Dana Johannsen: Mini matches must find space in crowded schedule

This weekend netball enters a bold new era with the introduction of a shortened form of the game.

The new brand of netball - dubbed Fast Net - follows a path well-trodden by other sporting codes, but just where this journey will take netball remains to be seen.

Fast Net is to netball what Twenty20 is to cricket, sevens is to rugby or five-a-side is to football; a condensed version maximising the spectacle for fans.

Shorter quarters, rolling subs, shooting from outside the circle - It's just not netball! Some will claim.

The rule changes may not sit well with the netball traditionalists among us, but the point is not to convert those who are already fans of the game.

It is hoped the new brand will produce the "wow-factor" that is needed to raise the profile of the sport and encourage new fans to the original form of the game.

It is a model that has worked to some degree with cricket, but will it take off with netball?

I suspect not.

With the netball calendar becoming increasingly crowded it is hard to see this event becoming a big deal on the international scene.

Plans are already under way for a second tournament to be staged in Manchester in November next year, less than a month after the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

When you factor in an extended national training camp at the beginning of the year, some 20-odd weeks of the ANZ Championship, three tests against a touring side, and up to five tests against Australia before the Commonwealth Games, 2010 is shaping up to be a demanding year for our elite netballers.

After a gruelling Commonwealth Games campaign, I can't see the Ferns willing to send a full-strength team to the other side of the world for a three-day tournament, nor for that matter, Australia.

With the World Championships scheduled the following year in Singapore, the six-team tournament is unlikely to be a big deal for teams in 2011 either.

And if the teams don't take it seriously, they can't expect the fans to.