Victory The Model For New Team In Tasman Trophy

The Age

Wednesday March 14, 2007

Linda Pearce

VICTORIA'S sole franchise in the new Tasman Trophy netball competition will be built from the ashes of the Melbourne Phoenix and Kestrels national league teams, modelled in part on the successful birth of the Melbourne Victory and playing, eventually, from Vodafone Arena.

Phoenix and Kestrels players and staff were briefed last night by Netball Victoria officials on the ramifications of the trans-Tasman league's 2008 establishment, with the excitement tempered by Victoria's request for dual representation being denied.

Five Australian and five New Zealand teams will form the ambitious 69-game, 17-week competition from April next year, with a maximum of one from each state. Netball Victoria announced yesterday that it would enter a completely new team; had it not, Phoenix, owner of five of the 10 national league titles, appealed as the obvious state representative ahead of the perennially mid-ladder Kestrels.

"Basically, we're going to create a new team," Netball Victoria president Jenny Sanchez said yesterday. "We've looked at a range of models and past experiences and we think that the Victory model's a good way to go. We want to create a super team and we think we've got a better chance of doing that through a new culture that combines the best of both clubs and doesn't disenfranchise one large group.

"The problem is that we've gone from 16 players per team down to one team of 12, so Victoria's gone from 32 players in the national league to 12. We think for netball, it's a great move; for Victoria, it's a problem in that we've got fewer opportunities for our players. That's going to be an issue to manage because we have a membership base that's almost as big as New Zealand in total."

Plans for a secondary feeder competition are due to be finalised by June, and the issue was touched on briefly at Monday's briefing in Sydney.

The Australian Netball Players Association is yet to be officially informed of the league's establishment, but ANPA delegate and former Phoenix captain Eloise Southby-Halbish welcomed the likelihood of starting salaries expected to be between $20,000-$30,000.

"From my personal point of view, it's about time," Southby-Halbish said. "I know some girls are going to be so utterly disappointed, but it gives 12 girls in Victoria the chance to be nearly professional, so it's just magnificent. I look at people like Sharelle (McMahon), who have done this for 15 years, that finally she'll get some of the remuneration that she deserves, rather than the little, measly $8000 that she gets."

Southby-Halbish hailed the Victorian team as a likely finalist and "powerhouse", with NSW the only other state that will provide two entries for the 11th and last season of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, starting in April.

Tasman Trophy games will be played on Friday and Monday nights and weekends and funded largely by pay television. Stadiums must seat a minimum of 3000, and the Victorian club hopes to eventually graduate from the State Netball Centre to Vodafone Arena.

Negotiations are underway to build an international-standard practice court in the Olympic Park precinct.

"If we can get this league right, our aim would be to be in Vodafone Arena week after week," said Sanchez, who added that Victoria would seek a second franchise if one became available.

© 2007 The Age

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