Netball: Agent adamant Magic under cap

If the Magic are to redistribute their player wealth, it might have to wait until coach Noeline Taurua leaves the franchise to take advantage of overseas coaching offers.

Taurua - and the lure of their skilled team-mates - is what binds players to the Magic, to the extent that some are earning a comparative pittance in netball's fledgling semi-professional competition.

After recent incendiary comments by Queensland Firebirds coach Vicki Wilson (which inferred the Magic must be breaking the ANZ Championship salary cap and/or relying on third party sponsors to fill the income gap), an agent who handled several of the contracts of the Magic players shot down the idea in flames.

"I negotiated contracts for several Silver Ferns at the Magic and I can tell you that they are not breaching the salary cap and that some of those players are on way less than people think they are," said John Davey.

Herald on Sunday inquiries revealed at least two of the Ferns are on the minimum salary of $12,000 and another was on only $17,000.

Davey repeated the Magic's own contentions that they had been audited for salary cap breaches and had come up clean and said that, to his knowledge, there were no third-party sponsors boosting pay packets in the same way, for example, that Wallaby rugby star Matt Giteau was able to negotiate a $6 million salary at the Super 14's Western Force, courtesy of a sponsor.

"It doesn't happen," said Davey, who is also CEO of the Waikato Pistons in the NBL. "I'd know if it was happening and it isn't. Some of the girls might get paid a

bit for a speaking engagement here and there but that's it - there's no big under-the-table or regular payments from anywhere else."

Davey said most of the Magic players wanted to be with the team because of Taurua and the performance of their fellow senior players - and because many were locals or adopted locals with strong ties to the area, with partners and jobs.

"I know that because several of them have had the opportunity to shift and have turned it down. Had they been interested in moving, I could have got them three times what they are getting now.

"Money just isn't the main motivation for a lot of these girls and, once we'd done the exercise in taxation, relocation costs and the inconvenience, it just wasn't worth it for most of them.

"Laura Langman went to school here, Casey Williams did too, and others like Irene van Dyk and Leana de Bruin have had long associations in the Waikato - it's where they're happy. They have a loyalty to the team and coach and that's a big part of what that team is all about.

"Some of the girls don't even get a car - and that's allowed under the rules. Leana de Bruin works 25 to 30 hours a week at a conventional job just to help make ends meet."

However, rumours are growing that Taurua is becoming more of a target, receiving more offers from overseas interests keen to take advantage of her experience. She says she has no offers in front of her at present, nor has she had in the recent past.

However, if she does move or give the game away, Taurua's absence could do what the ANZ Championship has not - spread New Zealand's netball resources a little more evenly through all the franchises.