Netball: NZ teams safe, says Everard

The Central Pulse have yet to register a win in the ANZ Championship. Photo / Getty Images

No New Zealand team will be dropped from the transtasman netball league, although competition general manager Anthony Everard said the league's board is investigating ways to help teams mired at the bottom of the table.

Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic are currently second in the competition after six rounds, with the Southern Steel up to fifth after a 61-52 victory over the Northern Mystics in Auckland on Monday.

However, the Mystics, Canterbury Tactix and Central Pulse occupy the bottom three slots. Although the Magic lost last year's final to the NSW Swifts to finish second, no New Zealand team has yet won on Australian soil.

And the Pulse, despite some heartbreakingly close games both last year and this season, have yet to register a win at all.

Former Australian netballer Kath Harby-Williams yesterday said there was a simple solution to New Zealand's woes in the ANZ Championship - cut one of the teams.

Having four teams, with the talent spread evenly, would improve the standing of the New Zealand sides, she told NewstalkZB.

However, Everard said there was no chance a New Zealand team would be cut from the league, currently six weeks into its second year.

"We are absolutely committed to having five teams from New Zealand in the ANZ Championship," he said.

Everard said because the league was still in its infancy, the board was wary of making knee-jerk reactions on a week-by-week basis.

"We try not to ride the roller coaster of round-by-round," he said.

"It's early days and we want to make sure we give the league a chance to settle. We'll be keeping a really close eye on what some of the trends are that develop over time and making sure we respond to those trends in a really considered way."

The league's line-up, with its 50-50 New Zealand-Australia split, was non-negotiable, Everard said, but conceded there were other considerations which needed to be taken into account.

"One of the core pillars of the league is making sure we have 10 competitive teams, and that's something we're monitoring very, very closely - in fact, it's something we're looking at the moment."

Everard said the issue of making sure all teams were competitive was raised at a board meeting last month.

"We're now in the process of seeking the views of a number of our stakeholders, including the teams themselves, on ways we might be able to provide some assistance to those teams finishing down the bottom of the ladder."

He said there were always going to be teams that were successful and teams that struggled.

"But we want to make sure there is a bit of a cycle and those teams change over a period of time. It's something we are considering at the moment, with the possibility of making some changes for next year."

Everard said he expected feedback from stakeholders, which could include the players' association, broadcasters and commercial parnters, by the end of May.

A board meeting was scheduled for early June, and Everard said he was keen to take a range of ideas to that meeting.

- NZPA