Netball: Pro outlook gives Ferns upper hand

Australian netballer Megan Dehn is adamant the Silver Ferns recent dominance over their transtasman rivals can be traced to Netball New Zealand's embracing of professionalism.

The versatile attacker, who now lives here, is a vocal proponent of Australian netball's player association's attempt to get a better deal.

While Dehn is "fairly certain" next month's test series will go ahead, the players will not let this issue drop.

"From a player's point of view, now is the time to not back down and really make a stand. We don't want this happening next year when there is going to be a lot more commitment time for those players."

At the nub of the issue is Netball Australia's reluctance to pay players in squad training camps.

"People are being asked to go to a five-day camp," Dehn said. "But that's another five days off coming off a six-month season where players have had to take every other Friday off. There's no compensation for those camps."

Netball Australia has cried "poor" and a quick glance at the annual reports shows the sport here is far healthier, with Netball New Zealand making a consolidated profit of $473,000 in the past financial year while Netball Australia lost $194,699.

A camp due to start on September 7 was cancelled but negotiations continue ahead of a selection camp at the end of the month.

That issue has masked a broader problem: Australian netballers feel they have become poor cousins to New Zealand - and the figures would tend to back them up.

Dehn, 31, said that in the nine years she played for the Sydney Swifts in the Commonwealth Bank Cup (CBC), the maximum she earned in the May to September season was $6000. The Australian captain and vice-captain, she thought, might earn up to $10,000.

"New Zealand players are definitely better paid. I would say, on average, National Bank Cup players get double the amount for half the time. In effect that's four times the money."

The CBC plays over two full rounds and the National Bank Cup one.

Netball here is screened live on commercial television while the CBC is in graveyard slots on non-commercial broadcaster ABC.

"That's a real problem. The profile here is so much bigger so franchises attract more sponsors," the 15-test veteran said.

Dehn does not expect a flood of Australian players even if the association - which has been joined by the Australian Workers' Union - loses the battle. The upheaval of moving a family across the Tasman was great.

In player welfare, netball authorities here were light years ahead of their Australian counterparts.

"They've gone about it in a great way, contracting players and offering things like child-minding services.

"I was speaking to Tania Dalton and she said she gets child-minding services and some of her education paid for two years after she's finished playing because you can't do all that stuff while you're playing.

"That is definitely one of the reasons New Zealand has the upper hand at the moment."