One of the leading coaches in Australia's Super Netball competition says he was heartbroken when the old trans-Tasman competition disbanded.
In 2012 the Magic became the only NZ team to win the title under the former trans-Tasman ANZ Netball Championship. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Collingwood Magpies coach Rob Wright is heading to Nelson for the Super Club tournament, where his side will become the first Australian club to participate in the third edition of the event.
New Zealand's six ANZ Premiership teams will be in action along with the Magpies and international club side the Wasps from England.
In 2016 when the 10-team trans-Tasman ANZ Championship was scrapped, Wright was coaching the New South Wales Swifts.
The first male to be appointed head coach in the old trans-Tasman competition, Wright said he missed those games.
"Massively. Yeah, I loved it. I just think it gave a different perspective.
"You got to play different styles all the time, like I was brokenhearted I reckon when we split. I thought it was a fantastic conference. I loved it so I would love the opportunity to have it back. But you know, I'm not sure in the short term, whether that's ever going to happen."
He said the Super Club competition, starting this Sunday, came at a good time for the Magpies, who have only been back together for three weeks.
"I think what an opportunity to play against, you know, let's face it the world champions and what I really like is the Silver Ferns are spread throughout the teams. Like there's good quality in every team."
When the trans-Tasman competition split in 2016, Netball New Zealand bosses had visions of a cross-over tournament at the end of both respective competitions so players still had some exposure to the Australian style.
But a tournament staged soon after demanding domestic competitions held little appeal.
However, the timing of this year's Super Club has given the tournament some meaning.
It also doubles as a trial with Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua to pick a team to go to the Nations Cup in England in January.
Taurua will be heading to Nelson and naming a team a few days after the conclusion of the tournament.
"It's going to be fascinating obviously being the Silver Ferns trial, so I'll be really keen to see how they all look so it'll be good," Wright said.
Rob Wright coach of the NSW Swifts with the team during the former trans-Tasman ANZ Netball competition. Photo: Photosport
All New Zealand-based members of the Silver Ferns squad will take to the court, with the exception of Tactix defender Jane Watson who is recovering from an ankle injury.
Defender Temalisi Fakahokotau will make her long-awaited comeback this weekend as she tries to regain her spot in the Silver Ferns.
Fakahokotau suffered a cruel knee injury just when Taurua took over the side last year.
The 25-year-old was not available for any interviews prior to Super Club.
Kelly Jury, will have to wait longer to push for her re-selection into the Ferns defensive end as she continues her recovery from shoulder surgery.
Wright said the dramatic turnaround of the Silver Ferns, culminating in their World Cup triumph in July, was phenomenal.
"I genuinely thought going into worlds that the Silver Ferns on talent probably sat possibly third. But once England lost defender Layla Gusgoth to injury I felt like England were done and dusted. I felt then New Zealand probably had the second best team.
"For New Zealand to win was against all odds. It just showed the Taurua factor and with Casey Kopua and Laura Langman back in I just felt it gave them a couple of pieces that they were really missing. You change the coach, you bring in a couple of superstars and the world changed.
"I actually ran into Noeline where they were staying in Liverpool and I just said to her, 'what you've done is remarkable' I still can't believe that could happen within 12 months."
Wright was Langman's first coach when she made the leap across the Tasman to join an Australian side in 2016.
"I'm actually really thrilled for her but I guess for all the fossils as such, that they have gone away winning a World Cup.
"I just think they've been icons of the sport and I think that you don't often necessarily get what you deserve sometimes in sport you don't always get those rewards. It can be brutal sometimes, but I really like that and yeah, if I could have a Langman in my team every year, you know I'd take her in a heartbeat."
England Roses player Geva Mentor will be in Nelson for the Magpies. Photo: Photosport
The Magpies will be without sisters Kelsey and Madi Browne who are out with knee reconstructions, while import player Jodi-Ann Ward is still in Jamaica.
But a team made up of Diamonds player Ash Brazill, former Diamond Natalie Medhurst, England's Geva Mentor, and Jamaican import Shimona Nelson, will push the other sides in Nelson.
Next year, Australia's Super Netball competition will have 22 imports across eight teams, a huge contrast to the two imports who will play in New Zealand, where there is a limit of one import per team.
Wright makes no apologies for picking import players.
"The aim of Super Netball I think it's quite clear around what they want from the competition. So for me if that means that it's a player from somewhere else that fits into what we're after, I'll go with it. I think if we're going to take someone they really have to be beyond anything that's around locally, otherwise I think then that is a wasted spot."
The Wasps also have a powerful line-up, bringing England internationals Jade Clarke and Rachel Dunn to Nelson.
The competition at the Trafalgar Centre culminates in the grand final next Friday. The Central Pulse are the current title holders.
