Netball: Magic's bad spell passes

The Magic's Maria Tutaia is a likely target for rival franchises. Photo / Getty Images

The expected and, in some quarters, anticipated dismantling of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic now looks unlikely.

Coach Noeline Taurua recently signed on for another season, as did star shooter Irene van Dyk.

John Davey, the Waikato Pistons basketball CEO who assists a number of Magic players in contract negotiations, believes that while one or two Silver Ferns might be swayed by some "serious" offers in front of them, he expected most to re-sign with New Zealand's most successful, yet controversial, franchise.

"Negotiations are only in the early stages but I certainly don't expect wholesale changes," Davey said.

"There is potential for a couple of Ferns to chase some fairly serious offers but I don't see the Magic being decimated at all."

Davey did not divulge which players were being offered what by whom but the bush telegraph suggests that the three most vulnerable international players may be Joline Henry and Maria Tutaia, who would both be prime targets for the underachieving Northern Mystics, and bit-part player Jessica Tuki.

In some cases decisions could be made this week.

Outside Waikato and Bay of Plenty, there would be few tears shed if there was an exodus. The Magic's ability to hoover up Silver Ferns has been pointed to as one of the reasons there has been such an imbalance between the performance of the New Zealand and Australian teams in the two-year-old transtasman competition.

That imbalance is only compounded when the Magic perform as poorly as they did this season.

Australian coach Norma Plummer suggested Australia's top teams performed better because they all lived in the same area and trained together.