So the ANZ Championship is no more, good riddance.
Crowds and TV audiences were sick of watching yet another Kiwi franchise get hammered by a weirdly named Aussie side, and thankfully those days will soon be over.
What netball fans in this country will have instead is a six-team, fifteen round affair, including a 'Super Sunday', where all teams will play back-to-back in the same venue on the same day. All games will be played on Sunday's and Monday nights, as Netball New Zealand wisely leaves Friday and Saturday nights to the boys and rugby.
Every game in the tournament will be a local derby, and that’s what Kiwi netball fans have been craving more of for years. With their team now having a much greater chance of winning, crowds should pack into our netball stadiums once again, reinvigorating the sport here.
Sky's five-year broadcast deal to show every game live is also a winner, and second only money-wise behind the WNBA in the U.S. for a women's competition worldwide. That's no small deal. In comparison, Australia's new competition will only have two games a week broadcast live, with the sport there in danger of falling further out of the public eye.
Having a sixth team will also give more of a platform for the country's next tier of Silver Ferns in waiting. Playing in a much more even competition will give these younger players the chance to improve their game more consistently, instead of hopping off another trans-Tasman flight wondering how they'd only touched the ball ten times in sixty minutes.
There is a fear some of our top netballers will now follow Laura Langman across the ditch and play for an Aussie side, but with strict rules in place requiring our netballers to play domestically to qualify for the Silver Ferns, I can't see this happening. Langman also received special dispensation from Netball New Zealand to do so, similar to Dan Carter's sabbatical to French club rugby in 2008.
The 'new' New Zealand Elite Domestic League has plenty going for it, and I can see it owning Sunday afternoons in living rooms and stadiums across the country.
I do have one question though: Will the Southern Steel revert back to their old name of the Southern Sting? Let's hope so.
Newshub.
