Matt Whineray: Netball NZ Board Chair on the changes to the overseas eligibility criteria

Netball New Zealand's updated the eligibility criteria for the Silver Ferns. 

Overseas-based players can now be considered for national selection through a formal exemption process. 

The updated criteria will be implemented ahead of the upcoming international season, allowing Grace Nweke to be available if she applies. 

Board chair Matt Whineray told Mike Hosking they had to balance everyone’s interests – players' aspirations and development, the strength of the domestic competition, and the needs of the high-performance system and Silver Ferns. 

He says they’re pleased to have a process in place now to balance the different needs and to understand how everything fits together. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Netball New Zealand. Have you turned on eligibility rules? The
likes of Grays and Wiki who ditched down League of
course for the Australians will now be eligible for the
Ferns again. An exemption process will allow overseas players to
formally apply for selection. Matt Winney is the chair of
the New Zealand Netball and Netball New Zealanders with US
Matt Morning Morning, Mike. Did this need to get as
angsty as it did?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, that's a good question, Mike. Look, you know we've
been working through it. We've had obviously some continued interests
via lad athletes to play overseas. You know, that's something
that's common across many sporting codes, and we've been working
through this to make sure that we balance, you know,
all the interests we've We've got to balance those players
estimations and their development. We've got needs in the high

(00:44):
performance system and the Selk Ferns and obviously we've got
the strength of domestic competition, so we needed to make
sure that was right. I think people got frustrated that
it took us a while to work through those, but
we're very pleased that we're at this point.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Now, could you not have foreseen all of this coming.
In other words, you weren't the first sport to face
up to it, and they've all dealt with it in
their own way. You could have gone, hey, when it
happens here, how here's our model, and then you know,
met it when it arrived.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah. I think all sports are dealing with this and
dealing it with it in their own ways, and this
is a slightly different way from how some other sports
have dealt with it. But you know, we're pleased that
we've got a process in place now which allows us
to balance those different needs and also to understand, really
understand how it fits in with the needs of our
system and our domestic league.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Your domestic league looks weak at the moment. Is that fair?
And has that been part of the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
No, we've had a great season this season at.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Season, but it's not what it was, you know what
I mean, you're not playing the Australians, it's not quite.
It doesn't quite have the fizz that it used to.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's got a lot of fids this year. We've had
great engagement. We've had bigger crowds, we've had more viewership
and everyone's engaged with that, I think we're continuing to
face into a pretty difficult commercial market, but we're committed
to being there next year. We've committed to the system
that we'll be We'll be putting it on in twenty
six in the same in the same format with six

(02:10):
with six teams, and we're looking forward to continuing that
that growth and engagement that we've seen this year.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Good hey, put another hat on. Congratulations on that report
your right on insurance. Do you think it will ultimately
go anywhere?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, well, I hope it does, because it's a it's
you know, it's just another one of these things that
if we kick it down the road that can get's
pretty big and then you can't kick it. And so
so you know, what we're trying to do with that
is we look, we're providing advice to the m I
F E, m IF developing the policy. But I think
it's important that there's a conversation about this and we
start start, you know, grasping the needle. Essentially, these are

(02:49):
these are hard problems that there's no easy solutions to
them if we'd already have them. But but we've got
to have that conversation. So I'm hopeful that it does good.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Nice to talk to you. Appreciate it very much. Matt Winnerray,
chair of Netball New Zealand, and I brunched, I thought
gracefully into another subject. He was ahead of the group
that wrote the report. Was it last week or the
week before whenever? It was basically saying, at some point
you've got to work out that living next to a
river is probably not for you if you want somebody

(03:20):
to come to your rescue financially, and it cannot be
the government forever. And I know how many years have
been saying it on this program that at some point
someone's going to have to harden up and make a
few I reckon the National Party for it. I reckon
National Party. We should probably do a review. Yes, it's
a grind as we get the car out of the
ditch and turned up the right way and into first

(03:41):
the second gear. Couldn't put it bit of myself anyway,
but good on him for fronting that report and at
least at this point anyway. Asking a few hard questions.
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