A trickle of players heading across the Tasman is not causing Netball New Zealand to panic.
Australia’s Super Netball contracting window closed on Monday, and three significant players from this year’s ANZ Premiership were among those inking their names.
Veteran ex-Silver Ferns Cathrine Tuivaiti and Leana de Bruin have signed for the Adelaide Thunderbirds while former Southern Steel import Jhaniele Fowler-Reid will turn out for the West Coast Fever.
The good news for NNZ is that none of those players is a Silver Fern and so the entire national squad has been retained.
De Bruin (now 40) had been considering retirement before the opportunity, while Tuivaiti was subject to a knee injury assessment.
Fowler-Reid, as an import from Jamaica, was never in the national team’s frame.
"I guess our priority is keeping our current Silver Ferns in New Zealand and playing in the [ANZ] Premiership," Netball New Zealand head of high performance Keir Hansen said.
"We’ve set up the premiership with the development of New Zealand talent in mind, so we’re sort of staying focused on those priorities."
However, it illustrates the threat posed by Australia, a threat not there before the transtasman league split.
That came to light last year when Laura Langman spurned the ANZ Premiership to sign with the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
She was one of several to take the offshore option at the end of 2016.
The most significant of that group, aside from Langman, was youngster Jamie-Lee Price, who has played for both New Zealand and Australian age-grade teams.
She left the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic at end of last year to play for the Greater Western Sydney Giants.
That meant those players spurned the Silver Ferns as NNZ requires players to play within New Zealand to be eligible for national teams.
It is something used in other codes, notably rugby union, as a means of encouraging players to remain at home.
However, in the case of rugby, that resulted in many of the country’s best players below the national team heading overseas.
While it is just a trickle in the case of netball at the moment, it will be important to ensure that does not become a procession.
Hansen said NNZ was comfortable with who was remaining, although would keep an eye on things in case a similar situation developed.
‘‘It’s all new and it will play out.
"At the moment, the ones that have decided to go, in this instance the ones that are leaving our competition, are ex-Silver Ferns and we understand their motivation for doing that.
"And obviously in Jhaniele’s case, an import player, choosing to go offshore.
"But we’ll certainly keep and eye on that and see how it unfolds."
Losing that next tier of players could be detrimental to the competition’s quality.
Keir said it was an important thing to consider. However, NNZ was happy with the mix between experience and youth in the premiership.
He noted the likes of Casey Kopua and Anna Harrison, both whom have retired from the Silver Ferns but continue to play in New Zealand.
