Frankly, When It Comes To Netball, Kiwis Do Give A Damn

The Age

Thursday November 8, 2007

Linda Pearce

As host nation, New Zealand is embracing the world championships, writes Linda Pearce.

NEW Zealand's national newspaper has recently been asking its online readers whether Laura Langman or Temepara George should play centre for the Silver Ferns. To explain: the Ferns are netballers; Auckland is about to host the world championships; New Zealand is the place on the planet where people, lots of them, really care.

Just over 12 months ago I was walking down an Auckland street early one evening with a party that included the Australian coach Norma Plummer. Outside one pub, a group of young Steinlager swillers called out to Plummer and good-naturedly wished her well. Back home in Australia, she would almost have to sprint down Bourke Street wearing nothing but a pleated skirt before an eyebrow would be raised, much less a toast.

Yet it is all so different across the Tasman, where the media buzz is already humming along nicely ahead of Saturday's opening games. Local outlets are brimming with reports about not only the defending champion Ferns and their patchy recent form but also the Australians, who were greeted as title favourites on their arrival on Monday.

There is, however, plenty of news to go around. Jamaican captain Elaine Davis was fined $200 for mistakenly bringing an apple through customs; the team from Malawi was stranded en route due to an issue with transit visas; two Fijian players will not be arriving at all as a result of family links with the military involved in last year's coup.

Former New Zealand goal attack Belinda Colling was yesterday the latest to anoint the Australians as the likely champions due largely to a superiority in the midcourt - there's the crucial Langman-George question again - while others continue to criticise the omission of defender Anna Scarlett from the original squad.

Meanwhile, NZ-based former Australian captain Kathryn Harby-Williams mused in her Sunday newspaper column whether the successful "Ferns of old seem to be re-emerging (as) a talented team without the mental edge". The bigger story? The fact that a netballer - and a foreigner, no less - has her own column in the first place.

Another report announced, quite seriously, that "the Ferns take the nutritional side of their campaign very seriously - and plan to eat every three hours over the next 10 days.

"Not wanting to disclose their nutrition secrets to the opposition, they described their diet as 'wholegrain carbohydrates, high quality protein and essential fats, combined with a good intake of fresh fruit and vegetables'." Sshhh. Promise we won't tell.

Indeed, in the lead-up to yet another probable trans-Tasman final, it has been left to the England coach, former Aussie great Marg Caldow, to boldly talk things up. While only once in 11 championships has there been a name other than Australia or New Zealand on the trophy - the three-way tie involving host nation Trinidad in 1979 - the bolter this year could be England, which in May broke a 32-year drought against the Ferns.

Back on this side of the ditch, meanwhile, the stoush is over the ABC's decision to televise Saturday week's final on delay, more than three hours after it starts live, due to a clash with the national news. The difference is netball IS news in New Zealand - where, uniquely, who plays centre is considered worthy of national debate.

Linda Pearce will cover her third world championships next week in Auckland for The Age.

© 2007 The Age

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