Through the eight weeks since the initial short-term agreement was signed, Williams said they had weekly interactions with NNZ about its position.<\/p>\n
\u201cFundamentally, a week before this, we still had confirmation that they really, really wanted to make it work. So something must have changed in their heads, and that\u2019s life. But just let us know what changed and we\u2019ll move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Friday\u2019s NNZ statement, Wootten said it had agreed to terms when it signed the non-binding agreement eight weeks ago, but as things progressed, the parties were no longer aligned.<\/p>\n
However, Williams said he doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you say terms, it\u2019s about intention. What\u2019s the intention? We went into this with these clear intentions. Our intentions have not changed. Very, very clearly, our intentions have not changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow you figure out those elements, that\u2019s where you get the long form agreements and you go from those processes. And from our point, our intentions have not changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember the intentions were already signed and underway pre-Jennah even coming on board. So there\u2019s been a change of leadership and a change of elements on those sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Williams told Newstalk ZB that ultimately it came down to control of the league, but Wootten told media it wasn\u2019t about control and NNZ is very open to change.<\/p>\n
Williams was bemused by Wootten\u2019s comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand because the reality is what she\u2019s doing is she\u2019s giving us the controlling power to harness this league, to connect with the fans, connect with the players, to connect with the greater community of netball.<\/p>\n
Netball NZ CEO Jennah Wootten. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, that was their intent when they did it. So if it\u2019s not about that, then it must be about something else, and it\u2019d be great to understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wootten claimed NNZ was contributing a significant sum towards the domestic league.<\/p>\n
Williams was asked how the league\u2019s financial landscape would come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detail I don\u2019t think is relevant around that because private people do things for different reasons, and it\u2019s around connecting with private people to understand why they want to do it. And if they have the same why as us, then the money part is a second thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for us it was actually about tying in individuals, both sponsors, broadcasters and individuals to say, \u2018Hey, are you all on the same collective why? And why are we doing this?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing this for a launch platform for women in sport. We\u2019re doing this because the Silver Ferns are the greatest netball team, and how do we harness that? We\u2019re doing this for the 5-, 6-, 7-year-old girls that want to be Silver Fern players or want to be Magic players or want to be Steel players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can get everyone in the same room that has the same why, that\u2019s when all those other elements take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea has been floated publicly of Williams and Mowbray creating their own rogue, private competition without NNZ\u2019s backing.<\/p>\n
However, Williams poured cold water on the suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be beneficial for the netball ecosystem. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019d be beneficial for the players in the long term. I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be beneficial for the Silver Ferns<\/a>. I tell you what, it\u2019d be fun though if we could deploy some of the plans that we had. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s us. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the reality around that stuff is what\u2019s your why? And your why is creating a better Silver Ferns, a better professional thing, a better pathway. Would that achieve that? I probably, in my own head, say no, it wouldn\u2019t achieve that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not here to be disruptive in a manner that attacks sporting bodies or anything like that. That\u2019s not who we are. We want to put water on the flower and make it grow.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams was asked if their vision included the National Netball League, the feeder competition for the ANZ Premiership.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ultimate process was to build all internally and go from there. But you know, you have short, middle-term and long-term visions of what you see and then you adapt to what fans want to see and what players want.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams wanted to be very clear their work would have zero overlap with the Silver Ferns or their high-performance programme.<\/p>\n \u201cShe [Mowbray] wanted to make the All Blacks of the Silver Ferns. She very clearly said that. For us, there was never, ever any element that we would step on the Silver Ferns\u2019 toes. We want to make the best Silver Ferns. That\u2019s the country we all represent and love.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams said they wanted to improve professionalism in netball and to connect with fans and the regions.<\/p>\n \u201cThose visions haven\u2019t changed in our eyes. That\u2019s always our intention with sport, and we love it for those reasons. Where everything gets to with netball, we don\u2019t know, and we\u2019re sort of letting New Zealand Netball do their thing and communicate with who they need to communicate with.<\/p>\n \u201cBut fundamentally, we support the players. We\u2019ve had great communications with the players through this whole process. That hasn\u2019t changed. We\u2019re still talking, which is fantastic, just to understand their things. We\u2019re really keen to get some answers and understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams hinted they would be open to revisiting the deal with NNZ.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to understand first why, and then that will let us have hope, if that makes sense. But I also understand that people do make decisions and you\u2019ve just got to go with it. <\/p>\n \u201cBut from our side, look, where we can, we will support the players and then let\u2019s see what the future has because one thing\u2019s very clear from our side is we love sport. We love what it does for this country, and I think lastly it\u2019s watching it impact on the communities and bringing New Zealand together as a whole.\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":"NNZ owns the Stars, the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic and the Mainland Tactix, while the Northern Mystics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[62031,1863,7022,46326,150804,14736,1644,2740,224194,14731,1432,16762,111,139,69,90,1136,26520,213,76332,192534,13971,224195],"class_list":["post-649507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ali","tag-back","tag-black","tag-clubs","tag-contradicts","tag-domestic","tag-financial","tag-former","tag-jennah","tag-league","tag-model","tag-netball","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-private","tag-pushed","tag-sports","tag-suggestions","tag-viable","tag-williams","tag-wootten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649507","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=649507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray.<\/p>\n