Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's a tough situation for Netball New Zealand

Author: Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2026, 7:50pm

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Maia Wilson of the Mystics takes a pass during the ANZ Premiership Grand Final match between the Mystics and Steel at The Trusts Arena on June 27, 2026 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Okay, here's the news on the netball front. Objectively, I don't think what I'm about to tell you is good news.

We've heard the administration staff of the three Netball New Zealand-owned teams, the Stars, the Magic and the Tactix, have been told their contracts are up at the end of this month and will not be renewed, at least for now, for next year.

This has to call into question whether we're even going to have an ANZ Premiership next year because you can't run those three teams without those administration staff.

And if you don't have those three teams, you can't run the competition. There are only three other privately owned teams in the league, making six teams in total. You can't have a competition of three teams. That's not enough to run a competition, is it?

So, are we going to have the league or not?

The worst-case scenario is the ANZ Premiership isn't happening next year. The best-case scenario is it is happening but Netball New Zealand can't be 100 percent sure right now. Maybe they're 80 percent sure. Maybe they're 75 percent sure.

But that's not enough certainty to offer contracts because you can't afford to carry the labour costs of three teams when there's a 20 percent to 25 percent chance the competition doesn't happen.

Either way, we're guessing. Do you know why we're guessing? Because, once again, the Netball New Zealand bosses are AWOL.

They are apparently, at least at this stage, not doing interviews. The chief executive is in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. The chair, Alistair Carruthers, is not in Glasgow. He's in New Zealand, at least that's what we've been told.

He's not doing interviews either because Alistair Carruthers does not do interviews when the questions are likely to be a little hard.

Now look, up to this point, because this has been going on for a number of months, I think we've given Netball New Zealand a fair amount of grace. We know this is a tough situation for them.

We know it's been going on for a while. The game has been bleeding talent and it's been bleeding money. They needed time to turn things around. They needed time to make decisions. They had a new board and a new chief executive. They needed time.

But I think they've run out of time. I think this has probably gone on too long.

When you're essentially telling the administration staff who run half the teams in the competition that they won't have jobs in 10 days' time, I think it will inevitably cause the public, the players, the administrators and the fans to speculate that there may be no competition next year.

And I think it requires Netball New Zealand's bosses to come on and explain to us what the hell is happening next year because right now, this doesn't look good for netball in New Zealand.

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