Netball: Player hunt distracts from world champs

Ruth Aitkin. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken is advising her national players to sort their transtasman league contracts for next season as soon as possible so as not to distract them from their world championship campaign.

Silly season on the player recruitment market has officially taken hold after the news former Steel mentor Robyn Broughton is taking the reins at the Central Pulse.

Several franchises - the Steel, Tactix and Pulse - have been aggressively pursuing the country's top netballing talent and big decisions loom for several players.

But Aitken would like her players' attention solely focused on the quest for netball's biggest prize - a world title.

The Silver Ferns assemble in camp next Saturday to prepare for their two test series against Australia, which will be the only official matches played in the lead-up to the world tournament.

The series wraps up in Auckland on June 12 - exactly three weeks out from the start of the world championships in Singapore.

Aitken is hoping the bulk of her squad will have their contracts finalised before they assemble in camp next Saturday.

"Personally I'd like to get the players sorted as soon as possible, but in reality that is always difficult," she said.

"It is the silly season and it is a challenging time both for coaches and players."

But Aitken is confident that those who don't have their playing futures finalised will be able topush any contract negotiationsto one side while they are incamp.

Netball New Zealand has safeguards in place to ensure that when the Silver Ferns are in camp they cannot be distracted from their duties, with franchises only able to make contact with a player via the New Zealand Netball Players Association.

"When they are in camp with us they are very good at keeping all that sort of separate. And when the players are in the Silver Ferns environment any communication goes through the players' association so it ends up the players aren't constantly taking phone calls about these things," she said.