KEY POINTS:
After a month of provincial netball action around the country, the National Championships culminates with today's finals in Rotorua.
This year's championship marked a change from the old tournament-style format, with the first division divided in to a top six and bottom six.
Rather than playing out their
round robin matches during a week-long tournament, the teams have played over successive weekends, with the finals in Rotorua.
The rationale behind the change of the championship structure was to give more match opportunities to up-and-coming players and better replicate the ANZ Championship environment.
This year's transtasman league made it glaringly obvious there was a skill shortage among the Kiwi players, with Australia dominating the ANZ Championship.
With New Zealand lacking in depth compared with their Australian coaches, many top coaches believe new structures and development pathways needed to be put in place to develop the young players coming through.
So is the new National Championship system going to help achieve this?
Netball New Zealand coach development manager Leigh Gibbs believes the mix of weekly games and tournament-style play provides both players and coaches alike with new challenges.
"It's interesting to see how the players cope - they've had the mirror of the ANZ Champs with the games each week and now they have to back up," she said.
"It is different when you have a week in between to put things right from having to sort it out in 24 hours and I like the challenge that provides in this format.
"The players have to be consistent and I think that's something that's leading development in this competition for me."
Many critics have argued that the absence of Silver Ferns devalues the competition, but Gibbs believes there are some handy advantages to having the national players sit out the championships.
The extended format of the provincial competition has ruled the Ferns out from taking part as it clashes with the international season. Gibbs said the absence of the Silver Fern stars afforded development opportunities to young players.
"The Silver Ferns can't be here simply because the international window does not allow that but it does get people on court who otherwise just wouldn't get a chance," she said.
Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic coach Noeline Taurua also points out having the championships spread out over five weeks allows players more time to work on their skills and develop their game.
"With the tournament it's kind of like survival of the fittest and you get to the finals and it's almost like they're at walking pace. So it should really go up another notch and be at a higher level than it has been in the past."
Taurua said that while the new format was a step in the right direction more needed to be done to develop the next tier of players.
"I still think there's something missing underneath, there's another level that needs to be put in place," she said.
The former Silver Fern said that with unlimited cash and resources she would put in place an ANZ Championship development competition much like the NRL's Toyota Cup.
"To play for four or five weeks is good, but to play for three months is entirely different."
