Netball import rule annoys Diamonds coach
Australia coach Lisa Alexander is unhappy Super Netball clubs are opting for New Zealanders over emerging homegrown talent.
Kiwi players have had a unique opportunity to be available to play in the Australian competition due to a scheduling quirk in World Cup year.
New Zealand’s domestic league finished in early June and with Super Netball starting later and having a mid-season break because of July’s World Cup, Australian sides have been able to target Silver Ferns as replacement players.
The table-topping New South Wales Swifts used Sydney-based Kayla Cullen for a one-game cameo and then signed Ferns centurion Katrina Rore as an injury replacement for the rest of the season. Onetest Ferns midcourter
Kimiora Poi was also snapped up by the Collingwood
Magpies.
Leading Silver Ferns don’t have any elite netball until October’s Constellation Cup, so signing Rore and Poi was an advantageous move for both the players and injury-hit clubs.
It hasn’t gone down well with Alexander, who asked why the teams weren’t looking at promising Australian players first.
‘‘What we don’t want to be doing is developing the next layer of talent for the Silver Ferns,’’ she told Stuff.
‘‘We should be letting your competition do that. We should be developing our next layer and that’s not going to happen when you’ve got that situation.’’
Rore’s vast experience and ability to cover wing defence and goal defence would have been attractive for the Swifts, but the Magpies going with Poi, over a young Australian with similar skills, was a head scratcher.
‘‘As the national coach, it’s pretty disappointing because you’d love to see our talent getting that opportunity.
‘‘At this stage, that’s not what’s happening and it’s obviously something we’re going to have to monitor in the future.’’
Ferns captain Laura Langman (who plays for Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua’s Sunshine Coast Lightning) and veteran shooter Maria Folau (Adelaide Thunderbirds) have been in Super Netball for the entire season.
Super Netball doesn’t have an overseas player restriction per team, meaning they can contract as many as they like. New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership allows one per team, but for the 2020 season, just two of the six teams have contracted an import player.
Alexander has been an advocate of two imports per team since Super Netball was launched in 2017.
This season, 27 overseas players (not eligible for Australia) have been on the books of the eight Super Netball teams, which some argue is hindering pathways for young Australians coming through the ranks.
The topic is firmly in the spotlight after perennial title winners Australia lost the final of the World Cup to the Silver Ferns last month, to go along with another one-goal final loss in the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal match to England.
‘‘It’s a really difficult, complex question. What I’m probably a little bit disappointed about at the moment is when there have been injuries we’re not going to our Australian talent.
‘‘I also understand the commercial imperatives of what happens here in Australia and the ability of this league to compete, not just against wanting to be the world’s best domestic netball league, but also against all the other women’s leagues that we’re competing against in Australia.’’
The number of Australian players getting large minutes each week had been eroded due to unlimited imports.
‘‘It hasn’t made my job any easier, but again that’s part of the world I have as national coach and we’ve still got many great players.’’