Netball: Veteran will give Ferns options

Tania Dalton easily outjumps her opponent as she goes high for a pass during a Bartercard Cup match in Wellington this year. Marty Melville / Getty Images

Tania Dalton's availability for the Silver Ferns squad could be of some relief to national coach Ruth Aitken with it looking increasingly likely that Belinda Colling will not play in next year's world championships.

Dalton has made herself available for the New Zealand squad two years after she was last in the New Zealand team.

Dalton, 34, is playing for Southland in this year's National Provincial Championships. She has just returned from a five-week holiday in Spain and said yesterday she has a little way to go before she is back to full fitness.

She will not take part in this weekend's opening round of the competition but will play some games during the week-long tournament which starts in Auckland on September 25.

She is a former Silver Fern and member of the 2003 world championship winning team so the New Zealand selectors are aware of her ability.

With New Zealand already light in the shooting department, she will at least provide the selectors with another shooting option - alongside the less-experienced Australian-born Tanya Lund, Jessica Tuki and youngsters Jade Topia, Jamilah Gupwell, Paula Griffin and Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit - if Colling does retire.

"At this stage I look at myself and say I haven't got a chance but you never know," said Dalton, a mother of two. "The world championships are not until July so you have still got a bit of time."

Dalton did admit the lure of defending New Zealand's world title was tempting.

The most accurate shooter in the National Bank Cup, there is no reason why Dalton could not go to the world championships, play in the early rounds and provide backup should something happen to Irene van Dyk, Maria Tutaia or Jodi Te Huna - expected to form New Zealand's shooting lineup.

Colling has said she cannot see herself playing in the world championships and has talked about her desire to have more children. She is already mother to 1-year-old Max.

She is not playing in the National Provincial Championships although she has been named in the Silver Ferns side to play Australia next month. Last week she said she was still "unsure" about her netball future.

A Silver Ferns squad of up to 18 players will be named after the National Provincial Netball Championships on September 30.

* Netball Australia yesterday presented the Players Association with a new contract. The association was meeting with representatives today and it was hoped the contract would be signed off in the next day or two.

One of the key issues in the dispute was player payments.