Comment: The Silver Ferns’ gold medal Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is a moment for all Aotearoa to celebrate.
After several years of challenge and uncertainty, this team reminded us why netball holds such a special place in our national identity. Their campaign was built on resilience, leadership, culture and belief. They showed the world the quality of New Zealand netball and the extraordinary talent within our athletes.
At the centre of this achievement is Dame Noeline Taurua, whose leadership has once again demonstrated the power of culture, connection and purpose in high performance sport.
Taurua inherited a Silver Ferns programme that needed renewal in 2018 and led a remarkable transformation, restoring belief, pride and success in the black dress. Her approach has always recognised that performance is inseparable from people. Values, relationships, accountability and identity are not separate from winning. They are the foundation of it.
But the most important question following this victory is not simply how we celebrate this team. It’s how we ensure the next generation of Silver Ferns has an ecosystem strong enough to support them.
Elite success does not happen in isolation. A national team is the outcome of thousands of tamariki playing in schools and clubs, volunteers giving their time, coaches developing talent, provincial associations creating pathways, domestic competitions providing opportunities and governance structures ensuring the system works together.
The Silver Ferns’ gold medal belongs to all of that ecosystem.
That is why this moment must become a catalyst for a broader conversation about the future of netball in Aotearoa.
The environment has changed significantly since 2016, when the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship came to an end. That decision reflected the realities of the time. It protected New Zealand’s domestic competition, strengthened pathways and ensured a competition connected to our communities.
It was the right decision for that time. But almost a decade later, leadership requires us to ask a different question.
Is the ecosystem we protected still the ecosystem we need?
Professional sport has evolved. Australia has continued to invest heavily in building a world-leading Super Netball competition, and the latest collective agreement between Netball Australia, the Super Netball clubs and the Australian Netball Players’ Association announced this week demonstrates that commitment.
From 2027, Super Netball athletes will benefit from improved pay and conditions, greater flexibility through multi-year contracts, increased opportunities for individual sponsorship, improved wellbeing provisions and a stronger connection to the future commercial growth of the league.
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This reflects a broader shift towards recognising elite female athletes as professional sportspeople whose careers, wellbeing and commercial value must be supported.
Athlete expectations and the commercial environment have changed. The pathway for elite women athletes must evolve with them.
Grace Nweke’s move to the NSW Swifts in 2024 was a defining moment. It was not a rejection of New Zealand netball. It was an athlete pursuing the highest level of competition, professional opportunity and development available, with the support and encouragement of Taurua.
Her decision challenged us to consider whether our structures are aligned with the aspirations of our athletes.
The reality is that New Zealand players are already part of the Australian professional environment. The question is whether we continue to view that as a loss, or whether we design a system that captures the benefits for New Zealand.
Perhaps the future is not about choosing between New Zealand netball and Australian netball. Perhaps it’s about building a stronger trans-Tasman ecosystem.
One option that deserves serious consideration is the establishment of two New Zealand-based professional franchises competing in the Super Netball league.
The Northern Mystics have already made a bid to enter a team in the 2028 competition and now wait to hear the outcome.
The rationale is compelling. Two teams would establish a genuine New Zealand presence, build local rivalry, broaden supporter engagement and provide more professional opportunities for our athletes.
Whether these franchises are developed from existing ANZ Premiership teams or created as new entities would need to be worked through by Netball New Zealand, Sport New Zealand and commercial partners. My preference would be to build on existing franchises where possible, provided they have the capability and infrastructure to succeed.
This would not mean abandoning the ANZ Premiership. In fact, it would strengthen its role.
The ANZ Premiership should remain the primary development competition for athletes, coaches, umpires and officials. The professional franchises would sit at the top of that pathway, not replace it.
Players would retain the option of joining other Super Netball franchises, ensuring they continue to have the freedom to pursue the best professional opportunities available.
We already have a successful example of a New Zealand identity thriving within an Australian competition.
The New Zealand Warriors compete in Australia’s NRL, yet they remain unmistakably New Zealand. They inspire young players, attract commercial investment, strengthen pathways and unite communities.
The lesson is not that netball should replicate rugby league. It’s that a New Zealand identity can thrive within a broader competition when the model is designed well.
For netball, the key would be ensuring professional investment flows back into the whole ecosystem through revenue sharing, pathway development and grassroots investment.
Elite sport requires a sustainable commercial foundation. Women’s sport has too often relied on passion and goodwill to sustain structures that require professional investment.
The direction of travel is clear. Where there is commercial growth, athletes must share in that success and the wider ecosystem must benefit.
The Commonwealth Games has shown there is a significant audience for netball. The athletes inspire. The product has value. The challenge is ensuring that value strengthens the entire ecosystem.
A trans-Tasman model offers that opportunity.
Rather than competing for audiences, broadcast revenue and sponsorship, New Zealand and Australia could create a premium sporting property that is more valuable than either competition can generate alone.
A stronger commercial model could provide greater investment into grassroots participation, clubs, provincial associations, coaching, officiating, the ANZ Premiership and the Silver Ferns.
Professional success should become the engine that funds the future of New Zealand netball.
Netball New Zealand now has an opportunity to lead. It could convene a trans-Tasman Netball Summit, bringing together Netball Australia, Sport New Zealand, broadcasters, commercial partners, franchises, player representatives, coaches, provincial associations and supporters.
The purpose should not be to revisit decisions made a decade ago. Those decisions reflected their time. The purpose should be to design the next 20 years of professional women’s netball.
Dame Noeline Taurua and this team have reminded us that culture matters, connection and leadership matter.
Now the system around them must show the same ambition.
Gold medals should not simply celebrate the excellence of one generation. They should create the conditions for the next generation to go even further.
New Zealand netball has the talent, history and supporters. What it needs now is the courage to build the ecosystem that future Silver Ferns deserve.
If we build a truly integrated trans-Tasman ecosystem, future Silver Ferns will be able to pursue the highest level of professional competition while remaining part of New Zealand’s high performance pathway.
They will no longer have to choose between ambition and belonging and that would be the greatest legacy of Glasgow 2026.
The ball is now in Netball New Zealand’s court. The opportunity is there to build a stronger, more sustainable future that keeps our best players connected to New Zealand, strengthens the Silver Ferns, inspires the next generation and ensures the whole netball ecosystem shares in the growth of the game.
