group dancing to NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye has reached the dark side of the internet.

What was originally perceived to be a pretty wholesome moment quickly spiralled out of control and has now become online fodder for homophobic slurs and cultural disrespect.

Channel 7 had to limit the comments on their social media posts of the video.

Others in mainstream media have labelled it in jest as Australia's new version of the haka.

It appears very little research has been done to contextualise how normal it is for a light-hearted dance of this nature to take place in the Fast5 World Series setting.

So let's set the record straight. Yes, men play netball.

State teams have been playing at the Australian Men's and Mixed Netball Championships ever since 1985 and the national side made its debut in the '80s too.

Last year, the team was given a new nickname – the Kelpies – after previously being known as the Sonix, but the players that took the court in Christchurch aren't actually referred to as the Kelpies. Just as the women's team that plays Fast5 isn't known as the Diamonds.

It is an adapted version of the sport and although it is still run by World Netball, countries often send developing players to the tournament for opportunity and no official Test caps are given.

This was the third straight year that men were invited to compete at the Fast5 World Netball Series as they are not governed by the same global body as the women's. In 2022, England featured alongside Australia and New Zealand. In 2023 and 2024, South Africa came instead.

All teams – male and female – perform a dance before their first game.

Think of Fast5 to netball as T20 is to cricket, or Rugby 7s is to rugby union.

Fans love the fun atmosphere. Friends attend in big groups, dress up together in colourful outfits, and nothing is supposed to be taken too seriously.

With all that in mind, let's circle back to the vitriol that has been directed at the players.

As the group brainstormed their Fast5 dance choreography this year, the players were inspired by Deadpool's rendition of the NSYNC Bye Bye Bye dance in the Deadpool & Wolverine movie.

It was such a pop culture hit, that the band even changed the name of the song's video clip on their YouTube channel to include the word Deadpool and try to cash in on its popularity.

Yet for some reason, when it's performed by Australian male athletes it's unacceptable?

Fast5 captain and Kelpies midcourter Liam Forcadilla said it was a sign of fragile masculinity.

"Deadpool could be classed as a pretty masculine movie so it's a bit baffling that people are reverting straightaway to comments about it being gay or feminine," Forcadilla told ABC Sport.

"If you look at who is making these comments, it's often people that don't understand netball and are taking it out of context and saying that it's a gay dance.

"Lucky we've got a great culture in the Australian men's netball community and we're all very secure within ourselves, whether we are gay or straight, everyone is supportive.

"It says more about our players and the great relationship they have with their masculinity."

Forcadilla, who says he's never done more media in his life than he has over the past few days, also competed at the Fast5 World Series held in 2022 and 2023.

As the men's game grows in profile, the players are still getting used to the good and bad sides of fame. Their dance at last year's tournament also received mixed reviews.

"We got some negative feedback when we did the NutBush last year, which is weird because nearly every Australian has done the NutBush at some point – at a wedding or at school.

"So that was a learning curve, and we did expect to garner some attention, I guess we just didn't anticipate it was going to be this bad.

"The media outlets and social media pages targeting women have all been uplifting and supportive but it's the mainstream, older demographic outlets that have been tearing us down.

"It's not so much the comments that are upsetting, it's more that we strive to be ambassadors and custodians of the game, and we don't want anything to detract from our play.

"I also think it's really disrespectful that some of the media have been comparing it to the haka … We don't like that, it's culturally insensitive."

It's interesting to compare the tone of the comments left underneath the videos of the Australian women's dance as well as those of the two opposition male teams.

All of which have been just as fun and flamboyant yet haven't gone anywhere near as viral or taken such a sour turn in sentiment, causing Forcadilla to question: why?

"It feels a little bit sexist.

"I do think that part of it is because the vast majority of our population still don't know that men's netball is a thing, even though we've been around for 40 years."

The good news is that there has also been an influx of support.

The Kelpies social media page has grown by 600 more followers since the weekend and Forcadilla has received a bit of a boost to his personal page too.

The players are also finding they are getting more recognition in existing netball circles.

"Off the back of our 4-0 Kelpies series, the fans are wanting to get to know us even more.

"At one of the player signings, there was a girl there that had made me a Taylor Swift inspired friendship bracelet.

"God bless her, it was so nice … That kind of thing is really quite foreign to us, but the fact they know who we are now is amazing."

There is talk of moving Fast5 to a more central location in the years to come, hopefully enticing an England men's team back to the series and other additional teams.

The format may become more important over time too, as the sport ponders in what shape or form it can get netball onto the Brisbane 2032 Olympics program.