A netball coach has been given a lifetime ban from coaching in Australia after an appeal found an initial 10-year ban was an unreasonable sanction for 13 allegations of misconduct substantiated against her, according to tribunal documents made public this week.

The allegations against Tracy Wallace, a former coach at the Westside Saints Netball Club in Melbourne’s North-West, include that she engaged in conversations of a sexual nature with children, filmed a child who exposed their buttocks in training and shared the images with third parties, and encouraged a child to take the morning-after pill without her parents’ knowledge.

Wallace was a coach in the St Albans Caroline Springs Netball Association from 2012 until February 2025 when she was barred from coaching by Netball Victoria.

Netball Victoria received three complaints about Wallace within four days in February 2025. It appointed an independent investigator to look into the complaints that month. They investigated 27 possible breaches of the national sporting body’s disciplinary policy between 2017 and January 2025, and found 19 had occurred.

As well as the sexualised conversations, the investigation found that Wallace maintained inappropriate contact with a child over phone calls and texts, swore and belittled children, including yelling “you’re f---ing embarrassing” during a game as well as calling players “disgusting trash” and “bush pigs”, and that she forced a child to play while injured.

One parent who complained wrote that her child had been “left psychologically and emotionally scarred” after being coached by Wallace.

The sporting body offered Wallace an opportunity to accept a 20-year ban from coaching any netball in Victoria – ending in 2045 – and a lifetime ban from coaching children in Victoria. Wallace rejected the offer, opting instead to dispute the investigation’s findings at the National Sport Tribunal.

The first determination was made by Anthony Nolan, KC, on March 10, 2026, but was only made public this week. Two allegations had been withdrawn by Netball Victoria, and of the 17 remaining, Nolan was comfortably satisfied that 13 had occurred.

Nolan found that Wallace had little remorse. He barred Wallace from coaching for 10 years but allowed her to attend senior netball events as a spectator.

Netball Victoria and Netball Australia appealed his determination in March, based on two grounds on which it said no reasonable decision-maker, based on the evidence before them, could have made.

The first was the tribunal’s finding that it could not prove an allegation that Wallace had disseminated a video depicting a child in a sexual act, and the second appealed the sanction of just 10 years.

The appeal was heard before a panel of three tribunal members who dismissed the first ground – finding no evidence that Wallace had the video of a child engaging in a sexual act in her possession – but allowed the second, replacing the 10-year ban with a lifetime ban.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Netball Victoria said: “We have zero tolerance for abusive, offensive or inappropriate behaviour. In line with this position, Netball Victoria last year banned a suburban association coach from junior netball for life and subsequently appealed a decision by the peak sports arbitration body, the National Sports Tribunal, to reduce the ban.

“That appeal, recently handed down, has resulted in the coach receiving a lifetime ban from all netball. The NST appeal panel’s decision validates Netball Victoria’s action and sends an important message that abusive and inappropriate behaviour in sport will not be tolerated.

“Evidence that came to light during the proceedings indicates that the local association should have done more to provide a safe and inclusive environment for participants. Netball Victoria has sought information from the affiliate association’s board about how directors will better protect the safety and wellbeing of participants in future.

“We are also considering, in the context of the Tribunal’s findings and our ongoing investigations, whether further disciplinary action will be taken against any associated parties. We continue to support members of the local netball community who are directly impacted or distressed by this matter.”

Wallace and the Westside Saints Netball Club have been contacted for comment.

A club culture of “obedience”

In the course of making his determination, Nolan found the St Albans Caroline Springs Netball Association (SACSNA and the Westside club to have a “win at all costs” culture “established” by former president Jan Shultz and former head coach Darren Abela.

Wallace was hired as a regular coach in 2013 and replaced Abela when he left the club in 2021.

Nolan found that Wallace “adopted and embraced” that culture which “demanded she be given unqualified respect and obedience”.

One witness Nolan referred to, known as “Parent 14” said that between 2015 and 2019 there was fear that a child would be sidelined if complaints were made about coaching.

“At the start of every season, Darren [Abela] will get all the parents in and pretty much say my way or the highway. There’s a door. If you don’t like it, f--- off … But the main reason that you didn’t complain is because [the] pathway of your child was threatened repeatedly,” Parent 14 said during the hearings.

Nolan referred to an example of one complaint made about Wallace to Netball Victoria in 2021. The state sporting body referred the matter back to SACSNA and Schultz did not investigate Wallace’s conduct but found instead that the girls at the club involved “showed no respect to Tracy”.

In October 2025, Abela was charged with 19 child sex offences.

On July 10, according to the Maribyrnong Leader, Abela pleaded guilty to seven charges of child abuse at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. The charges included sexual penetration of a 16-year-old under his care and the Leader reported that some of the charges were from more than a decade before he was charged.