Netball New Zealand wants a joint Open Champs next year with men's teams, but including a team in the ANZ Premiership is not on the cards.
The Silver Ferns are familiar with the NZ Men's team. Photo: Photosport
The recent Cadbury series, which saw the Silver Ferns beat the New Zealand Men in the final, shone more light on men's netball. The idea has been floated that a men's team could be included in the ANZ Premiership.
But Netball New Zealand's preference is for the men's game to one day be strong enough to have its own domestic competition.
The organisation's head of Events and International Kate Agnew said it was important men's netball established its own identity.
"There are always opportunities that need to be explored but I guess the first thing is that Netball New Zealand's committed to working alongside the New Zealand Men's Association to understand the direction for their future as they see it and also to help support the growth of the game and how best we can do that," Kate Agnew said.
Agnew said planning was underway to have a shared Open Nationals event next year for the first time.
"That [Netball NZ Open Champs] was originally scheduled for this year but due to Covid etcetera it's been delayed to 2021. So we're really keen to look at having a men's and women's Open Champs event where there are teams from our centres and teams from the men's regions together at the one event."
The Netball NZ U18 Champs and the Netball NZ Open Champs were added to the netball calendar this year, replacing the Under 19 and Under 17 national events.
Agnew said talks with the New Zealand Men's & Mixed Netball Association had been positive.
There are no plans for the men's teams to compete against the women's sides at that event.
"At this point what we're really keen to do is to see how we can grow the men's game. I think that's really important that they begin to establish their own identity and if we can support them to have a higher and more visible competition that's actually got to be good for the game overall."
Agnew said the ideal scenario was for the men's game to become more sustainable in its own right.
Netball New Zealand is already having to support one of the six franchises in the ANZ Premiership.
The Mainland Tactix had to go into voluntary liquidation earlier this year. Just a couple of weeks into lockdown, the economic fall-out from the pandemic pushed the franchise over the edge.
It would seem financially out of the question to support a men's team in the ANZ Premiership, unless a significant sponsorship deal came along.
"It is not an inexpensive exercise to put together a team to be part of the Premiership and certainly that is something that would have to be thoroughly worked through before it could be considered," Agnew said.
She said a lot more work needed to be done in men's netball at grassroots levels.
"There are important steps that we can take in terms of growing the base of men's netball and ensuring that they are actually coming from a really stable well structured development pathway so that you're not just putting something in at sort of a higher end that isn't supported by the game underneath. I think it's really important to ensure that we've got a really solid foundation for men's netball."
Agnew said one of the biggest gaps at the moment was at the high school level, where the sport wasn't always on offer.
"That's one of those examples of where I think there are some real collaborative opportunities for us with New Zealand men. I think that there is a very strong interest in the New Zealand men's netball in the Under 20 and Under 23 sort of areas. But I think the college netball is a real opportunity for growth and development but it's also really critical in terms of getting that strong foundation."