Larry Williams Drive

Hands up—who knew the ANZ Premiership starts tomorrow? This is netball. I’m guessing not many hands went up, which is a worry. It’s somewhat forgivable, given the state of netball’s head office at the moment. It doesn’t have a permanent CEO, and the chair and several board members have recently resigned. So you can understand why things are a bit of a mess and the communication strategy isn’t quite working. But it’s also not forgivable, because this is a pivotal season for netball. This season has to work. It probably won’t, but it at least needs the best possible chance, because professional netball in this country is fighting for its life. There’s no broadcast deal this year. Sky pulled out at the end of last year, so netball has had to pay TVNZ just to get it on TV2. That means there’s no money coming in from Sky, and players have had to take a 20% pay cut—those who are still here, anyway. Nine Silver Ferns have already moved to the Australian competition, where they earn double what they do here. And that