Matthew Battams took on the chief executive role at Netball ACT in late November, following the resignation of outgoing boss David Marjoribanks.

He has a background in financial services and spent the last fives years with Netball Queensland, where he held several executive roles including general manager of delivery networks.

His arrival comes in the wake of the independent State of the Game Review, which released its findings and eight recommendations to Netball Australia last week.

The review, led by Diamonds icon Liz Ellis, outlined the need for an aligned vision for the sport, governance reform, as well as the establishment of a high-performance working group to improve diversity and align player pathways with the elite level.

With no Super Netball team in Canberra, local players rely on the Capital Spirit programme and the new-look Australian Netball Championship for elite exposure.

Canberra has been absent from the top-tiered domestic competition since the Commonwealth Bank Trophy's demise in 2007 and the territory's pathway has never produced a Diamonds player.

Battams' vision is to strengthen the ACT's pathway to the elite level and have a local player represent Australia in the future.

"I'd love to see a stronger pathway. It would be great to have a Canberra Diamond," Battams said.

"That takes some time. In the absence of a Super Netball team, we really need to provide a good opportunity for those who want to have a career in netball to have a pathway through our Spirit program, ANC and then through to a Super Netball team.

"It's also about growing participation. Ultimately, if Covid has taught us anything, it's the fact that physical and mental well-being is so important to people - just to have young people, older people, males, females, everyone playing the sport of netball and enjoying their time."

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The State of the Game survey found 86 per cent of high-performance system respondents agree netball can do better at connecting the grassroots and elite layers of the sport.

One of the panel's recommendations was to ensure "the high performance pathways are clearly enunciated and aligned, easily navigated and have as wide a catchment as possible."

Netball ACT supports the review's eight pillars, with Battams saying it's now up to Netball Australia, member organisations and district associations to work together and make sure they take on the feedback.

"There's some really good opportunities there for Netball ACT and district associations to work with Netball Australia, the aligned purpose is really important," Battams said.

"If you've got districts, state and territory bodies, and Netball Australia all trying to achieve the same things, that's a great start.

"There's a really clear push to grow participation, whether that be from an inclusion perspective or a geographical perspective - we all need to work together to find better opportunities so it's not just people in the big cities who get opportunities. We need to look beyond that."

Netball ACT had a partnership with the Sunshine Coast Lightning this year and entered the joint-venture Capital Darters into the Australian Netball League, but the season was cancelled amid the coronavirus crisis.

The second-tier competition has been replaced by a two-week tournament for 2021, with the sports body hopeful of extending their partnership with the Super Netball franchise.

Netball ACT will reach out to the Lightning before Christmas and hope to have a resolution in the new year.

"There's a great opportunity to reconnect with those guys at the Lightning," Battams said.

"They had a really good proposal that we were comfortable with, so I'm keen to reach out to them to understand whether that needs to change for 2021 or no. That's certainly the starting point and I'd expect at this point, it would continue."