Netball: ANZ Premiership players Ameliaranne Ekenasio, Erena Mikaere support move back to Australian competition

ANZ Future captains Manuella Ennion and Inagaro Ennion with Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio (left) and now-former Northern Mystics captain Sulu Fitzpatrick. Photo / Bruce Lim, Michael Bradley Photography

Veteran Kiwi netballers are supportive of a move to re-unify New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership with Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball.

Multiple outlets report Netball New Zealand has moved to acquire three franchise licences in Australia’s Super Netball competition, which would leave half of Aotearoa’s domestic sides high and dry from 2026. If three licenses are attained, they would likely be for teams based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio and her Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic teammate Erena Mikaere told the Herald a crossover of the competitions could help fix the current concerns lingering around the code on this side of the Tasman.

“Playing the best international players week in and week out [and] not waiting for the international season, there can only be benefits in it,” Ekenasio said.

The Herald reported last month the country’s top netball players have also been left partially in the dark over the future of their salaries.

Sky has lowballed Netball New Zealand (NNZ) in negotiating their next agreement for the rights to broadcast the ANZ Premiership and Silver Ferns tests, with reports suggesting the offer is less than half of the current deal. The arrangement funds the salary caps of all six ANZ Premiership franchises and effectively supports their entire model. The current deal expires at the end of this year.

Ekenasio, 33, said it’s been a strange time in the sport.

“This is our job - for a lot of us, this is our fulltime job as well - so it is a bit scary not knowing exactly what’s happening,” she continued. “But at the same time we’re just trying to take it as it comes really, we know this season’s locked in.”

Mikaere, 35, echoed her teammate’s angst.

“Within the community, there’s lots of questions, about you know, ‘what if’, what could be and what does that mean for netball?’ she asked.

“But within our team, it’s not been too bad - we’re not so much worried about what the future holds for us, but... what we have to do for [the competition].

“This is our job for this moment, so it’s about what we are putting out there right now and essentially, that would help if we could put out a good performance here, maybe that brings on some different look for the future.”

After the former transtasman ANZ Championship ceased in 2016, a move back could be what is needed to reignite the interest in New Zealand’s most popular female sport.

“When we first split, I actually think it was really good for our game, to be able to find what the New Zealand game was again,” said Ekenasio.

“Now I think we do need to join with them again.”

Grace Nweke and Erena Mikaere in action during the ANZ Premiership. Photo / Michael Bradley

Mikaere, who has played across both sides of the Tasman for 13 seasons, is keen to see a repeat of the 2015 conference crossover with Australia’s professional teams. This is where the regular season is played domestically before the top teams from each nation partake in a playoff series.

“In our pre-seasons we’ve had [the Queensland] Firebirds here, we played the [Melbourne] Vixens in previous years [and] we played the [New South Wales] Swifts, while the crossover hasn’t been happening and those have been great games.

“We’ve liked that, we don’t know of each team because we’re not constantly playing each other every week. We [currently] know the teams that we play, we know specific players... so it’d be good to go back to that [conference crossover].”

“I think it’d be fun - those are some of the best years playing netball when I was playing.”

“It’d be something worth looking at, I think both sides would enjoy it.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator, passionate about women’s sport and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.