PETER REES speaks to netball stars Australian international Mo’onia Gerrard, former Silver Fern Temepara George and Samoa/Pulse captain, Frances Solia, about the ANZ Championship in an exclusive to SPASIFIKmag.com.
The Trans Tasman ANZ Championship which kicked off last weekend heralds a new era for netball. The advent of semi-professionalism means top netball players will finally be compensated for sacrificing work and the time they put into the game.
Netballers are excited at the new 10-team cross-border competition which sees the best New Zealand and Australian players clash. But for many of the more seasoned players, it is long overdue.
“I’m at the end of my career and now it’s all happening,” jokes Northern Mystic midcourter, Temepara George. In an exclusive interview with SPASIFIKmag.com, the former Silver Fern confirmed this will be her last year of netball having retired from the international game late last year.
“I wish I was five years younger but netball is definitely on the up. The new competition is going to do major things for the game,” she adds. “It’s going to be good for the spectators and it will give young players more opportunities.”
Australian international and Adelaide Thunderbirds defender Mo’onia Gerrard agrees: “It’s good for netball because you get kind of sick of going to a World Champs where only three or four teams can win it. Netball should have done this a long time ago. Hopefully, it will encourage more young girls to aspire to playing netball at the highest level,” she tells SPASIFIKmag.com.
Samoa international and Pulse captain, Frances Solia, who has been playing to provincial netball in New Zealand since the late 1990’s is positive about the direction netball is heading.
“Yes, we have had to wait patiently for netball to be in a position that it is in today and it’s just a relief to finally know that the sport is getting the recognition it deserves and hopefully it won’t take as long before the sport becomes fully professional,” she tells SPASIFIKmag.com.
But she hopes more will be done to make netball more competitive worldwide.
“Netball has to keep pushing so that it is globally recognised. In the past it has always been Australia and New Zealand and now just recently we have seen that England and Jamaica have become so much more competitive which is awesome and that’s what we need. I believe Netball has to become competitive in other countries before we can even think of becoming a full time professional sport.”
