Frustrated St Georges' School netballers take complaint further

A parent of one of the girls in the team has taken a complaint further in order to have something done about the semi final mishap.

A parent of one of the girls in the St George's School netball team has laid an official complaint to Netball New Zealand after a mishap meant the team missed the final.

The team won every game in the regular season and then took out the semifinal against Rutherford School but an administration error led to them being placed in the playoff for third and not the final.

Gerald Pearce, the father of one of the players, has sent an official complaint to Netball New Zealand - the sport's national body.

"I have laid an official complaint with Netball New Zealand by email this morning," Pearce said.

"I waited for the story to break first and sent that along with my complaint asking for the incident to be investigated and something done about it.

"Netball Whanganui definitely knew we had beaten Rutherford in the semifinal because the umpire of the match, who is appointed by Netball Whanganui, went and told them we had won and what the score was."

Pearce's complaint was passed from Netball New Zealand to Netball Central - the regional body for netball, based in Wellington.

A manager at Netball Central said they were aware of the complaint but wouldn't comment any further.

Before the semifinal mishap, St George's School netballers had a season to remember, winning all of their matches in the Whanganui Year 8 intermediate A grade competition.

In the semifinal they beat Rutherford Junior High 34-9, but it was Rutherford who were put through to the final.

On Saturday, Netball Whanganui placed St George's in the play-off for third and fourth place — they duly won that match 33-16 against Whanganui Intermediate.

Pearce said the girls were "devastated, confused and stunned" they were not in the final.

Rutherford were named in the final to play Tupoho School, but they couldn't put out a team and defaulted.