From the Board Chair and Chief Executive

On behalf of the directors and staff, greetings and welcome to the tenth annual report of Netball South Zone Incorporated for the year ended 30 November 2022.

Given a year of disruption to core revenue streams, it is testimony to prudent financial and risk management and steadfast support from local funders and commercial partners, that both the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel and Netball South have posted a modest surplus for the 2022 financial year.

On the community front, the zone has worked hard to grow the value of the partnership it has with the netball centres. Operating and support plans for all centres, plus data and insights have supported robust discussions about local needs, planning and delivery. It is pleasing to have surveys tell us our participants are the most satisfied in the country when it comes to value for money, but there are other important learnings, such as 21% of them believing umpiring is in most need of improvement. We will be rolling up our sleeves on this in 2023.

When it comes to reflecting on how well a zone and our centres can work together there is no better place to look than talent development. In 2022, the zone shifted the Steel Steps Talent Development programme from a regional to a centrebased delivery model, lifting participation by 319% across the Y7 – U18 age groups. The timing and structure of each centre delivery was tailored to the local needs of nine individual centres only achieved through collaboration perseverance.

Another example of this quality collaboration pulled on the heart strings of generations of netball stalwarts in Southland when the zone and two netball centres brought back Southland Country netball. The Southland Country U18 team, along with four other teams from the South headed to Christchurch in July, to compete at the NZ U18 National Champs. It’s a record number of teams that can only increase, as netball centres see the value of collaboration to create, and in this instance, re-create, affordable and accessible pathway opportunities for netballers.

It was hard to contain the excitement when Claire Malthus, Georgia Heffernan, Kate Heffernan and Kristie Simpson all featured as winners at the New Zealand Netball Awards in December. Kristie Simpson continues to lead the country as the highest performing umpire for the second year in a row, while Claire Malthus received richly deserved recognition winning Administrator of the Year. The hugest honour of all goes to ex-Netball South Board member and legendary netball stalwart Kate Leebody. She was presented with the Queen’s Service Medal for services to netball and the community in November. Over the decades, Kate’s pragmatic wisdom, hard work and loyal friendship makes her a much loved and respected community leader.

Georgia Heffernan’s award for Aspiring Silver Fern caps off a great off season including being a member of the New Zealand Mixed and Men’s team in the Cadbury Series and the Fast5 Ferns. It was also pleasing to see Head Coach Reinga Bloxham and Team Manager Dayna Kaio at the helm of NZA for the Cadbury Series and Assistant Coach Jo Morrison selected as Assistant Coach of the NZ Secondary Schools.

When Covid reared its head and traffic lights switched to red, the Steel franchise was hit on two fronts during the first quarter. Firstly, cancellation of a comprehensive plan of community engagement scheduled for the pre-season, and secondly, crowds at our first three homes games reduced to one hundred people. It was a financial blow to ticketing revenue, but it could have been worse. Reallocating the very limited seats we were able to use during the first three games to our perpetually loyal and deserving VIP members reduced package refunds significantly. The other casualty was the Board’s grand plan to bring the first ever ANZ Premiership game to Queenstown. Whilst Covid forced a transfer of this game to Invercargill this season, the appetite of the Netball South Board to bring elite netball to the Central Lakes district is as strong as ever. It was good for the soul to see energy back into the foyers and stands buzzing in Dunedin and Invercargill, when excited fans were able to return for the last five homes games of the season.

On the performance front, it was a Steel season of two halves without the ending we dreamed of. Coming fourth and missing out on a Final Series berth, in only the second time in six years, was a disappointing outcome forcing plenty of soul searching.

The first half of the season went to plan. We prepared well for an interesting draw pitting us against the 2021 Premiership Champions, three times in the first six games. We won four of our first six games, finally beating a full- strength Mystics in the third tussle. It was a critical scalp to get. We were perfectly poised to run out the season and make our way into the Final Series if we continued this form but unfortunately it was not to be. With nine games compressed into the five weeks left in the season, Covid finally struck the Steel team. We hoped to recover our early season form when the players returned to play but our performance never achieved the necessary consistency to win a spot in the Final Series.

A highlight from our Steel season was the performance of our young Southern Blast players coming through to support the team when players were out due to illness or injury. The NNL League continues to provide a vital source of talented players able to transition into the elite performance environment seamlessly.

Since the establishment of Netball South ten years ago, one of the strategic goals of the zone has been the financial sustainability of not only Netball South but the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel as an independent entity. This was under significant pressure in 2022 with revenue declines in both sponsorship and ticketing revenue. The heroes for revenue were our funders and commercial partners and whilst these revenue streams played their part, our staff worked incredibly hard to keep a lid on costs and make ends meet. We are very proud of this financial result and wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff of Netball South for working so hard to operate within our means.

As the next decade for the zone begins, the heralding in of new Board members continues. At the March AGM, Netball South welcomed newly elected director Kirstin Scully of Dunedin to the Board. Kirstin brings centre governance experience alongside commercial acumen. She replaces director Adrienne Ensor, who after nine years of service, exhausted the tenure limit of nine years set down by the zone’s constitution. Adrienne’s deep understanding of the netball system, commercial and financial leadership and empathy for our grassroots netball communities will be sorely missed. Local Southland business leader Shane Youngman joined the Board later in the year, bringing, among other things, commercial leadership experience. After eight years at the helm, Chief Executive Lana Winders called full-time, moving into a family business leadership role. Her business acumen will be missed by a zone that has grown financial, risk management and performance capability under her leadership. The Netball South board were very pleased to appoint Sonya Fleming to the role of Chief Executive. Sonya has a wealth of knowledge of netball in the South and will ably fill the large void that Lana left. You will see Sonya out in the community a lot throughout 2023.

Netball South thanks all the staff and volunteers at the Centres for their passion and commitment to Netball, and the Southern Steel family of funders, commercial partners and fans for their unwavering support in 2022. A huge thank you to our Netball South board and staff for a great year of hard work and success.