New Zealand Men's netball team eager for Silver Ferns re-match

Almost a year on from first capturing the nation, the New Zealand Men's netball team are eagerly anticipating another chance to go head-to-head with the Silver Ferns.

Netball New Zealand is looking at a number of domestic options for the Silver Ferns in wake of the decision to cancel the Quad Series, due to Covid-19.

Netball NZ Head of High Performance Keir Hansen confirmed yesterday a Cadbury Netball Series, likely to be scheduled in October, could feature the New Zealand Men with talks of the match-up becoming an annual feature on the netball calendar.

New Zealand Men's star shooter Junior Levi, who played a key role in his side's 2019 Cadbury Netball Series win, said it was an exciting prospect.

Junior Levi in action. Photo / Photosport

"[Last year] takes one of the first ten spots of my sporting career so far," Levi said. "Just being there, being part of the atmosphere, being part of history, that's something that I'll never forget. The possibility of that happening again and it being something they want to push for every year is really exciting," he said.

"It makes me so happy that our sport is in a space like that, given that other sports aren't, in terms of gender equality. For me personally, those are just some goals I want to do, I want to keep getting better [and] I want to help those around me get better.

"The conversations around it have been really exciting for us and motivating everyone as an incentive to keep training even though we're all in isolation, and hopefully if it happens, it'll be a massive pay off for us."

The potential series is set to benefit the Men's side just as much as it would the Silver Ferns.

Levi, along with his teammates, were training toward October's Men's Netball World Cup this year before the event was postponed.

It's now set to be held at a similar time in Perth next year, leaving a gap in the Men's calendar.

Silver Ferns captain Laura Langman and NZ Men Jamie Brown. Photo / Photosport

Levi said playing the Silver Ferns is a win-win.

"When it comes to us playing the girls and playing the Silver Ferns, what that does is it really allows us to fine tune those small things that the ladies do really well," he said. "I think we as men ignore certain things because we're so much 'stronger' or so much 'bigger,' I think we ignore the finesse that the women have when they play and that's something we saw on court that they were doing against us.

"If we can train and play against them and develop that into our game more, we're only going to get better as well.

"If they can help us kick the Aussie's butts next year, that would be amazing."