Once upon a time, two countries – let’s call them Australia and New Zealand – packed a basket of goodies and set out through the forest on a netball journey, looking for a meadow filled with gold medals and piles of sponsorship money – the like only ever seen by men’s sports. For a long time, this journey was pleasant and collaborative. When they hit a snag, they worked it out and merrily continued. But one day they reached a fork in the road. New Zealand was keen to take the smooth, flat path, while Australia thought the dark and dangerous route would be quicker and ultimately more rewarding.
And so, in 2016 Netball Australia announced it would be splitting apart the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship and going it alone with a brand new Australian domestic competition. This announcement – which seemed like a watershed moment at the time – now appears to mark the point where things started to go very wrong for Netball Australia’s finances.
