As the hard-fought transtasman spectacle looms once again, Dana Johannsen singles out the team changes, player issues and sideline dramas that will make this season's competition compelling viewing.
1. Which import will have the most impact?
One of the most exciting aspects of the league is the import spots open the door for top international players to ply their trade.
Over the past couple of years, English defenders Geva Mentor (Thunderbirds) and Sonia Mkoloma (Pulse, Tactix) and towering Jamaican shooter Romelda Aiken (Firebirds) have established themselves as stars of the league.
All three are again expected to have a huge impact for their teams this season - particularly Mkoloma, who joins the Swifts as the NSW side try to atone for last year's dismal ninth-place finish.
But two players new to the league this year have everybody talking as the new season approaches.
Former Australian international Peta Scholz has been picked up by the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic this year. A number of franchises were circling for her signature after Scholz turned heads with some brilliant performances for the World seven in their 2-1 series win over the Silver Ferns in August last year. The athletic wing defence will bolster the Magic's through-court defence and is expected to provide a good foil for star defender Casey Williams.
Jamaican shooter Carla Borrego, who was unearthed by the Adelaide Thunderbirds, is also tipped to have a big impact on the league.
Borrego, who has not been seen in the international environment since the 2003 World Championships in Kingston, is more of an unknown quantity. The 1.93m shooter has played College basketball in the US for the past six years, and is regarded as an extremely exciting prospect.
2. How long before someone complains about the draw?
I give it a week.
A constant source of derision from the opening two seasons of the ANZ Championship has been the uneven nature of the one and a half round draw. Many argue the format, which sees franchises play their domestic teams twice but meet their trans-Tasman rivals only once, favours the New Zealand teams as the competition among the Kiwi teams isn't as fierce as it is across the Tasman.
For the past couple of seasons scarcely a week has passed without a coach/player/administrator expressing dissatisfaction at the format of the draw.
Usually it is some form of muttering from a visiting Australian coach who has just lost to a New Zealand side, wishing they had the opportunity to play a return match. Translation: "We would have beaten them at home with our own umpires."
The debate really heats up though around the pointy end of the season when teams are battling it out for top-four spots.
There's unlikely to be any changes to the format any time soon though, with the timing of the World Championships in July next year leaving no room to expand the League until 2012 at the earliest - which spells further frustrations for players and coaches.
3. After last year's baby boom, will the stork pay a visit this season?
MUM'S THE WORD: Netballers with their babies - Adine Wilson with baby Harper (left) and Donna Wilkins with Cooper. PICTURE / OTAGO DAILY TIMES2009 was a big year for pregnancies for New Zealand's elite players, with Leana de Bruin, Daneka Wipiiti, Adine Wilson and Julie Seymour all playing part of the season with child. In de Bruin's case, she played well in to the second trimester of her pregnancy, breaking new ground for female athletes. Everyone will be on high alert for baby news in 2010 but I don't think we'll see the same level of procreation this season. With this year's Commonwealth Games and the 2011 World Champs on the horizon, it is a big 18 months ahead and this will be the major focus for the elite players.
4. Which young stars should we look out for?
Hayley Crofts
The ANZ Championship has unearthed a wealth of young talent in its first two seasons. Unfortunately for New Zealand fans, most of it has been found across the Tasman with Laura Geitz, Caitlin Bassett, Kate Beveridge, Madison Brown and several others elevated to the Australian test side on the back of impressive performances in the league.
There have been a few youngsters to impress from New Zealand franchises as well - last season, under-21 stars Charlotte Kight and Camilla Lees were the bolters in the Silver Ferns squad.
So who are the youngsters everyone is talking about this year?
There are high hopes in Queensland that new Firebirds defender Amy Steel can make an immediate impact in her debut season.
Steel has just one quarter of league netball under her belt, after being called in to the Vixens squad for a couple of games last year as an injury replacement. The 1.9m defender is clearly held in high regard by Australian coach Norma Plummer, who called the youngster into the senior test side last year for their tour to New Zealand, but Steel did not take to the court.
In New Zealand, young Tactix midcourter Hayley Crofts will be eager to impress after being overlooked by the Steel. In former Silver Ferns captain Julie Seymour, who will serve as assistant coach for the Tactix this year, Crofts has a valuable mentor.
5. Which team will undergo the biggest turnaround?
The Northern Mystics have made the most dramatic transformation to their squad in the off season, introducing eight new players including Silver Ferns Maria Tutaia, Joline Henry and Larrissa Willcox as well as Jamaican international Althea Byfield.
After finishing eighth last season, they will be hoping these sweeping changes to the team will result in an equally dramatic change of fortunes. Led by dynamic midcourter Temepara George, the Mystics have one of the strongest line-ups on paper of all the New Zealand teams. You would back them to be in the hunt for a play-off position this year.
6. Will the Pulse relinquish their stranglehold on the wooden spoon?
Two seasons, one win. It has been a tough introduction to the transtasman league for the poor old Central Pulse, who have finished bottom of the table for the first two years.
But after recruiting some much-needed experience to their ranks this season, things are looking slightly rosier for the Wellington-based side in 2010.
Judging by comments this week by Australian shooter Jane Altschwager, who will captain the Pulse, it appears there has been a major shift in attitude. "The Pulse of old would have been happy to get close, but the new Pulse want the win. That's what we're installing into the side this year," she said. They're not going to set the competition alight but 2010 could just be the year the Pulse venture off the foot of the ladder.
7. What's in the water at the Swifts?
English defender Sonia Mkoloma (left) appears to have grown an inch, or a centimetre at least from her move across the Tasman.
Last year, the Tactix had Mkoloma listed in their media guide at 183cm, but in Sydney she is 184cm.
Curiously, a couple of the Swifts mid-courters have also had a growth spurt in the off-season.
According to the media guide, Vanessa Ware has grown from 171 to 173cm, while Kimberlee Green has shot up 3cm to 178cm.
But I guess the real question here is: don't I have anything better to do with my time?
8. Which Aussie wrecking ball will inspire most outrage from Kiwis?
It is a debate that has raged between New Zealand and Australian netball fans for years: who has the most physical players? Each country likes to accuse the other of being thugs and employing under-handed tactics.
Kiwi fans often point to Thunderbirds enforcer Mo'onia Gerrard as a shining example of the villainy that exists in Australian netball. More recently it is one of Gerrard's partners in crime at the Thunderbirds, Jo Sutton, that has raised the ire of some Kiwi teams. The pair are eerily alike in terms of their looks and formidable playing style that I'm going to dub them the "twin terrors".
9. What's the fiercest rivalry in the league?
Every sport needs a good, old-fashioned grudge match every now and then. The ANZ Championship may only have a short history but women have long memories. So it was only natural baggage from previous domestic competitions would be carried over to the new era of transtasman netball.
One of the long-running battles in Australian netball over the years has been between the South Australian and Victorian teams. Since the transtasman league was introduced, the two sides have had some fierce battles.
The Thunderbirds knocked the Vixens out of the semifinals in the inaugural season, but the Melbourne side got their own back last year, embarrassing the South Australians in the grand final to claim 2009 title. As Australian commentator Liz Ellis put it last season: "these two teams hate each other".
10. Has Irene van Dyk still got it?
At 37 years old, Magic sharp-shooter Irene van Dyk is easily the oldest player in the League this year.
As players approach the twilight of their careers they often come under increasing scrutiny as many question whether they still have what it takes to compete at the top level.
For the past few years van Dyk has fended off multiple suggestions she has lost the edge she once held over her rivals.
Certainly in this new technological age where players are now analysed and diced up, opposition teams are increasingly coming up with ways to limit van Dyk's effectiveness. But the statistics tell us she is still extremely dominant.
For the first two seasons of the league van Dyk has topped the shooting percentage - averaging just over 92 per cent in the first season and last year finishing the competition with an incredible 94 per cent. It's hard to see anyone surpassing van Dyk in this area in 2010.
