Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's a tough situation for Netball New Zealand

Okay, here's the news on the netball front. Objectively, I don't think what I'm about to tell you is good news.

We've heard the administration staff of the three Netball New Zealand-owned teams, the Stars, the Magic and the Tactix, have been told their contracts are up at the end of this month and will not be renewed, at least for now, for next year.

This has to call into question whether we're even going to have an ANZ Premiership next year because you can't run those three teams without those administration staff.

 And if you don't have those three teams, you can't run the competition. There are only three other privately owned teams in the league, making six teams in total. You can't have a competition of three teams. That's not enough to run a competition, is it?

So, are we going to have the league or not?

The worst-case scenario is the ANZ Premiership isn't happening next year. The best-case scenario is it is happening but Netball New Zealand can't be 100 percent sure right now. Maybe they're 80 percent sure. Maybe they're 75 percent sure.

But that's not enough certainty to offer contracts because you can't afford to carry the labour costs of three teams when there's a 20 percent to 25 percent chance the competition doesn't happen.

Either way, we're guessing. Do you know why we're guessing? Because, once again, the Netball New Zealand bosses are AWOL.

They are apparently, at least at this stage, not doing interviews. The chief executive is in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. The chair, Alistair Carruthers, is not in Glasgow. He's in New Zealand, at least that's what we've been told. 

He's not doing interviews either because Alistair Carruthers does not do interviews when the questions are likely to be a little hard.

Now look, up to this point, because this has been going on for a number of months, I think we've given Netball New Zealand a fair amount of grace. We know this is a tough situation for them.

We know it's been going on for a while. The game has been bleeding talent and it's been bleeding money. They needed time to turn things around. They needed time to make decisions. They had a new board and a new chief executive. They needed time.

But I think they've run out of time. I think this has probably gone on too long.

When you're essentially telling the administration staff who run half the teams in the competition that they won't have jobs in 10 days' time, I think it will inevitably cause the public, the players, the administrators and the fans to speculate that there may be no competition next year.

And I think it requires Netball New Zealand's bosses to come on and explain to us what the hell is happening next year because right now, this doesn't look good for netball in New Zealand.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, here's the news on the netball front. Objectively, I
don't think that what I'm about to tell you is
good news. So we've heard this afternoon that the administration
staff of the three Netball New Zealand owned teams, the Stars,
the Magic and the Tactics, have been told that their
contracts are up at the end of this month and
they're not going to be renewed right now for next year. Now,
this has got to call into question whether we are

(00:20):
going to even have an A and Z premiership next
year because you can't run those three teams if you
do not have those administration staff. And if you do
not have those three teams, you cannot run the competition
because there are only three other privately owned teams in
the competitions, the competition of six. You can't have a
competition of three. That's not enough to run a competition,
is it. So are we going to have the legal

(00:41):
or not? Worst case scenario? The A and Z Premiership
is not happening next year. Best case scenario is that
the competition is happening. But Netball New Zealand right now
cannot be one hundred percent sure. Maybe they're eighty percent
su or maybe the seventy five percent, sure, but that's
not enough to offer contracts. You can't afford to carry
the labor costs across three teams for a competition that

(01:04):
has it like a twenty twenty five percent chance that
it doesn't happen. Either way, we're guessing. Do you know
why we're guessing? Because once again the Netball New Zealand
bosses are a wall. They are apparently, at least at
this stage, not doing interviews. The CEO is currently in
Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. The chair Alistair Carruthers is
not in Glasgow. He's in New Zealand. That's what we've

(01:26):
been told. Anyway, he's not doing interviews either because Alistair
Caruthers does not do interviews when the interviews are going
to be a little bit hard. Now, look up to
this point, because this has been going on for a
number of months now, up to this point, I think
we have given Netbull New Zealand a fair amount of
grace because we know that this is a tough situation
for them. We know that this has gone on for

(01:48):
a while, that the game has been bleeding talent, that
the game has been bleeding money, that they needed some
time to turn the things around, that they needed some
time to make decisions. They had a new board, that
had a new CEO. They needed time. But I think
they have run out of time. I think this has
probably gone on too long now. When you're essentially telling
administration staff running half the teams in the competition that

(02:08):
they do not have jobs in ten days, then I
think it will cause the public and the players, and
the administration and the fans to speculate that there will
be no competition next year. And I think it requires
Netball New Zealand bosses to come on and explain to
us what the hell is happening next year, because right
now this doesn't look good for Netball and New Zealand.

(02:29):
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