Other / Richard Douglas / 17 May 2009 / Leave a comment

There's no dribbling, a large number of its practioneers are little girls and the World Championship is dominated by Australia and New Zealand... Richard Walker undertakes the considerable task of explaining the appeal of netball...

Aaaaaahhh netball.

The last time you probably thought about this sport, life was just a handful of sticky conkers, girls were strange lads that could not climb trees without showing their knickers and your most prized possession was a dead sparrow's wing.

Yes, netball is something that awakens the long-lost 10-year-old in all of us. But if that is far too long ago, let's briefly go over the rules again.

The sport was invented by Clara Gregory Baer in 1895 as a non-contact derivative of basketball. However there are some major discrepancies between the two. A netball court is slightly larger, there are no backboards on the nets and, most crucially of all, players can only operate in certain areas.

Only goal-attack and goal-shooter can occupy scoring positions but goal-keeper and goal-defence are there to stop them. Wing attack, wing defence and centre patrol the areas in between. There is no dribbling. The ball is moved via passing and you cannot hang on to it for longer than three seconds.

Over 20 million people play the game worldwide in 70 different counties. However, it's stronghold is the Commonwealth.

Not surprisingly therefore the ANZ Championship is considered the best club tournament in the world. It began last year with the aim of bringing together the best five teams from Australia and New Zealand. Given that only these two countries have won the World Championship since 1963, you could argue that this is the Champions League or Copa Libertadores of the netball world.

However there is much, much, much less money involved. This is a semi-professional event where the clubs have to operate in a total salary cap of NZ$300,000. The foot-soldiers get a retainer of NZ$12,000 and the stars receive NZ$50,000.

A total of 69 games are played over 17 weeks from April to July. The first 14 weeks are round-robin with each team playing opposition from the same country twice and the other country once. There are no draws. In the event of a tie, extra-time is played until a victor is found.

The top four teams go into the play-off. The top two meet for the first spot in the overall final. The loser then plays the winner of the third place v fourth place game for the other spot.

Last year New South Wales Swifts took the inaugural title by beating Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic 65-56 in front of 12,000 fans in Sydney - a record attendance for the sport.

The most obvious trend from 12 months ago was the dominance of the Australian teams over the New Zealanders. That has continued this season.

After six rounds of matches, the bottom four places in the table were filled by Kiwi teams. Central Pulse [3.5] have lost every game and look out of the running already.

West Coast Fever [3.5] are the surprise package. They are currently occupying a handy fourth spot with three wins out of five games. Their tally of six points is one better than the final haul for the whole of last term. They also have Caitlin Bassett in superb goal-shooting forming. The New Zealander is second in the scoring charts with 204 goals.

Melbourne Vixens [1.02] were the hot favourites for the inaugural season but failed to deliver. This year they look the part with goal-defence Julie Corletto marshalling the best backline in the league. They lead the table with five wins from five.

Second-place Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic [1.02] are up there again. During their five wins and one defeats they have amassed 319 goals, a full 40 ahead of anyone else in the league. Not surprisingly they have the League's sharpest shooters Irene van Dyk with 94.1 per cent accuracy and Halana Leith, 90.9 per cent.

Southern Steel [3.6] are down in eighth place but they have played two games less than many of the teams above them. The return of Donna Wilkins and Adine Wilson after their pregnancies has helped their solid start.

Scouring the ANZ Championship website, it is clear that this tournament is a worthy, organised attempt to maximise the earning potential of a highly popular participation sport.

Sponsorship partners, TV deals, ticket sales, charity work - the lexicon of modern-day PR is on show.

It is world away from the sport broadly ignored by Master Douglas at primary school. But then again these days the grown-up Mr Douglas would have a slightly different attitude to some of the participants.

While this sport has clearly developed beyond measure, staggeringly little has changed in the mind of this adult 10-year-old.

My life is still a handful of sticky conkers!