BIG TALENT: More Kiwi players could follow the example of Laura Langman and head across the Ditch.PHOTO/DAILY TELEGRAPH
AND SO it ends, the ANZ Championship experiment will finish in 2016 with a whimper rather than a roar as Australia and New Zealand go back to their own domestic leagues.
It has been a fascinating study in both a code and gender reversal of the circumstances found in Super Rugby.
In the bloke's game, broadcast revenue is king and the highly-rating South African franchises and eager Aussie body have continually pushed for more exposure, more games and more teams, despite small New Zealand being the powerhouses with 13 championships in 20 years of the competition.
For the ladies, it was New Zealand who brought the main revenue thanks to iron-clad agreements with Sky TV, whereas the frustrated Aussies, unable to secure a pay-TV deal in their nation for nine years, were the ones being forced into compromise after compromise.
This despite the fact that Australia has won seven of the eight championships - 'alone it stands' for the Kiwi girls was the upstart Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic coming back from five straight losses to go on an amazing 11-game winning streak and claiming the 2012 title.
The format rules were tinkered with and brokered contemptuously - the Australians being ropable they could not get a seventh franchise over the line without their little neighbour's blessing, while attempts to reduce the uncompetitive (and at times embarrassing) New Zealand squads from five to three was countered with the argument of "who's bringing in the money again?".
The introduction of 'conference finals' where New Zealand was guaranteed two semifinalists no matter what their win/loss record on the overall table, was likely the final straw.
So, Australia will go their own way with a 6-7 team grade and pitch themselves for domestic television deals that can provide more local content, rather than those "unwatchable" New Zealanders.
New Zealand, secure in the loving arms of Sky's multi-season deal, will create a second team in the Auckland suburbs to join their five existing franchises.
And in theory, everyone looks after their own, but now that strange bedfellows have separated, expect a tug of war over the sheets.
Netball NZ, likely to appease Sky, is broaching the prospect of a 'Champions League' where our best local teams take on the corresponding champions from other nations.
Already, Netball Australia is making noises about not being interested, but given their league could well rely on private investors, there would be nothing to stop those individual franchises, especially those after a bit of an end-of-season money spinner, from loading their girls on to a transtasman flight.
Likewise, despite assurances from Australia's current test coaches that the top Kiwi girls are 'off limits', that freedom of privatisation means there is nothing stopping a mass club poaching of talented local girls to fill up the Aussie ranks, such as Laura Langman joining the NSW Swifts.
Netball NZ has already played the usual hard-ball card by announcing any player in an overseas competition would not be eligible for the Silver Ferns.
But as we have seen in rugby, second tier international players and veterans who know their shelf life is about to expire can be quick to put the black singlet in the closest and get the passport updated for a long working holiday.
Slick Collingwood Football Club president and Channel Nine giant personality Eddie McGuire is already fanning those flames.
McGuire's club is one of the leading contenders to get the licence for the new Australian team, to be based in Melbourne, and is joking/not joking that their black and white colours are a comfortable fit for any potential Kiwi expats.
"I would suggest to all the [women] over in New Zealand, the All Black and Whites is Collingwood - that's your AFL team, don't worry about anyone else, Collingwood and New Zealand should be side by side."
"If the opportunity is there for athletes to come across here and it doesn't impinge on what New Zealand Netball are doing, then it would be a great thing.
"At the moment in the Australian Football League, there's about 750 blokes being paid an average of $300,000," McGuire went on.
"That's a lot of kids who can get out there and have a go. If you're a girl there's not many opportunities."
Given the top New Zealand players often still work part time and pull down a maximum $50,000 per year for netball, that AFL figure McGuire is bandying about would be very tempting.
It looks like the fierce competition of the ANZ Championship has not died out just yet - it's just going to switch to off-the-court.