From the Board Chair and Chief Executive

On behalf of the directors and staff, greetings and welcome to the ninth annual report of Netball South Zone Incorporated for the year ended 30 November 2021.

This year will be known in the South for the recovery achieved by the zone and centres as we reclaimed the majority of our competitions after the disruption to 2020 caused by Covid-19. We say majority because unfortunately, our competitions were not entirely free of infection. The Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel was able to get through its entire ANZ Premiership season without impact, but several of the South Centres’ community competitions and a few of our own zone tournaments were not so lucky. The return of Covid-19 in the form of the Delta variant in August cut some competitions short and unfortunately, hardearned semi-final and final berths were not realised for many teams.

For the Zone’s Netball Development Managers working one-onone with South Centres, it was impressive to see the learnings of 2020 come to the fore as centre committees and staff navigated late disruptions to their season. Their ability to adapt, make sound decisions and manage change with confidence in a pandemic impacted world was strong. If there was one thing Netball South observed more impressive than the Centres’ ability to adapt, was the ability to recover. The shortened, late and heavily disrupted season of the previous year caused a 13% reduction to participation levels across the zone. It is a credit to the diligent work of our centre committees and staff to replenish their volunteer ranks and plan and deliver competitions, that participation rose by 10.9% in 2021. Overall, the South is just 2.8% shy of the participation levels of the pre-Covid 2019 season. The three centres in the Central Lakes area; Wakatipu, Upper Clutha and Central Otago Netball Centres deserve special mention. While finding volunteers can be a massive challenge for these centres, often leaving the running of competitions to a small handful of dedicated enthusiastic volunteers, their ability to raise the profile of netball in schools and attract new participants is exceptionally strong. In a study of participant trends in these centres, Netball South’s Georgie Bryce discovered 8% growth in juniors playing netball since 2019, a growth rate that is 2.2% higher than population growth in this age group. The trend is even stronger for secondary school level netball. Growth was 16% in the same period, 4.4% higher than secondary school student population growth. This is an exceptional achievement by these three centres.

Recently, Netball New Zealand Jennie Wyllie publicly reported participation rose by 1% for the country in 2021 compared with the 2020 season. When we compare our overall participation growth of 10.9% to 1% for the country, we can be proud of our efforts. But while it is good to acknowledge our achievement, we also need to spare a thought for our extended netball whanau in the centres of the Northern Zone. Covid-19 severely impacted their competitions earlier than ours and over a longer period. When we look deeper into participation trends, we see steady growth and recovery in the secondary school and adult netball categories, but junior numbers are more volatile across the centres. As the zone and centres work together planning for 2022, participation initiatives in the junior space will be a focus. The release of the annual Voice of the Participant (VOP) satisfaction survey results brings more colour to the picture of the good work happening in Centres. Our members are generally satisfied with their netball experience, but if we hold the bar a little higher and look at the top five characteristics that our members are very to extremely satisfied with, they include; the clean and well-maintained facilities centres provide (70%), the safe environment (64%), the friendly and welcoming atmosphere (63%), the well-maintained courts (62%) and the good sportsmanship and fair play (62%). Our members are significantly happier across these attributes compared with the national averages. The survey also gives insights to the areas of improvement opportunity which for the South is similar to the national picture. Our members believe improvement opportunities lie in the quality of officiating (20%) and the availability of player development opportunities (17%). We were pleased to see 67% of South members agree they receive value for money from their netball experience compared with 62% nationally. Netball’s future vision of Poipoia talks about the importance of affordability of netball. Netball centres in the South are clearly working hard to ensure that vision is a reality at the grassroots. It is fair to say there are centres in the South Zone who saw 2021 as more than a season for recovery. In the spirit of Poipoia, centres such as Dunedin and Invercargill moved forward with numerous innovations to either improve the netball experience of existing members or create new offerings for new members. Netball South was delighted to partner with the Dunedin Netball Centre (DNC) to offer a netball leadership programme for Maori and Pasifika secondary school netball players in 2021. Featured on One News, the six-week programme was led by Southern Steel shooting sensation Tiana Metuarau and coordinated jointly by staff at DNC and Netball South. Another innovation run by Invercargill Netball Centre (INC) was the Term Four competition for Secondary School boys only. INC have led strongly in the men and boys’ netball space for several years. Their men’s netball competition is four years old, building a strong profile for netball for males in Invercargill. So, when the feelers went out for a new netball competition for boys, they were delighted to see 14 team registrations flowing in. The centre experienced considerable loss of centre personnel just ahead of that competition and still managed to forge ahead for the benefit of those 14 teams. A credit to the INC committee and the staff remaining at the centre. These initiatives are Poipoia at its best as centres begin to consider the differing needs of their members and experiment with innovation to their competitions and events.

Netball South has a vital role to provide player development pathways and 2021 was a good year. After the disappointment of a twice cancelled Beko National Netball League season in 2020, the Southern Blast, ably led by Head Coach Jo Morrison, was grateful to have a 2021 National Netball League to compete in.