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With the impacts of COVID-19 well documented throughout this Annual Report, it goes without saying that we are thankful for the depth of partnerships that we have within Netball and the near-unwavering support that the game received in a year where normal was just not possible.

While at times our options to deliver for our partners looked grim, we were eventually able to deliver a large amount of our Netball throughout the year and provide opportunities, often in new and varied ways, for our partners to support New Zealanders return to play or to watch Netball.

Broadcast

We worked hard with Sky Sport, to deliver a large array of live Netball into people’s homes and to their devices this year.

The Silver Ferns’ matches in January and the start of the ANZ Premiership in March gave us false hope of a year celebrating our 2019 Netball World Cup success before COVID-19’s impact on the delivery of live sport. During the initial lockdown period, NNZ provided live NETFIT NZ sessions multiple times across a week as we awaited our return to play.

Once back up and running we were able to successfully deliver the ANZ Premiership and the Silver Ferns’ season, seeing a lift in digital viewership through both Sky Go and Sky Sport Now. There was also strong viewership of the Silver Ferns’ matches, including free to air on Prime.

NNZ once again live-streamed our games internationally and there was a large spike in the viewing audience as Netball fans from around the world sought out our content for their watching fix.

Netball New Zealand

As mentioned above, Netball looked very different in 2020; however, NNZ is lucky to have a number of partnerships across different areas of our game.

Cadbury continued as our partner in support of our volunteers, recognising many volunteers throughout our game and ensuring they were thanked for their tremendous contribution.

Mother Earth continued as the naming partner of the Mother Earth futureFERNS in what will be their final year. Mother Earth have been involved in our futureFERNS programme since its inception and NNZ has enjoyed the partnership immensely.

ANZ continued to support the grass roots of our game through grants and also by their support of our futureFERNS programme. The undoubted highlight for the community game, though, was the unprecedented post-COVID-19 provision of $500,000 for our Netball Clubs and Centres to apply to so they could ride out the pandemic. This was an incredible gesture from our longest-serving partner.

GJ Gardner Homes extended their relationship as the official sponsor of umpires across all levels of the game.

NZ Police and Fuji Xerox took on roles as naming rights partners for the Open Champs and Secondary Schools Netball Champs respectively but unfortunately these events were cancelled due to COVID-19. However, both partners took up other opportunities to support the game and still allow us to support them also.

We continued our great relationship with Barfoot & Thompson in their role as an official sponsor of our High Performance coaching programmes.

Further relationships exist with Asics in and around our age-group teams and with Gilbert as official ball supplier for all our NNZ-run tournaments and competitions.

Thrifty Rental Vehicles was our official rental vehicle partner. We acknowledge the very difficult year they have had, reliant on the tourism market, and we look forward to supporting them where we can over the coming months and years.

In 2020, we changed our printing partner to Benefitz.

Silver Ferns

MYOB renewed their partnership leading into 2020 as the principal partner of the Silver Ferns. They continued to leverage their relationship in several ways, utilising the Silver Ferns to support their business.

While principally the naming rights partner of our elite national league – the ANZ Premiership – ANZ’s presence with the Silver Ferns has continued to showcase how ANZ support New Zealanders.

Cadbury (Mondelez) enjoyed a second year of association with the world champions as our official series sponsor of the Cadbury Netball Series.

As well as the above, we continued to have strong support from PUMA, Suzuki, Special K, Frucor Suntory, Mediaworks and Thrifty Vehicle Rentals.

Dermaviduals joined us in 2020 too, becoming the Silver Ferns’ official skincare and make-up partner. Also joining us in the latter part of the year as a partner, Pantene will launch some fantastic initiatives in 2021.

In addition, we enjoyed a new partnership with BABY-G which saw a generous gifting of products to our fans.

We also enjoyed fantastic support from PTP Fitness, Voyager, SKINS, Asics, Gilbert, USL, GO Media and Augustine.

ANZ Premiership

The real success of 2020 was actually executing the ANZ Premiership. While a number of parties played a massive part in achieving this in what was an incredibly difficult year in which to plan, our partners showed the support of our game we love by being flexible and innovative.

Once again, ANZ’s support of the revised Premiership was a superb display of support for Netball. As with last year, Suzuki branding was displayed on the goalpost pads and the goal circle decal, extending their presence on the court.

The ANZ Premiership also saw Gilbert, MYOB, Asics, BABY-G, Sky Sport, Mediaworks and GO Media as partners, and GJ Gardner Homes once again partnered with our match officials.

Beko Netball League

As a result of COVID-19, the Beko Netball League was not played in 2020. COMMERCIAL

Funding Organisations

NNZ would like to acknowledge the excellent support received from the following organisations (in no particular order):

• New Zealand Community Trust • The Lion Foundation • One Foundation • The Southern Trust • Trillian Trust • Rata Foundation • Sport New Zealand • High Performance Sport New Zealand • ACC

There are also many other partners, suppliers and funders of the game of Netball at many levels throughout the country and NNZ wishes to thank them for their ongoing support of our game.