This weekend, the Mystics will make their fifth grand final appearance in six years. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
The Northern Mystics will still need the ANZ Premiership to be running next year. Vyver said he did not have any information about NNZ\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
The Mystics are about to make their fourth consecutive ANZ Premiership grand final appearance<\/a> on Saturday, when they face the Southern Steel in Auckland.<\/p>\n Mystics assistant coach Rob Wright told the Herald that NNZ had said nothing about what was happening next year.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I think it\u2019s a disgrace. This is the third year in a row that our competition\u2019s been on a lifeline. My understanding is the worst scenario is that the competition goes to a completely amateur competition, which would be a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright said joining Super Netball was a no-brainer, but he was unsure of Australia\u2019s appetite, given the exodus of top Kiwi players there last year.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern is Australia\u2019s probably now going, \u2018Why would we want a New Zealand team?\u2019 They\u2019ve already got half the Silver Ferns playing there.\u201d<\/p>\n Vyver said the Mystics\u2019 player leadership group was part of the Super Netball discussions and was supportive.<\/p>\n Fifty-two-test Silver Fern<\/a> and Mystics goal shoot Maia Wilson said that, if any club had the resource to foot it in Super Netball, it was the Mystics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe infrastructure, the support staff that they have behind the scenes, the coaching is the best coaching that I\u2019ve had week in, week out, my whole career. I would love the chance for us to do that. I\u2019d 100% commit to coming back here to the Mystics if that was definitely the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Vyver said joining Super Netball would not necessarily mean leaving New Zealand\u2019s domestic competition.<\/p>\n \u201cDepending on how things went and where the ANZ Premiership goes, there\u2019s potential to have a team based here and a team based playing in Australia. So we were just open to exploring different options for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Vyver said the option of shifting New Zealand\u2019s domestic competition so it did not clash with Super Netball \u2013 an idea put on the table by the Players\u2019 Association last year \u2013 was back in play.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a broadcast point of view, the winter part of the year is quite congested. There is an option to look at either the end or the beginning of the year as a slightly less congested time. I think everything needs to be put on the table and considered.\u201d<\/p>\n He admitted that joining Super Netball would be much more expensive than the current costs of competing at home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would require private investment to make it happen. So we\u2019ve been having some initial conversations around that.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright said he was perplexed as to how the ANZ Premiership continued to fight for survival, and pointed to potentially damaging impacts on New Zealand\u2019s test side<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year\u2019s a World Cup year. What are they doing? We need a competition. Only half of the Silver Ferns play in Australia. What do they expect for the other half of the team?<\/p>\n \u201cNetball is still the biggest female participation sport in the country. The Silver Ferns are ranked second in the world, and yet we struggle to have our own competition. That should be ringing alarm bells for everyone. I\u2019m stunned. I can\u2019t understand it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game\u2019s a brilliant game, and yet we can\u2019t attract either money from broadcast or people don\u2019t want to have it as a product. It blows me away.\u201d<\/p>\n From July, he would effectively be unemployed, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to have to start looking now for a job. I\u2019ll look at other leagues around the world because I can\u2019t afford to wait and then find out there\u2019s nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Athletes are facing a similar conundrum. The signing window for Australia\u2019s Super Netball sides is scheduled to begin after the grand final on July 4. The signing window for the UK\u2019s Super League, which attracted former Silver Fern Tiana Metuarau last year, opened on June 22 and ends on August 31.<\/p>\n Wright said the Kiwi-based players had decisions to make.<\/p>\n \u201cFour teams are finished, and they\u2019re wondering, are they all unemployed now? What do you do if Australia come knocking when Netball New Zealand\u2019s not saying a thing about what\u2019s next year? If an offer came up, why wouldn\u2019t you take it?\u201d<\/p>\n NNZ has undergone major leadership changes after last year\u2019s Dame Noeline Taurua<\/a> employment saga and the previous battle for an ANZ Premiership broadcast deal.<\/p>\n Jane Patterson took over as interim CEO from Jennie Wyllie in January, with Jennah Wootten<\/a> to inherit the role after the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n Patterson has repeatedly declined interview requests from the Herald since stepping into the role, giving her sole interview in April<\/a> when Briony Akle<\/a> was announced as Silver Ferns assistant coach.<\/p>\n As a coach, Wright said things felt no different now compared to NNZ\u2019s previous leadership regime.<\/p>\n \u201cThere still seems to be no information coming out. There seems to be a shroud of secrecy on everything still. So it doesn\u2019t look any different to me, but I\u2019m only a coach; I don\u2019t deal with them a lot. But from an outsider looking in, there doesn\u2019t seem to be much change.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, NNZ changed Silver Ferns eligibility rules so that top players could receive exemptions to play overseas but remain available for test selection. It saw Karin Burger, Kelly Jackson, Kate Heffernan, Grace Nweke, Maddy Gordon, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Jane Watson and Whitney Souness all leave the ANZ Premiership to join Super Netball.<\/p>\n NNZ was bowing to public pressure from the athletes and Taurua, who wanted them to play in a higher-quality domestic competition. However, Wright said it was a bad move by the governing body.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really big mistake of Netball New Zealand to allow those players to go and play in Australia, because they\u2019ve basically said the ANZ Premiership\u2019s not good enough in reality. <\/p>\n \u201cSo all of a sudden, how do you attract international players? How do we move forward if all our players are going and playing in other competitions?\u201d<\/p>\n The Herald approached both NNZ and NA for comment.<\/p>\n NA said, \u201cWhile the timelines for Suncorp Super Netball expansion are not feasible for 2027, we remain committed to exploring and evaluating opportunities for future growth.\u201d <\/p>\n NNZ said, \u201cResolving the future of our domestic competition is a major focus for Netball New Zealand and its recently refreshed board.<\/p>\n \u201cA decision on the future of the current ANZ Premiership competition hasn\u2019t been made, but the board is meeting multiple times this month to continue working through the options.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge this period is difficult for our athletes, coaches, umpires, and teams, who naturally are looking for certainty regarding their near futures. That is front of mind as we work through this process, and we will provide clarity as soon as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Nathan Limm<\/a> has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast<\/a> and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, the Mystics will make their fifth grand final appearance in six years. Photo \/ Photosport The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19330,534,12465,24812,1040,305,19755,3331,1743,247446,16762,111,139,7977,69,13180,213,313,5619],"class_list":["post-494380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-19330","tag-amid","tag-anz","tag-australias","tag-bid","tag-have","tag-join","tag-launch","tag-launched","tag-mystics","tag-netball","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northern","tag-nz","tag-premiership","tag-sports","tag-super","tag-uncertainty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rob Wright says it is a “disgrace” that NNZ has provided teams with no information about next year’s premiership competition. Photo \/ Getty Image<\/p>\n
Maia Wilson (left) believes the Mystics have the infrastructure to make a Super Netball bid work. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Silver Ferns Kelly Jackson, Maddy Gordon and Te Paea Selby-Rickit have all joined the Queensland Firebirds. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Netball New Zealand interim chief executive Jane Patterson (right) with coach Dame Noelene Taurua. Patterson has given just one interview to the Herald since assuming the role in January. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n