Play nzherald.co.nz's rugby Pick the Score competition - go to: pickthescore.nzherald.co.nz
KEY POINTS:
The great thing about games and their rules is that they constantly evolve. Cricketers once bowled underarm, then side arm, before finally delivering from above the shoulder. (Cynics say they can now chuck it too).
Until 1972, rugby players could kick the ball to touch on the full from any part of the ground. A try was worth three points then.
Two of basketball's most exciting plays, the three-point shot and the dunk, were banned from the NBA until the 1970s.
Perhaps it's an unfair impression but I've always thought netball has been slower than other sports to adapt. As a kid, I remember my mother coaching something called basketball - in contrast to that other sport, indoor basketball - and teams had nine players.
In what may be the most dramatic experiments in 50 years, the so-called Netball World Series in Manchester in October will play a game likely to become the netball of the future.
The most significant changes are that shots will be allowed from outside the circle - successful ones will count double - and that unlimited substitutions can be used at any time, and not just at the end of a quarter.
The centre pass will be made by the team conceding the goal, not on the alternate basis as at present, coaches may shout instructions from designated coaching boxes on the sideline and each team may call one quarter a 'power play' where all goals count double.
Before you say this is turning that genteel sport of netball into that rough and tumble American spectacle called basketball, just remember that two of netball's unique and outmoded features remain. Players still have areas of the court where they're not allowed and, after an obstruction, the offending player must stand aside for the penalty pass or shot. What hasn't been made clear yet is whether players other than the goal shoot and goal attack can score. The only information so far has been a press release from Netball New Zealand which says the detailed rules have not been finalised.
But this is serious progress in a game which attracts criticism for its non-inclusiveness. Victoria University physical education academic Dr Barrie Gordon, himself a father of girls, ruffled many a feather last year when, in a wonderfully reasoned article in the Listener, he called netball a "feminist mistake". The game was created when women were deemed too delicate to take part in strenuous physical activity - hence no player being allowed over the entire court.
Netball is under serious threat from football as teenage girls' sport of choice. Just look at the huge enthusiasm for the under-17 World Cup here last year. Part of football's great attraction is that every player can score a goal and every player can run wherever they want on the park.
These new World Series netball rules are a significant development for the sport. But I wonder if they go far enough. Will the agile little centre or the strong athletic wing attack be able to pop a two-pointer from outside the circle? You'd hope so, because that would mean shorter players will have a chance to be goalscoring stars, and the game will become more inclusive for all sizes.
The International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) is using this World Series tournament as a test case to see how it's received, to see if this new form of the game has a future. That's what they used to say about one-day cricket, too.
