Waikato Bay of Plenty

ANZ PREMIERSHIP

ANZ Premiership

The wider concept of the meaning ‘team’ was a prominent feature during a disruptive and challenging 2020 ANZ Premiership, but one which ultimately delivered a highly successful campaign on all fronts.

The impact of COVID-19 had severe repercussions across the entire sporting landscape but the fourth edition of NNZ’s elite domestic competition shone brightly in being able to complete its season.

With the exception of the final round, which had to be cancelled because of a change in COVID-19 Alert Levels, the Grand Final was able to be played behind closed doors to draw the curtain on a memorable season.

From start to finish, the ANZ Premiership traversed a lengthy and bumpy trail, which from the opening round in midMarch was finally completed 24 weeks later with the staging of the Grand Final in late August. The cancellation of the last round made no impact on the final points table and it was a credit to all involved that 41 matches out of a possible 48 were completed.

In between, the league endured two lockdowns with many adjustments needing to be made along the way.

After the completion of Round 1, the league was initially postponed for two weeks, then when New Zealand went into Alert Level 4 it was halted for 13 weeks with its continued future up in the air.

However, once the country was back in Alert Level 2, the welcome news was that the league would recommence with the teams given four weeks to prepare. This also drove a significant increase in TV news coverage, using post-match interviews and stories created by the NNZ communications team. Content provided to media included match reports, match photography, video interviews, audio interviews and match previews.

There has been a focus on continuing to build our digital capabilities to engage and retain fans through digital media (social media, website stories and other forms of digital consumption). The results from the ANZ Premiership website, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube showed a significant growth from 2019 and engagement rates above industry standard.

With the ANZ Premiership being the only Netball competition up and running at the time, international live-streaming proved enormously popular with a substantial increase in viewers where the action was beamed into 96 countries around the world.

Following six rounds completed in Auckland, there was universal euphoria when the remaining three rounds returned to the regions when New Zealand moved down to Alert Level 1. After weeks of hectic travel schedules, teams rejoiced at being able to play at home in front of their faithful fans.

However, there was one more twist when Alert Levels changed once more, with Auckland moving to Level 3 and the rest of the country to Level 2 just prior to the last round of the regular season. The Auckland teams were therefore unable to leave their home base or train together, so the five matches due to be played in that round were deemed as draws.

This had no effect on the final points table, however, the play-offs for 3 vs 4 and 5 vs 6 were cancelled because of the restrictions still in place for the Auckland teams. The Grand Final was played in Invercargill in August.

Stacked with talent on both sides, the Pulse and Tactix confirmed their places in the Grand Final before the end of the regular season. The defending champions remained at the front of the pack throughout with the southerners improving from the start to achieve their first attempt at the title.

‘Go hard, go early’ was the Government’s response to tackling COVID-19 and the Pulse took a similar approach in the Grand Final. A decisive and uncompromising first half set the Pulse on their way to back-to-back titles, the Tactix unable to make inroads against the well-drilled team from the Central Zone.

The Pulse had the edge in all areas of the court with their top-notch shooting, speed on transition and smothering defence. This negated any thoughts of a Tactix comeback, delivering a decisive 43-31 win.

With five playing in last year’s Grand Final and durable captain Katrina Rore suiting up in Pulse colours for her 150th game, experience proved a key factor.

A 10-week condensed season resumed on 19 June, played at the centralised location of Auckland Netball Centre in order to meet the Ministry of Health guidelines of providing a consistent and controlled venue.

Fitness, flexibility and recovery became the staples as all teams took a leap into the unknown in the revised draw, which involved a schedule with teams playing 14 games apiece to complete this year’s league. This meant that matches were staged on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.

In normal circumstances more time is usually spent on the training court but in a season where much was different, there was game-time aplenty, with the new draw involving five double-headers per team on back-to-back days. Playing quarters for the season were reduced to 12 minutes from 15.

This also meant plenty of travel, most notably for Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse, The Good Oil Tactix and Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel which spent six weeks taking chartered flights to and from Auckland. Meanwhile, Splice Construction Magic did multiple road trips up State Highway 1 from Hamilton.

Going back into pre-season mode during the four weeks of the nationwide Alert Level 4 lockdown, players were innovative and industrious, making the most of their time in isolation with rigorous training regimes. As a result, when the season finally resumed, the athletes were in tip-top condition, many reaching their best-ever fitness levels and it showed in the on-court product.

With the shorter quarters and highlytuned athletes raring to go, all games produced greater levels of intensity and skill while being played at a cracking pace. Also, with many games going down to the wire, it provided an exciting platform with interest in the league captivating the sporting public both in New Zealand and further afield. It engaged a huge audience with numbers following the action soaring.

Despite a very testing COVID-19-affected season, coverage of the 2020 league was more extensive than ever before. The impact of the pandemic meant there were less sports journalists covering Netball than usual. However, through the in-house content created, NNZ managed to lift the volume and quality of media coverage and exposure of the ANZ Premiership.

With the shorter quarters and highlytuned athletes raring to go, all games produced greater levels of intensity...”