Expect some tinkering and refinement rather than wholesales changes to the ANZ Championship next year.
Tournament general manager Tony Holding declared the inaugural competition a "huge success" but acknowledged there were a few issues which needed addressing before next season.
"We are very pleased," Holding said.
"We've had 170,000 or so people go to matches, we've had seven to eight sell-out crowds and we got 12,000-plus people to the grand final.
"We just couldn't have scripted it or expected it to have done the things it has done, so it has been really exciting."
Holding said the competition attracted "great crowds, good TV audiences", and about 40% of the games had been decided by five or fewer goals.
That made for exciting netball and kept the crowds coming back.
The shift to Monday night netball had been a good tactic.
The sport had been able to avoid competing against other codes for audiences.
However, while the competition was being hailed as a success, Holding said Transtasman Netball Ltd was committed to reviewing operations and would make some changes next year.
One area which needed immediate attention was the uniforms.
Some of the strips worn by teams were too similar and hard to tell apart on television.
"There are new designs being developed right now.
We want to make sure that we can absolutely identify each team when they take the court."
While the uniform problem was easily resolved, concerns about the consistency of umpiring and the fairness of the draw were no so easily solved, Holding said.
Grumbling about umpires' interpretations of the rules became a consistent theme during the 17-week tournament.
Australian teams struggled to win in New Zealand and no New Zealand team won across the Tasman.
As the frustration grew, so did the complaints about the consistency of officiating.
Holding said the standard of umpiring would be reviewed but he pointed out coaches, players and umpires all needed time to adjust to the different styles of play.
"One of the key things with the umpiring is . . . just like the players, it takes time to get used to the different types of play.
We will do a little bit more in the pre-season in terms of creating opportunities with the umpires but fundamentally it won't change much."
Of course, it was often convenient to blame the officiating when a team lost, and the sides that did well were also the sides that adjusted quickly.
Aside from the umpiring, a hot topic in post-match press conferences was the draw, which several coaches criticised as inequitable.
West Coast Fever coach Sue Gaudion said the Australian teams were disadvantaged by the draw because they had to play the tougher Australian opponents twice and weaker New Zealand teams just once, whereas the stronger New Zealand teams racked up easy victories over their compatriots.
Holding was not convinced the New Zealand teams were weaker but conceded the "argument had some validity".
A solution would not be easy, he said.
"If we were going to make a true home and away double round that is an extra 25 matches.
Adding 25 matches to the competition is not an easy thing to do at this point in time."
