Langman handling appalling says Ellis
Australia Diamonds great Liz Ellis says Netball New Zealand have treated Laura Langman ‘‘appallingly’’ over the past two years.
Ellis, 45, writing a piece for the Players Voice, delved into New Zealand’s swift decline in international netball since the transTasman netball league ended.
She said Netball NZ should have made an exemption for Langman, a veteran who played 141 consecutive tests for the Silver Ferns, rather than cast her out for playing in Australia.
With the advent of professionalism in netball, players from England, Jamaica and elsewhere who play in the Australian league are learning to play with the intensity of the Australian national team.
‘‘The flipside of course is that New Zealand are suffering because they’re not part of it.’’
‘‘It was unbelievable to me that New Zealand missed out on a medal on the Gold Coast, and that they almost didn’t make the finals,’’ Ellis wrote for Players Voice.
‘‘But I wasn’t exactly shocked because New Zealand no longer have their best players playing in the best league in the world – week in, week out. There is no doubt that their Commonwealth Games performance suffered as a result.’’
Which is where Langman comes in.
‘‘Not only did New Zealand decide to retreat across the ditch to their own domestic competition but they basically deemed that anyone who played in our competition wasn’t able to represent the New Zealand national team.
‘‘So that meant they missed their best player in Laura Langman, who I think has been treated appallingly by their governing body.
‘‘I think she would have got them a lot closer to a medal. She’s a superstar who was one of the best players in the Suncorp Super Netball league here last year.’’
Ellis said she understands it is a commercial decision to demand New Zealand players play in New Zealand, but that Langman should have been a special case.
‘‘Laura Langman has played 141 tests for the Silver Ferns and had not missed a test match since her debut in 2005. And suddenly they’ve said ‘no, you’re playing in Australia, you can no longer play for the national team’.
‘‘I think you can make an exemption for a player who has played that many consecutive test matches for New Zealand. You only need a bush lawyer to tell you that.’’
Netball NZ have launched an independent review into their Commonwealth Games fourthplace finish.