There was uncertainty in the South.
Both Southern Steel chief executive Lana Winders and goal defence Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit admitted uneasy feelings at losing their Australian opposition when the transtasman netball series split in two.
The Steel had just come off an impressive transtasman season in which it stumbled at the end.
Questions over the quality of a purely New Zealand competition seemed to be answered as the Steel swept aside all opposition a year later.
It emerged an unbeaten champion in the inaugural domestic ANZ Premiership.
Those questions translated to the international level, too, as the Silver Ferns slumped to a disastrous result at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
There was criticism all round.
But in time, the New Zealand approach has shone through.
The Silver Ferns claimed the 2019 World Cup, and the ANZ Premiership is drawing increasing levels of praise.
‘‘I didn’t know how that split was going to go at the start,’’ Winders said.
‘‘I was worried about the loss of the Australian teams from the competition.
‘‘Gosh, New Zealand took a lot of heat at the time, because our Silver Ferns were struggling.
‘‘But perserverance has shown Netball New Zealand has made some excellent moves around this competition.
‘‘Limiting the number of imports, creating a National Netball League underneath it — that’s feeding that talent through.
‘‘It seems to be a critical role of the competition is to feed the Silver Ferns, and it seems to have done that really well. I think there’s more value to come there.’’
Staying true to the international game was something Winders felt had helped New Zealand.
Australia’s Super Netball uses the super shot — two-point shot — in the final five minutes of each quarter and timeouts.
It was one of several things frustrating an increasingly discontented portion of the Australian fanbase, too.
The messy netball it created had become a sticking point — among other things such as lack of engagement with fans and accessibility — in contrast to the clean and skilful netball in the ANZ Premiership.
Meanwhile, opening up its league to an unlimited number of imports has taken opportunities from Australian talent.
Selby-Rickit said there were two sides to those changes.
She felt the rule changes made Super Netball exciting to watch and she said finding ways to be innovative was something New Zealand needed to do.
However, she said it was important to weigh that up against deviating too far from the international rules.
Likewise, she said opening up Super Netball to imports had created a mix of styles and had helped countries such as England, South Africa and Malawi.
But in some positions, it took away from Australian talent coming through.
In contrast, she felt New Zealand reducing its squad sizes to 10 and keeping imports to one had given young players exposure of high-level netball.
She felt the split had helped New Zealand rediscover its own style as well.
‘‘It has happened and it definitely has benefited us,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s hard to beat Aussie at their own game. If we try to do man-on, we can do it obviously and we can push it out.
‘‘But it’s their game . . . they can do it for so much longer. They can do it for 60-70 minutes. I don’t think we have that yet.
‘‘We’ve gone back to a hybrid of the two, like a space mark but on the player.
‘‘So you’re still putting pressure on the player but you’re not running around like a headless chook chasing someone. You’re working together as a team in your unit.’’
She felt not exposing the Australians to that on a weekly basis had been key for the Silver Ferns, too.
While she had thought the transtasman competition had been a good one, the dominance Australia had at international level through that period was becoming apparent.
There was a feeling the Australians had almost ‘‘figured out’’ the New Zealand game.
‘‘They’re not up against it every week, so they have to analyse it. They almost didn’t have to before.
‘‘Now they have to do a bit more work and it takes a while to figure out.
‘‘The Ferns have definitely stepped up, there’s no doubt about that. They’ve really come to the party the last couple of years and been really competitive.’’
Both Winders and Selby-Rickit said they would love to see a crossover between the winners.
While the Australians had not bought into the Super Club competition, a playoff between the two competition’s champions was something they would like to see.
