International umpire Jemma Cook officiates netball games for the best players in the world, but maintains a strong connection to Manly netball.
Jemma Cook is a familiar face to netball fans – you may have seen her on television, running the sideline of the Netball World Cup last year; or on the whistle officiating a NSW Swifts game. You may have even spotted her down at the local courts in North Curl Curl.
At 33, Jemma is one of Australia’s top netball umpires and when she was recently awarded Official of the Year at the NSW Champion of Sport awards, it made her reflect on her journey. “For me it was a really nice recognition of a lot of hard work,” she says. “It kind of makes you take stock and go, oh actually, I have done a lot in the last couple of years.”
At home in Collaroy Plateau, Jemma juggles her netball umpiring commitments with a full-time job as a human resources director. She and her husband Phil also have a three-year-old daughter, Harriet.
Jemma umpiring the 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa
Like many young women, Jemma started her netball career playing at the John Fisher Netball Courts in North Curl Curl on a Saturday. She was part of the former Beacon Hill Youth Club and favoured playing goal defence and goal keeper positions.
Then at 12, she was required to learn to umpire as part of the Manly Warringah Netball Association requirements. “I didn’t like umpiring initially,” Jemma says.
She recalls being taken under the wing of the late Laraine Hunter, who was the club umpire convenor at the time. “She recognised some talent early on and got me in front of the right people,” she explains.
One of those people was Maureen Boyle, a highly respected international umpire, who came to watch Jemma umpire a match in Warriewood. “Maureen had represented Australia at countless world cups,” Jemma says. “And at the time was one of the high-performance coaches and heavily involved in the Australian umpiring pathway.”
Jemma credits Maureen with having guided her towards success. “I’ve been really fortunate to have her mentorship and coaching and guidance from the very beginning,” says Jemma, who considers Maureen a close friend. “I will still seek her counsel and guidance when I’m faced with different challenges.”
Under Maureen’s mentorship, Jemma quickly earnt her various umpiring badges, representing Manly Warringah at state championship level before umpiring the national schoolgirls tournament at age 16.
There she found herself umpiring women older than herself and quickly found that she couldn’t please everyone. “I learned pretty early on to listen to a few trusted advisors,” Jemma recalls. “I made sure they were the loudest voices in my head.”
The pinnacle of Jemma’s career came in 2010, when she was awarded her All Australia (AA) badge at the grand final of the Australian Netball League. “I always viewed that as a quite prestigious award,” she says, explaining that it put her in a league with the best umpires in Australia.
From there Jemma started umpiring at the top level domestically and was contracted to the ANZ championships. Even so, Jemma continued to play netball for her local club down at North Curl Curl. “On a Saturday I would often fly out after my game to a different city across Australia to umpire,” she explains. She gave up playing in 2014 when she moved to the UK for five years.
In 2013 Jemma was awarded her international umpire award, allowing her to umpire international events. Last year she was one of 17 umpires selected worldwide to officiate the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
Jemma believes that the ability to make quick, multiple decisions along with focusing on what’s in front of you makes a good umpire. “Whether you’re umpiring down at Curl Curl or you’re umpiring on the world stage, there are 14 players on the netball court,” she says. “The same rules generally, more often than not, apply. I think you’ve got to treat, regardless of what level you’re umpiring, all the players with that respect.”