By Sarah Nealon
With four weekends of play left in the Coca-Cola Cup, players and coaches say inconsistent refereeing is spoiling the national netball league.
"Umpires are so crucial," said Auckland Diamonds shooter Leonie Leaver. "They can make or break a game. You need them to be so switched on and I
just don't feel that they are."
Leaver, whose team lost 38-53 to the Cometz last Thursday in an aggressive encounter, said the umpiring by Tina Packwood of Auckland and Raewyn Peat of Drury was particularly bad.
"I'm not saying that we would have won that game, but the team all left feeling really brassed off with the umpiring and that shouldn't have been the way. We should have left peeved off at ourselves for losing."
The former Silver Fern would like umpires to be held more accountable for games.
"There should be a committee that's watching umpires at every game. The committee could be made up of, say, retired top-level players who know the game well. A lot of these umpires haven't played at top level and don't know what it's like."
Diamonds coach Tania Karauria was also unhappy with last Thursday's umpiring. "At times it was ugly netball," she said.
Alison Wieringa, coach of the Northern Force, said umpires often differed in their interpretation of some rules.
"The umpires need to be working with the players and coaches so that we all understand each other," she said.
Capital Shakers coach Lois Muir agreed that more consistency was needed.
"The game is much faster than it used to be and the umpiring has got to be the same in the circle as outside the circle."
The executive director of Netball New Zealand, Alastair Snell, said the cup's umpires were receiving feedback and they were being observed by a national umpiring coach.
"We want the game to be as entertaining as possible," he said. "But if there are some elements that we can do something about, then we'll look into it.
"It's very easy to say the umpiring is terrible, but some teams need to look at themselves before they start criticising."
