The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
No 24: Rebels beat the Sting in inaugural final (1998)
It is probably not too much of a stretch to argue this is the game that ushered in a whole new era of netball.
There was certainly much more than just local bragging rights at stake when the Otago Rebels played the Southern Sting in the first final of the revamped national league in Dunedin on May 9, 1998.
The 3000 frenzied fans who crammed into temporary seats at the Edgar Centre witnessed the coming of age of a sport that was tired of living in rugby's immense shadow.
Netball had joined the big time.
Its players could be paid (not much in the early days), the games were worthy of primetime television coverage, and the sport was infused with a new and vibrant spirit.
For years, netball's national honours were contested over two levels - club (College Rifles, Verdettes and the like) and provincial.
The strongest Dunedin club, Albion, built a formidable team in the mid-1990s and won the last of the old club-based national leagues in 1997.
Then came the big change.
Clubs were out and "franchises" were in.
In Dunedin, a group of twinkle-eyed, talented young women came together as the Otago Rebels, the name chosen to reflect a student-dominated squad's rejection of the staid and traditional.
It was some team.
Katie Fay and Belinda Blair were towering defenders, Belinda Colling and Joe Steed melded perfectly in the shooting circle, and Anna Rowberry, Lesley Nicol and Victoria Edward formed a peerless midcourt.
"We were fortunate that all the girls decided to do university studies in Otago at that time," Rowberry later recalled.
"We were very similar.
We were mates, and that accounted for a huge amount of our success.
We didn't want to let each other down because we'd formed great relationships and great trust.
A lot of that was instilled by our coach, Georgie Salter."
The Rebels blazed through the 1998 season, winning 11 straight games, with an average margin of 10 goals, before thumping the Auckland Diamonds in the semifinal.
The final of the inaugural Coca-Cola Cup was a spectacle.
Fans started arriving hours before the opening pass, and the Edgar Centre was a whirlpool of colour and noise.
The Rebels leaped to a 12-4 lead and did not look back, leading 34-22 at halftime and winning 57-50.
Captain Nicol received the trophy and sprinted to her team-mates to celebrate, and Rowberry was named player of the year.
The Rebels and the Sting met again in the 1999 final, also in Dunedin.
But the Sting would win, setting in motion one of the most astonishing runs of success in the history of New Zealand sport.
Sadly, the Rebels faded as top players left the province - many defecting to the Sting - and the team would have mixed success over the following years.
In 2008, netball set its sights even higher, with a transtasman competition replacing the New Zealand league.
The southern rivals merged into the Steel, based in Invercargill.
The Rebels name is redundant, but the 1998 final will never be forgotten.
