Netball: England stars out of southern league

England’s Geva Mentor, who plays for the Adelaide Thunderbirds, will not feature in the next year’s ANZ Championship. Photo / Brett Phibbs

They have been two of the stars of the opening seasons of the transtasman league, but English defenders Geva Mentor and Sonia Mkoloma will not be a feature of next year's competition.

England coach Sue Hawkins has ruled out members of her national squad playing in the ANZ Championship next season.

Hawkins wants her players to remain at home to maximise preparation for next year's world championships in Singapore. The timing of the July tournament forced transtasman league organisers to shift the start date forward to February next year and condense the format to 15 weeks.

But Hawkins says this still doesn't allow her team sufficient lead-in time for the pinnacle event and will put her top players at risk of burnout.

"We have a very heavy schedule next year and we need to have our own preparation time. We have New Zealand touring in January, then we play in our Super League competition and then it's pretty much training camps and straight in to the world championships, so there's no room to have players disappearing to New Zealand and Australia for four months," she said.

Hawkins said if she were in the shoes of Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken, or that of her Australian counterpart Norma Plummer, she would be very nervous eyeing next year's busy schedule.

Both countries have tours planned in January next year, meaning national players would likely have little more than two weeks build-up with their franchise teams before heading straight in to the ANZ Championship season, which kicks off on February 13 and runs through to the end of May - just six weeks out from the world champs.

"I think there is a lot to squeeze in to the first seven months of the year and [Aitken and Plummer] have got to be worried about the load they're putting on players. Player burnout is a big issue at the moment."

Aitken admits next year's schedule will be a big test of her squad's resilience but said it could be managed by ensuring the national co-ordinators worked closely with franchises to look after player welfare.

Concerns have also been raised over the introduction of double rounds in the transtasman league next year, which will likely put top players under even more stress. However, Aitken said the "rough and tumble" of the transtasman league would ensure her players were well-conditioned for the world tournament.

Some franchise coaches have suggested that if Mentor and Mkoloma, as England's star players and key to their chances of winning gold in Singapore, really wanted to play in Australia again next year Hawkins would be powerless to stop them. But the former Auckland Diamonds coach said the pair were fully supportive of the move.

There are four English players in the transtasman league - Mentor (Thunderbirds), Mkoloma (Swifts), Ama Agbeze (Pulse) and Jade Clarke, who joined the Magic last week. The Queensland Firebirds are working on signing a fifth - attacking utility Tamsin Greenway - as an injury replacement.

FERNS PLAN UK TOUR FOR 2011

There will be very little in the way of an off-season for the Silver Ferns this year after it was revealed the team will tour England in January 2011 as part of their build-up for the Singapore world championships.

England coach Sue Hawkins let slip yesterday that they will begin the year with a test series against New Zealand, but Silver Ferns' coach Ruth Aitken said this is still to be confirmed.

"We have had a few things in the fire and potentially we will be heading across to England."

It means there will be little let-up for the Ferns over the next 12 months, with six tests planned in August-September this year as they build up for the Commonwealth Games in October.

The season doesn't end there though, with the second world Fastnet series scheduled for November in Liverpool.

Aitken said with a tour planned so early for next year, she plans on resting most of her first-string players for the Fastnet series.