Netball: Eight games in 10 days a big ask for Silver Ferns

Defender Leana de Bruin, right, says she's going to have to work hard to back up from each game. Photo / Getty Images

Efforts to get ‘bums on seats’ could backfire for players.

Netball World Cup organisers have been accused of sacrificing player welfare for ticket sales, with the revamped format set to significantly increase the load on players.

The Silver Ferns flew out for Sydney yesterday ahead of Friday's tournament opener against Barbados, which will be the first of eight games over 10 days.

The gruelling schedule has been made all the more demanding under the new format adopted for this year's tournament, with the Ferns set to meet Australia and either England or Jamaica in the first two rounds. All going well, they'll then meet two of those three teams again in the semifinal and medal matches.

One of the criticisms of the World Cup tournament - netball's pinnacle event - in previous years was that such is the gulf between the "big four" nations in the world and the chasing pack, the heavyweight sides would cruise through pool play and not meet any genuine competition until the semifinals.

So organisers have this year rejigged the competition format in an effort to ensure interest is maintained throughout the tournament.

But the decision to place Australia and New Zealand in the same pool has been labelled by some pundits as blatant manipulation of the draw to the detriment of the minnow nations, who have little hope of improving their ranking, and player welfare.

Silver Ferns lead physiotherapist Sharon Kearney said the new format is demanding for the players.

"From my perspective it is a very commercial decision, because where else in any international competition would you see No1 and No2 playing in the round robin?

"But it is going to get bums on seats the third day into a World Cup which, having been to a whole heap of them, you know there aren't normally a lot of people in the arena on day one, two and three of a tournament.

"Yes, it is going to be very tough, but we just have to accept that."

Kearney said a lot of work has gone into making sure the players can cope with the rigours of the tournament - not just over the past month since the team was named, but throughout the ANZ Championship season. With the transtasman league only conditioning players for one game a week, Kearney said it is a difficult adjustment for players when they move into the international environment.

"It's challenging if we don't have much of a lead-in, so if the ANZ finishes late and the series starts in a couple of weeks, that's really tough. So it's finding the fine line between overcooking them, but also developing and building their resilience to be able to tolerate three games within three days, day off, two games, day off, three games," she said.

"There's been a real emphasis on strength and conditioning because they need to be conditioned to tolerate the demands. If they're not, then a sudden increase in loading is going to break them."

The New Zealand medical staff will monitor individual workloads throughout the tournament, with some players requiring careful management.

Silver Ferns skipper Casey Kopua is one player who has traditionally needed to be nursed through tournaments given her history of injury.

That will be the case even more so this time, with the star defender in the early stages of her comeback from a serious knee injury.

Kopua's partner in the defensive circle, Leana de Bruin, is another who may find backing up tough.

At 38, de Bruin admits her body doesn't bounce back the way it used to, but she said she does not fear the competition schedule.

"Being a bit older, or shall we say experienced, I'm going to have to work a lot harder than what say Malia [Paseka] would. But I've got good strategies in place that I know work for me," de Bruin said.

"Every team is in the same boat, so it is not like we are at a disadvantage."

The Silver Ferns will round out their preparation in Sydney with two warm-up matches against the Australian under-21 side this week.

How the draw works
•The 16 teams contesting this year's World Cup have been divided into four pools based on rankings. Pool A features world Nos1 and 2 (Australia and NZ) along with nine and 10, pool B has the 3rd, 4th, 11th and 12th ranked teams and so on.
•After round robin play the teams are reclassified with the top two from each pool going through to the top eight, while the rest will split off into the bottom eight for another round robin.
•The top four teams after the second round will go through to the semifinals, followed by the medal matches.