Let Ferns play away says great NZ coach

Coaching great Taini Jamison wants to see New Zealand’s selection eligibility rules eased to allow overseasbased players to play for the Silver Ferns.

As Netball New Zealand launches a review into the Silver Ferns’ disastrous Commonwealth Games campaign on the Gold Coast where they failed to medal for the first time, some focus is sure to fall on the selection criteria.

The Ferns snubbed arguably their best player in Laura Langman, ruling her ineligible because she chose to play in Australia with the New South Wales Swifts and the Sunshine Coast Lightning. But with the Australian league and even New Zealand’s domestic teams attracting international talent that are all available for their respective countries, pressure is building to allow Silver Ferns the same freedom.

‘‘We should be able to let our players go and play in other associations and to come back and bring them back,’’ Jamison, who won 18 from 20 tests as coach and had her 1967 New Zealand team inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, told 1 NEWS. Jamison felt the improvement in teams like gold medal winners England, bronze medal-winning Jamaica and Malawi, who beat New Zealand for the first time, shouldn’t be ignored on the back of allowing their stars to operate overseas and improve their skills.

‘‘It’s good for netball but not good for New Zealand and it wasn’t good for us, we didn’t let our players do the same thing,’’ Jamison said.

She also felt the New Zealand review needed to involve people with the right understanding of netball, rather than seek expertise from elsewhere. ‘‘They (Netball NZ) need to get netball people in there choosing rather than other people from other associations choosing from other sports,’’ she said.