Julie Ash: Netball should join Aussie drift

COMMENT

"We might as well start unbolting the bloody Sydney Harbour bridge because the Kiwis will be coming for that soon, too."

That was the perspective of an Australian reporter commenting on the Breakers' inclusion into the Australian NBL.

But underneath his sarcasm came several pearls of wisdom.

"The expansion of the NBL to embrace the New Zealand Breakers might be one of the smartest moves the NBL has made for a while," the reporter said.

"It expands the competition, it takes the league to a new market and it brings Pero Cameron into the league."

For basketball in New Zealand, the Breakers' inclusion into the Australian league is huge.

"Young basketball players can now aspire to become a Breaker ... like league has got the Warriors," Tall Black and Breakers guard Paul Henare said.

"It is something they can do as a job and as a profession, and to be at the start of all of that is very special for this group."

And it seems the New Zealand public are more than ready to embrace the Breakers. The North Shore Events Centre was close to sold out for the the debut match against the Adelaide 36ers this week.

Aside from the basketball, which took place virtually an arm's length away, dancers, a crazy mascot, blaring music and big-screen TVs meant spectators were treated to two hours of total entertainment.

The Breakers are the third New Zealand team to edge their way into an Australian competition, following in the footsteps of the Warriors and the Football Kingz.

The New Zealand Warriors were launched as the Auckland Warriors in 1994 with unprecedented hype and attention leading up to their first game in 1995.

But the team failed to deliver on the field until last year when, under new management, they won the NRL minor premiership and reached the grand final.

The Football Kingz' entry into the Aussie league came in 1999 and, like the Warriors, was nowhere near as successful as they would have liked. In fact, soccer fans are still waiting for the Kingz to produce something special.

While no New Zealander likes to see their team lose, especially in an Australian competition, the fact that New Zealand teams are mixing it up with the Australians increases the interest in those codes.

The question now is whether netball, New Zealand's leading female sport, will take their game up another notch.

Both New Zealand and Australia already have successful club competitions.

Australia have an eight-team competition which runs from April to September, and New Zealand's top club competition, the National Bank Cup, runs from March to May and involves eight teams, now that the Counties Manukau Cometz have been axed.

While most would agree the National Bank Cup is a pretty good competition, imagine how much better it would be if a couple of teams from across the ditch were included.

Just picture Irene van Dyk and Sheryl Clarke fronting up more often against the likes of Liz Ellis and Sharelle McMahon..

While money is probably a key factor in preventing such a competition, if the Kingz and Breakers can round up the dosh, surely there are people out there willing to help our netballers - our world champion netballers, that is.

It is great that the Silver Ferns will now play more internationals against the Aussies each year, but a transtasman club competition would spice things up even more and give New Zealand's next tier of players the chance to take on Australia's best. Which can only be good for the game.