NZ netball must seek the light after its darkest day
OPINION: Such is sport. On the day that world netball came of age, the New Zealand game might just have been plunged into its deepest, darkest crisis.
How else can you decipher Malawi’s seismic Sunday 57-53 upset of the once-mighty Silver Ferns in the Commonwealth Games tournament on the Gold Coast?
As much as it was tempting, from a New Zealand viewpoint, to shrug it off as just a ‘‘bad day at the office’’ and share in the unrestrained glee with which the Malawi ‘‘Queens’’ celebrated the biggest moment in their otherwise unremarkable netball history, that would be just plain wrong.
This was more than just a sporting stumble; more than just a disappointing display from a team guilty of taking its eye off the ball.
This was an unacceptable, unfathomable and deeply disconcerting descent into the abyss. This was New Zealand netball’s Kiwis rugby league World Cup moment. This was the slap-in-the-face reality check the Silver Ferns have been stumbling towards for some time now.
But, first, let’s get one thing out of the way. Well done Malawi: a hearty pat on the back to the African nation who gave international netball its biggest shot in the arm since ... well, maybe ever.
For a long, long time netball has been dominated by Australia and New Zealand, with England and Jamaica providing the only legitimate opposition. It was, at best, a four-horse race, but everyone knew the winner was coming from one of the two thoroughbreds.
But Malawi beating the Ferns in a tournament as big as the Commonwealth Games (a de facto world champs, all things considered) tilts that balance of power further back to the chasing pack. This was a victory very much for the legitimacy of international netball.
But there are two sides to every story, and New Zealand’s in this one has a much darker tinge to it.
The tendency is to go soft on the Silver Ferns. To wrap them in cotton wool and give them a bit of a cuddle. To lower our expectations and accept mediocrity.
But not now. Not after this debacle.
Malawi had just a game earlier at the same tournament lost to Uganda. This was an unacceptable defeat for a team with the ability, resources and pedigree of the Ferns. This was the equivalent of the All Blacks dropping one to Namibia.
If and when that day occurs, the All Blacks would be rightly lambasted. Ridiculed. So too now should the Ferns.
A more recent comparison might be the Kiwis’ defeats to Tonga and then, especially, Fiji at league’s World Cup last year, the final implosion of a team in a spiral of mediocrity and dysfunction.
Those two results saw the Kiwis heaped with scorn and an official inquiry launched. It has taken a while, but the coach has also fallen on his sword. More change seems set to follow.
There is still water to flow under this Commonwealth Games bridge yet. The Ferns have pool games to come against Scotland and England, and could yet redeem themselves with an unlikely resurgence. A medal, and even gold, remains a possibility.
But it looks highly unlikely. The Malawi Meltdown is not a result out of the blue. The Ferns have won just five of their past 14 matches since October.
Just recently they lost twice to Jamaica within three days on their home courts. They went down to both Australia and England in January’s quad series in South Africa, and last October were swept 4-0 by the Diamonds in the Constellation Cup. Before that they were tipped up by England twice in New Zealand.
The descent has been in motion for some time; though Sunday night’s calamity might just have been rock-bottom being struck. It was much, much more of a shock than 1995’s world champs defeat to South Africa.
The Ferns clearly lacked focus. They led by seven at halftime, then imploded with a 17-9 third quarter no-show. The more subs that were made, the worse they played. Eventually they collapsed under the pressure of the situation, and even the normally reliable Maria Folau found herself struggling for accuracy.
Coach Janine Southby will clearly come under the spotlight. Whatever her plan is, it clearly hasn’t been working.
But the examination should not stop there. Netball New Zealand must look within. The decision to part with Australia at the franchise level has clearly not produced a positive result. The talent development networks must be reviewed. Where have all the world-class players gone?
Right now New Zealand Netball has a lot to think about. No stone must be left unturned as it searches for the light at the end of a dark tunnel.