Confusion On Review For New National League Finals

The Age

Wednesday April 18, 2007

By Linda Pearce

NETBALL Australia yesterday denied state claims that the continuing club condemnation of the plan to inflict a truncated, Sydney-based format on the national league's farewell finals series had forced a rethink.

While Netball Victoria chief executive Sue Crow announced that the national body's finals decision was "under review", her Netball Australia counterpart Kate Palmer said there was no intention to do more than simply respond to the state delegates' request for the format to be reconsidered.

Due to various cost, venue and broadcast reasons - notably, ABC TV's commitment to hosting the APEC economic summit this year - double chances have been eliminated and three knockout finals scheduled over one weekend at the Sydney SuperDome, regardless of which teams qualify. And that, it seems, is unlikely to change, however loud the howls of protest.

"The delegates asked us to reconsider our decision and so we are going to respond to their request," Palmer said. "We will be looking at the issues they've raised, and the major issues for them are player welfare and rights to host. So we will respond to those, but we are not considering a change at this time."

Earlier, the idea of a review had been welcomed by Melbourne Phoenix co-captain Sharelle McMahon and other guests at yesterday's local season launch, following unanimous club opposition to the proposal denying the winner of the second semi-final the right to host the grand final.

"Most of the states expressed their disappointment, so this is exciting for us," McMahon said. "We've had a great experience with the Melbourne Phoenix team over the last 11 years.

"We've been extremely successful, we won the very first CBT (Commonwealth Bank Trophy) premiership and it's certainly a big goal of ours to finish off that history and win the last.

"So the finals for us is certainly a big focus and I think to do it here in Melbourne would be great - or at least to get the chance to do that."

Asked whether she was confident the decision would be overturned, Crow said: "I've got confidence that they'll review it and they'll look at all our suggestions."

She confirmed that player welfare issues were central, with the winners of the two Friday night semi-finals expected to return for the grand final on the Sunday afternoon, "and potentially, we could have both our teams in the grand final, and the supporters, particularly in the last year of the competition, won't be able to actually be there in person.

"But whatever the decision is, we'll go there and we'll play and we'll be out there to win it. The season's about to start, we've got a good Anzac Day clash coming up and let's just get on with it."

Melbourne's derby opens the season at Vodafone Arena next Wednesday night, as the national league begins its 11th and last year before being superseded by the Tasman Trophy competition, to start in April.

While concerns remain about the reduced opportunities for local players and the format of the planned feeder competition, the move generally has been welcomed.

© 2007 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home