KEY POINTS:
We are constantly told that the more things change the more they stay the same. Ask Brendan Telfer. The veteran netball commentator's skills didn't catch the Sky Television selector's eye, and the new Transtasman competition became a caravan rolling on without him.
The build up for the first game showed it could be business as usual. Men still feature. Sky's Stephen McIvor faced the lens, leading "the girls" through the season predictions, and then wanting to "get this party started". Anna Stanley took over with little to suggest she couldn't have done the whole thing equally well.
Backing Stanley is a list of what looks like most of the retired internationally capped netballers, including Kathryn Harby-Williams, an Australian who once terrorised the Silver Ferns. She now lives in Auckland, becoming a broadcaster courtesy of graduation from what can only be described as Gladiator School, Radio Sport's testosterone-driven Morning Show.
Being a first-time commentator is a stressful business, something this writer discovered in a very short time as an unsuccessful comments man for televised basketball.
This did not seem to trouble Sky's line-up. Lesley Murdoch is the lead commentator. Anna Stanley oversees things and does the linking. While this reviewer does not follow netball game by game, a general air of fluency suggested either a lengthy rehearsal period or real experience.
Sky's team is backed by strong production values. The pool of expertise for covering netball games in this country is a deep one, and keeps a smart standard. The test is whether the commentators are left trying to describe a key moment without benefit of pictures, after something was missed.
Nothing was missed, especially now the days of a single camera are long gone. Netball draws enough advertisers and money to merit the treatment afforded state funerals and the aftermath of All Black games, which can resemble each other.
The opening game had Wellington's Pulse scoring the first goal against the Melbourne Vixens. This seemed to annoy the Australians, who scored the next 12, on the way to a 50-33 win. By halftime, the Wellington crowd was down to cheering loudly when the Pulse crossed the halfway line, and going near-berserk when it got the ball into the scoring area. An actual goal had the medics getting busy.
Deadlines meant not all results were in at the time of writing. If that pattern, Australia stomping New Zealand, continued it is possible the television executive who wrote the cheque for the New Zealand rights is now alone and quietly sobbing.
It will also take effort and finesse from the commentary team to keep notoriously fickle New Zealand fans coming back. As a sideline, this makes Harby-Williams's task of navigating the bomb-loaded and nationalistic tripwires, particularly the ones on this side of the Tasman, an interesting one.
What: ANZ Transtasman netball - Sky Sport
