Events Overview

The ANZ Premiership began early to accommodate the timing of the Netball World Cup – opening at the end of February and ending at Queen’s Birthday weekend at the start of June. The Grand Final saw Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse secure their first-ever title defeating the Northern Stars 52-48 in front of a capacity crowd at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua.

The Northern Stars earned their first Grand Final start by defeating the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel in Invercargill 56-53. Super Sundays continued to find favour with fans and families alike with Round One held at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton, attracting 2,174 to the opening three matches of the league. The subsequent Super Sundays hosted at Trusts Arena and the ILT Stadium Southland netted over 4,100 spectators between them.

While the Pulse and Steel were clearly dominant throughout the season, the Stars built on their 2018 performance to take out third after the round robin season and left a tightly bunched group of three teams to fight out the final positions, with Splice Construction Magic taking fourth, edging The Good Oil Tactix by virtue of a superior goal percentage into fifth, and the Northern Mystics despite collecting two bonus points ended in sixth place.

The Beko Netball League continued to fulfil its role as an opportunity for developing elite players, coaches and officials. The 10 televised matches of this league ran in the pre-ANZ Premiership position for Sunday afternoon games resulting in increased awareness. Once again, this was a tight competition with each team facing losses along the way. Eventually, for the third consecutive year, Central Manawa emerged victorious narrowly defeating WBOP 49-46.

The international season again began early on the calendar with preparation for the Netball World Cup high on the agenda. Cadbury came on board as the key series partner, and the first Cadbury Netball Series saw four teams assemble for a fourday event at the Pulman Arena in late June: Silver Ferns, NZA, Fiji Pearls and a NZ Men’s Invitational team.

This was the first time a men’s team has participated in a public and broadcast Netball event. The benefit to the Silver Ferns from this competition was evident in Liverpool a month later while the integrated event experience in this series proved to be highly successful with unsolicited positive feedback from a wide range of sources, including broadcast and media partners and regular event attendees.

Maximum audiences on three of the four nights relished the chance to take part in karaoke, enjoy the inimitable Luke Bird, watch varied partner activations on court and explore the Town Square – providing a range of food options and activities for children and adults alike. Street performers and stilt walkers along with the Thrifty vertical bungy and jousting pit kept everyone occupied and amused while supported by generous offerings of Cadbury products.

Following the success of the Netball World Cup, the Cadbury Netball Series for the Constellation Cup rounded out the international year with games in Christchurch and Auckland and then Perth at the end of October. Capitalising on the Netball World Cup, tickets went on sale at the start of July, and while both venues sold strongly, Horncastle Arena achieved the half-way mark within 23 days of going on sale. With a combined attendance of over 11,500, the strong support of the Silver Ferns was evident.

Continuing the evolution of event presentation, the anthems in both locations were performed by a talented quartet of brothers – Alofa – and was accompanied by members of the NZ Deaf community signing the anthems. The inclusion of the three offi cial languages of Aotearoa, Te Reo, English and NZ Sign was well received, with strong support from the wider community.

While not victorious in the Constellation Cup, the Silver Ferns certainly provided strong motivation for celebration, and rounding out the year, the New Zealand Netball Awards, supported by ANZ, returned to Spark Arena at the end of October. Televised on Sky Sport, a glittering array of guests gathered to share the recognition of athletes, coaches and officials from all levels of Netball. Coinciding with the release of the Silver Ferns documentary, the awards dinner returned very positive feedback with a desire to see this event become a regular feature on the event calendar.

The NZ Secondary Schools Champs made its way to the Saxton Stadium in Nelson, with Fuji Xerox as the naming rights sponsor for the next two years. As always, there was a huge following for this event, with fans able to watch nine games streamed live and on demand via the Sky Sport YouTube channel, along with a highlights package. The final match pitted multi-title winners Saint Kentigern College against newcomers St Peter’s School, Cambridge. After a closely fought battle St Peter’s emerged the victors to take out their first title 35–31.

In its final outing, the Netball NZ U19 Champs were held in Invercargill at the ILT Stadium Southland where 18 teams competed and saw Wellington take out the title 44– 31 over Auckland in the final. Meanwhile in Waitākere, the Netball NZ U17 Champs played out its final edition with 40 teams fighting for honours. This time, the home team triumphed with Waitākere defeating last year’s hosts Manawatu 46–34. Both events were strongly supported by their communities with Netball South and Netball Waitākere going above and beyond, relishing the opportunity to host these tournaments. In 2020 the introduction of the Netball NZ U18 Champs to replace U17 and U19 events in July, along with the Netball NZ Open Champs in September, sees the beginning of an exciting new tournament calendar.