The long-running coaching rivalry between Ruth Aitken and Norma Plummer resumes tomorrow.

Given the significant setbacks they encountered in the preseason, this year has always promised to be challenging for the Northern Mystics.

It is fitting Kayla Cullen is making the transition to the midcourt, where Silver Ferns coaching staff believe her future rests, at a time when she is transitioning into adulthood.

Playing netball for England was always a privilege for star defender Geva Mentor.

Any athlete will tell you reaching a performance plateau is an extremely frustrating time in their career.

The push towards professionalism with the advent of the transtasman league has come at the expense of the international game, some onlookers have warned.

It's 5.30 in the morning and barely a soul is stirring as Victoria Smith shuts the door of her Wellington home. She won't return for another 15 hours.

As netball stood ready to make the giant leap into professionalism, the words of doubters echoed in the ears of Netball NZ chief executive Raelene Castle.

Low wages combined with ever increasing demands of the professional era is forcing some players from the sport too early, says NZ netball players' association.

The transtasman league has netted a modest broadcast deal in Australia, but it will fall short of the bonanza netball bosses were counting on when the competition was conceived.

She was meant to be the final piece of the jigsaw but now Julie Corletto looks like the key to respectability for the Mystics this season.

You could say the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic are wrestling with the new netball season. They have enlisted New Zealand national wrestling coach Mark Grayling to hold duels and drills to strengthen the ANZ defending champions.

The leadership at Northern Mystics is being questioned after the young Auckland side's disastrous showing at a preseason tournament in Melbourne at the weekend.

The long-standing duopoly in international netball is under threat and Netball New Zealand admit they are "strategically concerned" following a huge cash injection into the English game.

After the lord mayor's show, it is said, comes the dust-cart. On that basis, New Zealanders approached this sporting year with some trepidation.

This will forever be remembered as the year in which a sporting legend was brought down. American Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and multiple Tour de France winner, was crushed by an inquiry into doping.