League Revamp Hunter's Net Loss

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday March 13, 2007

By NEIL GOFFET

FOUNDATION captain Raegan Jackson is disappointed the writing is on the wall for the Hunter Jaegers but believes something had to happen to take Australian netball forward.

"I'm very disappointed for the people of Newcastle who worked so hard to build the Jaegers up," Jackson said. "It is disappointing for the young girls in the town who will no longer have something to aspire to if they take it away.

"I think netball had to go forward and something like this was needed to take it to the same level as so many other professional sports."

Netball NSW is a Sydney-based operation and all marketing, communications and event management for the Newcastle-based Jaegers and the Swifts is done from Sydney.

Netball NSW has the final say on all playing and coaching staff for both teams.

Jaegers foundation chairman Greg Gilmour described yesterday's announcement as a "terrible" one for Newcastle.

"They [Netball NSW] are a waste of space because they have known about it for that long as well and haven't done anything about it," he said.

"There is no doubt the Swifts will be the team from NSW because Netball NSW have been gradually pushing us out for a while.

"It is extremely disappointing after all the hard work we put into forming the club, and it is a terrible result for netball in Newcastle."

Former captain Jane Altschwager also had no doubt the NSW team in the new competition would be based in Sydney.

The former South Australian and Australian shooter was mysteriously dumped by Hunter coach John Fletcher at the end of last season and has strong views on the future of the new competition.

"Anyone who wants to play in the new NSW team will have to be based in Sydney," Altschwager said. "But I think the competition as a whole is going to be a bit bogus.

"We are the number-one netball country in the world, and we have the best competition in the world, and this is going to hurt Australian netball. There are so many good players in Australia that are going to miss out on playing at the top level because of this."

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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