Radio silent Netball New Zealand must ease players’ nerves and provide clarity
Saturday, 19 July 2025
What: ANZ Premiership elimination final, Tactix v Pulse; When: Sunday, 7.30pm; Where: Wolfbrook Arena, Christchurch; Live coverage: Sky Sport 2 from 7pm, Live updates on Stuff.
ANALYSIS: The season will be over for the Tactix or Central Pulse come fulltime on Sunday night in Christchurch.
It is do-or-die stuff in the elimination final with a place in next Sunday’s grand final against the Mystics the reward for the victor. For the loser it will be curtains and time for off-season plans.
Brendon Egan looks at the key talking point ahead of the elimination final.
Broadcast deal blues
Netball New Zealand (NNZ) must start providing the country’s premier netballers with some answers.
Uncertainty around a broadcast deal for 2026 and beyond continues to rumble on, which has rightly created anxiety for players.
NNZ’s broadcast deal with Sky ends after this season, but the governing body has been deathly silent on how they are tracking and whether any agreement is imminent. Sky has been the home of netball in New Zealand since 2008.
Broadcasting revenue underpins elite netball in New Zealand and covers the salary caps of the six premiership teams. Without a satisfactory broadcast deal, the future of the ANZ Premiership is compromised.
The Post understands NNZ have explored all broadcast options for the future with traditional media and/or streaming. Nothing has been off the table in what looms as a watershed moment for the sport in this country.
“I know there are a lot of girls who are freaking out. It’s hard to say that we do try and put it to the back of our minds because it is our career,” Pulse Silver Fern standout Maddy Gordon told the Inside Netball podcast this week.
NNZ certainly have some massive decisions to make in the coming weeks-months. Do they relax the eligibility laws and allow the country’s finest netballers to compete in Australia’s Super Netball? –without being barred from representing the Silver Ferns.
Grace Nweke has dazzled in Australia with the NSW Swifts this season and only grown as a player and improved her skill set.
There also needs to be clarity around the future of domestic netball. Do New Zealand continue to go it alone in the ANZ Premiership? Do the top teams from both sides of the Tasman meet up in a battle of the best at the end of each competition? Or do NNZ take the radical step of reuniting with Australia and having multiple Kiwi teams in Super Netball?
Kiwi netballers are running blind right now. They deserve to know what the future holds.
The battle within the battle
The showdown between Pulse goal shoot Amelia Walmsley and Tactix defensive duo Karin Burger and Jane Watson will go a long way to deciding the elimination final.
Here’s the bad news for the Pulse.
Watson and Burger rarely serve up back-to-back duds. The brilliant pairing were uncharacteristically quiet in last week’s forgettable loss to the Mystics, which cost them a home grand final.
Mystics’ Australian shooter Donnell Wallam outplayed them, racking up 57 goals. It wasn’t all on Burger and Watson. The Tactix failed to shut down Mystics’ feeders Peta Toeava, Filda Vui, and Tayla Earle, who fired the ball into Wallam at will.
Walmsley, the most prolific shooter in the competition this season (450 goals from 10 games) will be pivotal if the Pulse are to get home. She might need to score 50-plus goals if the Pulse are to emerge victorious.
Time to see finals version Kelly Jackson
Kelly Jackson has been the pre-eminent defender in the ANZ Premiership for the last few seasons. No-one has been more effective.
The bar has been set so high, it is not surprising Jackson has not lived up to the billing of previous campaigns in 2025.
By her own mighty standards, the Silver Ferns’ star has not been as destructive this season.
Jackson will still be the Silver Ferns’ starting goal keep in their first test of the season against South Africa on September 21.
If the Pulse are to book their place in the grand final, they need Jackson to deliver her best outing of the season.
With Silver Ferns’ team-mate Parris Mason expected to sit again with a neck injury, Jackson will need to gain even more ball than usual.
‘Super shot’ or not
Could the ‘Super Shot’ have a key impact on the elimination final?
The Tactix have taken a conservative approach to the new innovation, which is in effect in the final five minutes of each quarter.
No team has scored fewer two point goals (19) and attempted less attempts (48) than the Tactix.
Martina Salmon and Te Paea Selby-Rickit are both adept long range shooters and may need to shoot from deep, depending on the game situation.
The Pulse have not been afraid to put up the long bomb.
Super-sub Amorangi Malesala is among the best two point shot exponents in the competition, while Tiana Metuarau is also handy.
In a match of fine margins, ‘Super Shot’ goals, or a lack of, might prove decisive.
Selby-Rickit the difference maker?
Veteran shooter Selby-Rickit never seems to get too many headlines or buzz.
Few players in the ANZ Premiership are as reliable as the Tactix goal attack, who has put together an excellent season.
Had she been available for the Silver Ferns, the 33-year-old would no doubt be on Dame Noeline Taurua’s selection radar.
Selby-Rickit, in her 15th season of elite netball, could be the difference maker.
Not only is she accurate under the hoop, or from deep, but her work as the second or third feeder is sometimes under-appreciated.
The Pulse have to find a way to limit her effectiveness as a distributor, otherwise it could be a long night.