NETBALL NORTHERN ZONE ANNUAL REPORT 2014

2 CONTENTS

From the Chair and CEO 4 Commercial Partners 7 Community 8 High Performance 18 Results Northern Zone 22 Financials 23

3 From the CEO & Chair

We are delighted to present our annual report highlighting the successes throughout our Zone and thanking those who have contributed so much to the success. 2014 was again a very busy and productive year. The first 12 months of the Zone (2013) was spent assessing the needs and gaining a better understanding of the purpose and role of the Zone in the netball delivery model - our second year was focussed on implementing and refining our strategy to meet those needs. Alignment with Netball has also been a key focus for this year and we have held very regular meets at all levels nationally Dianne McAteer, Chair & i.e. the CEO of meetings with the five Zone CEOs Julie Paterson, CEO monthly, the Community Netball team across the country meet and have regular skype calls. In addition to this Hamish Barton was was appointed to a national working group to review the player development pathway and Julie Paterson is chairing the working group reviewing the National Competition Structure. We have all really enjoyed and benefited from the close working relationships with all of the staff and board at Netball NZ as well as the sharing of knowledge and understanding with the other Zones. One of the highlights for the Northern Zone this year included a 6% (excluding social netball) increase of affiliated members and a massive 61% increase in recorded social and summer players - taking our Zone’s total participation to 53,988 - an increase of 16% on the recorded 2013 numbers. It continues to be a challenge to establish really accurate numbers at present. However these numbers are critical to netball in New Zealand being recognised by all of our stakeholders as a major national sport with a strong voice and a commercial proposition that easily equalsor betters any other major sporting code. The Northern Zone has continued to support and drive the bedding in of the Junior Netball Programme. The national increase of participants in this sector was 8% - in the Northern Zone we recorded an increase of 6%. All 17 centres in our Zone are now delivering Junior Netball with some centres also introducing the year 3&4 programme as well. We will continue to support the roll-out of the year 3&4 programme throughout 2015. Of the 1200 new coaches established throughout NZ to support the Junior Programme, 466 came from the Northern Zone - we will continue to work hard to keep these new people in the game and retain them long-term. We continue to retain a steady numbers of Community Coaching recipients. A big thank you goes to Robyn Manihera (CoachForce NZ) who left our Zone in November to move overseas. Since Robyn’s departure the Coach Force positions within Netball NZ have been restructured and the new role of Coach Development Officer is now the responsibility of the Zone. Tania Heap has taken up this new position and re-joins our team in March 2015.

4 High Performance and performance development showed mixed results again this year. In umpire squads the Zone saw both National and International success with Yvonne Morgan, Tania Law and Lisa Paterson officiating at International Tests and Faye Meiklejohn and Yvonne Morgan appointed to ANZ Championship games. There were also numerous other successes at national level. College Netball again saw two High Schools competing in the Grand Final with Mount Albert Grammar School taking out the title. The Northern Zone under 23 team came 4th in the national tournament in Dunedin and the highest placed team in the NZU19 national tournament was the Just Workout North Harbour team who came 3rd, with AMI Auckland 1 placed 5th. The National U17 tournament was very ably hosted at Netball North Harbour, and AMI Auckland took out the top placing, with Waitakere 1 coming second. North Harbour were placed second in the Lion Foundation tournament held at . NZ Secondary Schools were held in Palmerston North and two Auckland teams were placed in the Top 4 – MAGGS and AGGS. Well done to all of those winning teams and well done to the players selected for tournament teams. Congratulations also to Netball Waitakere for hosting an extremely successful UNISS this year and thank you to the many many volunteers who supported the event and made it such a great week of netball. We would also like to recognise more very special volunteers who work tirelessly in our Zone - in 2014 we had a massive seven Netball NZ service award recipients at the NNZ AGM: Iwi Courtney, Leigh Knight, Briar Martindale, Bronwyn Meek, Michelle Newton, Grace Rhind and our very own Jan Skilton. 2014 was again a difficult year for the . It goes without saying that our team has underperformed for the past two years, but the joy on everyone’s faces for our final two games when we played like we knew we could - was fantastic. We know we will see more of that in the 2015 season. Year two of the Zone has certainly been a challenge from a financial perspective. The loss of LG at the end of the 2013 season added an immense amount of pressure on our organisation and as hard as we tried to replace them we did not succeed for the 2014 season. We were fortunate in contracting other new sponsors, but were unable to meet the gap in our budget even with considerable pruning in our expenses. The impact was a $66K loss for Greater Auckland Netball Ltd. We continue to find it extremely difficult to find businesses who are prepared to step away from traditional sponsorship support, even with a business proposition as strong as we have in netball with broadcast opportunities as well as a massive participation base and audience. Things are however looking much brighter for 2015 with a new principal sponsor in SKYCITY and other new businesses contracting to us as well. Our thanks goes to Barfoot and Thompson for stepping up to support us through our difficult year and for their continued support. Thanks also to AUT South, Auckland Council, Mita, Nikon, The Hits, West City Holden, The Trusts and the Trusts Arena, as well as our many player sponsors and match day sponsors.

5 We have also had very generous support from Gaming Trusts and thanks go to the NZ Community Trust, The Trusts Charitable Foundation, Lion Foundation, North and South Trust, Pub Charity, Infinity Foundation and Southern Trust. We have also established strong working relationships with the various RST’s in our Zone. We would also like to thank the staff of the Netball Northern Zone - all dedicated, hardworking and very committed people. Special mention must be made of Trish Wilcox who left usin November 2014 to return to her home country. She was very honoured to have been appointed as the National Coach and High Performance Manager for the Wales Netball Team. Trish was an integral member of our team and we know the Zone would not be the strong position we are now without Trish’s tireless effort, dedication and fabulous sense of humour! Thank you Trish. Thanks also to our board - again dedicated and committed people who really work hard for the best for netball in our Zone. Special thanks to Judy Macdonald who leaves us this year at the end of her term and Stephen Guerin who also steps down this year. Stephen and Judy both played a very important part in the transition from regions to the Zone and their history and knowledge coming to the Zone structure added a great deal of value. We also welcome Diana Puketapu who joins the board in 2015. Finally our thanks goes to all of the 17 centres in our Zone. We are all here due to the value, contribution and joy netball brings to our communities and to the young and not so young who participate, support and watch our game. Thank you all for your hard work and commitment to continuous improvement – and having fun! We look forward to working with you all for another fantastic year!

Julie Paterson, Dianne McAteer, CEO Chair

6 Commercial Partners

Premier Sponsors

Major Sponsors

Player Sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

Community Partners

7 Community Netball

As we reflect om our second year operating as the Netball Northern Zone, we are proud of the progress we have made to date. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Community Netball Manager, Trish Wilcox in early November as she left for Wales to coach their international netball team. However, Tia Winikerei has been appointed to fill this role in February 2015. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Northern Zone’s 17 centres for their support and positive attitude throughout the change of structure over the last two years. We hope to continue strengthening relationships with all centres in 2015. Centre Forum This annual event is critical for netball in our Zone. It is a time of reflection, discussion, sharing and planning. We appreciate that centres understand the importance of attending and contributing to the forum and only a couple of Centres were unable to provide at least one representative to all or part of the three day event. The forum enables our values of Integrity, Unity, Loyalty and Excellence to be implemented as we work together, in a two way relationship, to provide positive netball experiences to our community. Junior Netball– Kiwisport Regional Partnership Funding 2014 was Phase 1 of the new Netball New Zealand Junior Netball Programme. The focus was to roll out the Year 1 & 2 Programme to all Netball Centres. This was achieved in all 17 Centres and one satellite within our Zone. Six Centres, that had been involved with the 2013 Netball New Zealand Junior Netball Pilot Programme or were introducing Year 1 – 4 Netball to their community for the first time, were able to roll in the Year 3 & 4 Programme as well. The Netball New Zealand Junior Netball Programme has been so well received in our Zone and it is directly responsible for the increase in participation for Year 1 – 6 players. There is an 6% increase in player participation.

8 The Programme will enhance the skill development of our young players. It also provides an opportunity for them to use their newly acquired skills in an age appropriate game that will grow and develop with them as they grow. The other benefit of this new Programme is the opportunity for Coach Development. 466 people have been trained this year through the Star Helper (Year 1 & 2), Year 3 & 4 Coach and Junior Co-ordinator Workshops. The workshops and resources have nurtured, encouraged and given confidence to a large group of usually reluctant, hesitant parents to take responsibility for their young team. We trust this will have a long term effect and that our pool of willing coaches will increase as a result of this supportive and friendly introduction to coaching. Phase 2 in our Zone will focus on rolling out the Year 3 & 4 Programme to most Centres for the first time. Netball New Zealand will also pilot various game formats and develop coaching resources for the Year 5 – 6 Programme. We have a few Centres who have expressed an interest in trialling the Year 5 – 6 game formats, and they will have the opportunity to feedback to Netball New Zealand and help shape the future of netball for the older children.

Leadership Funded Project The Leadership Project is a Netball North initiative initially, then was continued by the Netball Northern Zone. It is proudly funded by the ASB Community Trust. The nine Northern Zone centres involved are AMI Netball North Harbour, Kaipara, Hibiscus Coast, Rodney, Northern Wairoa, Whangarei, Bay of Islands, Mangonui and Kerikeri. This year our centre leadership groups worked on a number of community initiatives to meet the objectives of the leadership program. Key successes for 2014 were:  Assisting local schools with fundraising projects,  Christmas parades and Jubilee Celebrations;  Assisting as Star Helpers with the Netball New Zealand Junior Netball Programme (Yr1 & 2);  Supporting centres with running of netball tournaments;  Upskilling as foundation coaches and Centre Umpires;  Attending the Fast 5 tournament.

Regional Sporting Trusts Counties Manukau Sport - The Zone again has been actively involved with Counties Manukau Sports events and have assisted Centres in increasing participation. We have been utilising the Counties Manukau Sport initiatives and engaging with local Schools to deliver the Active in Schools Netball Programme (modelled around the NNZ Junior Netball Programme) to 2070 children in the hope to create the schools link back to their local Netball Centres . Northern Zone staff have also supported and advised at the MOSA Netball Tournament where there were 450 students involved and Howick Pakuranga Netball Tournament with 350 students involved. Counties Manukau Sport also run a Girls only and Boys only Tournaments and we were actively involved with ‘The Have a Go Days’ where we engaged a total of 3850 students from 9 schools in the Mangere Otahuhu, Otara and Howick Pakuranga areas.

9 The Zone also attended the Papatoetoe Sport Expo which was held for local Schools to gather information from the 12 sports providers present. The Expo is an opportunity for primary and secondary school teachers (not just sports coordinators) to:

 Plan sports for 2015 in their school.  Find out what clubs in the area can provide  Meet other sports providers to share/gain ideas  Obtain resources from providers

It is also a chance for parents and families to:

 Find out when muster days are in particular sports  The cost involved of the different sporting codes Find out what sports are available to their children.

We are hoping to support Counties Manukau Sport in delivering Coaching sessions in the coming year to enable them to continue to deliver netball in their region and offer support where needed.

Sport Northland - We work collaboratively with Sport Northland; they provide not only networking contacts but provide support to our Netball Development Officers in the Northland area linking us with schools, communities and other sporting codes. We continue to work with the Sport Northland Energize staff and club sports advisors to ensure every child and adult has access to sport and is provided with an opportunity to learn new skills in a fun and competitive environment. We have also attended a number of Regional Sporting Organisation Forums hosted by Sport Northland which is hugely beneficial and provides a forum for best practise sharing amongst the codes, keeping up to date with the latest Sport New Zealand information, local district council plans, secondary school sport information, the Northland Pathway to Podium Programme and other information that effects the communities we work in. Harbour Sport – A Kick Start Programme through Kiwisport has provided an in-school Skills and Coach Education Programme to targeted school in the Kaipara Cluster Primary Schools. The Active-in-Schools Junior Netball Programme which is currently being delivered to five local schools. It will provide a link to the Kaipara Netball Centre to increase player participation and coach development and to assist with rolling out the new Netball New Zealand Junior Netball Programme.

10 Coaching Modules: There has been a steady increase in Community Coach Award (CCA) recipients in our Northern Centres to date which has highlighted the continued support from in particular, our Zone Coach Force Facilitator Robyn Manihera whom has recently left to travel overseas for an opportunity to further her Coach Development. Along-side Robyn we had our Netball Development Officers in the Zone who continue to provide support and assistance where needed at grassroots to a Performance Coach level. It has been rewarding to see coaches from all levels continue to pursue their Coaching dreams through attending Netball New Zealand Coaching workshops/modules and engaging in the Netball New Zealand Coach Pathways which leads to another challenge of applying for the Performance Coach Award (PCA). We hope to continue with Netball Smart coaching modules to cater for the representative players and officials/team management as this was very popular in 2014. Thank you to all the Centres that returned the Netball New Zealand Coaching Workshop/Module Template so we could set the Calendar for 2015. We look forward to providing guidance and support to our Centres through our newly appointed Coach Developer Tania Heap in observing and mentoring Netball Development Officers (NDO) throughout the Zone in the 2015 season ahead.

Centres Community Coach Award Performance Coach Award 2011 2012 2013 2014 2011 2012 2013 2014 Auckland 0 11 7 6 0 2 6 Waitakere 6 0 0 3 North Har- 1 9 15 11 2 2 2 bour North 4 1 9 19 1 2 1 Counties & 1 10 47 20 0 Manuaku 4 2

Total 6 30 84 56 8 13 6 Holiday Programmes: To assist the local netball centres in increasing participation at junior level the Zone ran a Holiday Programme in the July School Holidays in Waiuku. The focus was on fundamental skills of netball, team building, player awareness, team work, nutrition and hydration. This was also an opportunity for the Netball Northern Zone staff to engage with the community and promote the Northern Mystics. The Holiday programme ran for 3 days and there were 24 participants ranging from Year 4-Year 8 who were split into two groups to cater for the age appropriate skill activities that were being delivered. Everyone who was involved thoroughly enjoyed the programme and gave positive feedback.

11 Netball Northern Participation Numbers

2011 2012 2013 2014 PLAYER PARTICIPATION Junior players (Y 1 – 6) 12,071 12,660 14,308 Junior players (Y 7 – 8) 7,510 7,700 7,760 Secondary School 10,080 10,040 10,380 Senior 6,250 6,200 6,390 TOTAL PLAYERS 35,911 36,600 38,838

Social 10,400 9,540 15,150 COACH PARTICIPATION Foundation Coaching Workshops 466 Developing Coaching Modules CCA Awards 6 30 84 Advanced Coaching Modules PCA Awards 13 6 HOLIDAY PROGRAMMES Waiuku 159 27 ACTIVE IN SCHOOLS PROGRAMMES 772 5,486

COUNTIES MANUKAU SPORT Have A Go Days 2,026 Girls Only day 150 Enhancement Programme 180

Netball New Zealand Community Development Forum A total of 41 Centre and Zone Development personnel from across New Zealand attended this Forum. This is now an annual event for Netball New Zealand since its inception last year. The focus this year was on the introduction of the new Netball New Zealand Coach Developer Programme. It included training employed netball development staff and clarifying the accreditation process. The Forum was both physically and mentally challenging. However the greatest area of personal growth for all attending was the opportunity to deliver a practical and a theoretical session to our peers. The review process was also worked through in our groups where self-reflection was encouraged for work-ons to further develop our personal delivery of presentations. These presentations were filmed so participants can review themselves at a later time. This new Programme is exciting and hugely beneficial to our netball community. It is all about Me-You-Us, all sharing as we learn together. The attendees will be assigned a mentor and together they will work through the accreditation process out in the field. 12 Netball New Zealand Youth Advisory Group Kristie Toms and Nicole Jensen have represented our Zone in this group. The Youth Advisory Group was set up to inform and consult with Netball New Zealand on a number of aspects of Netball and how they affect young people. The representatives from each Zone have attended two meetings with Netball New Zealand. Topics for discussion included the Community Netball Plan, Whole of Netball Plan, Junior Netball Programme, Coach Development, Safety in Sport and the importance and use of social media to communicate to our netball communities. Sport New Zealand also presented the Growing Coaches Programme which the group felt was an excellent tool for schools and netball centres in partnership, to motivate young coaches within netball while receiving NCEA credits. Current projects include designing surveys for different demographics, promoting the Youth Advisory Group and discussion to establish a Zone based Youth Advisory Group in the future.

Netball New Zealand New World Netball Volunteer Awards 2014 Congratulations to Stella Hokianga from Mangonui Netball Centre for being a joint winner of the Youth category. Stella is a young leader at her Centre. Along with her peers Stella runs the Junior Netball Programme and intends to take over and run the Mangonui Netball Junior Pipi Netball Tournament. Stella helps the control room on Saturday mornings when the Junior Netball Programme has finished and helps umpire teams without hesitation. She is also a representative player and umpire. Netball New Zealand selected all winners for the four categories (Official, Coach, Administrator and Youth) from a pool of very deserving nominees that were nominated from their Zones. Netball Northern would like to acknowledge and thank all the volunteers who enable Netball within our communities.

Stella with her Mystics team. Junior netball programme year 1 & 2 2014. 13 Upper North Island Secondary Schools

We had an increase of 5 teams entering into UNISS this year bringing the total to 113 teams that attended the UNISS Tournament held at Waitakere Netball Stadium. This led to an introduction of D Grade to cater for all the teams. The Zone supported the hosting Centre with our Community Manager Trish Wilcox taking the lead as The Tournament Selector Convenor, which enabled the Zone to participate not only in a managerial position but in providing guidance and advice where and when needed. The first day of the Tournament was definitely a gumboot-raincoat affair. Luckily from then on the sun shone brightly and lead the way to a fantastic display of highly skilled athletes we have in our Zone. There was definitely some fierce competition on display and Waitakere Netball Centre did an amazing job of catering to the needs of all of those involved.

A GRADE B GRADE C GRADE D GRADE st 1 Place Mt Albert Gram- Aorere College Albany Senior Wentworth mar nd 2 Place St Kentigern Alfriston College Bay of Islands Glendowie

rd 3 Place Sacred Heart Rutherford High Tai Wananga Te Kuiti

Bench Officials Angela Newton delivered a training session for 13 Bench Officials in Whangarei and there is interest in doing another session in the near future. Dianne McTigue, the National Technical Officials Manager Netball New Zealand has recently taken on responsibility for Bench Officials and is setting up a training process. As discussed at our Centre Forum this is a priority of Community Netball in our Zone for 2015.

14 Umpiring: The Netball Northern Zone continued to employ Jan Skilton as the Umpire Development Officer for 2014 with the role of working with the umpire coordinators from the 17 Centres within the Zone and to be the link for all umpire requirements with NNZ.

New Zealand Umpire Development Group: Raewyn Ronaldson, Jan Skilton, Debbie Shoebridge and Elaine Curtis continued with their work as members of this group appointed by Netball New Zealand. They supported the various Centres and umpires within the Zone, with their Umpire programmes and increased development under the Netball New Zealand guidelines at all levels. 2014 was the second year of the new coach/assessor format from Netball New Zealand and the increase in interest resulted in these ladies running seven workshops at the various levels. Eleanor Kitching and Leah Lazarus have also assisted as facilitators. The Netball Northern Zone now has 139 coaches accredited in this programme. The breakdown of these coach/assessors at the different levels is as follows:

NZ Coach 19

Zone Coach 36

Centre Coach 84

It is also excellent to see that a further 23 have applied to be appointed in 2015.

The Zone Umpire Development Group continued to work in 2014 and were responsible for assisting the following centres:

Eleanor Kitching Waiuku and Pukekohe Therese Dixon Papakura and Mangere Otahuhu

Raewyn Ronaldson Manurewa

Elaine Curtis Auckland and Waitakere

Fay Meiklejohn North Harbour

Sharon Fraser Whangarei and Northern Wairoa

Leah Lazarus Kerikeri, Bay of Islands and Man- gonui Debbie Shoebridge Howick Pakuranga

Jan Skilton Rodney, Hibiscus Coast and Kaipara

15 Umpire Coordinators: With the guidance and assistance from the NZUDG and ZUDG, the umpire coordinators in each Centre did an excellent job in 2014, encouraging and increasing progress at all levels. This was particularly evident at the lower levels where participation and guidance to continue onthe Umpire pathway has been the main focus. At most Representative tournaments this year there was a coaching panel present. This along with Centres working together with assessments has also assisted with the following results.

Test Bank Theory 1036 Successful Passes Junior Award 223 Successful Passes Centre Award 172 Successful Passes 19 Endorsements Zone Theory 69 Successful Passes Zone Award 38 Successful Passes 8 Endorsements NZ Theory 19 Successful Passes NZ C Award 12 Successful Passes 3 Endorsements NZ B Award 4 Successful Passes International Umpire Award 2 Successful Passes

Upper North Island Secondary Schools This tournament was again hosted within our Zone at Netball Waitakere. Over 120 umpires were required to cover all games for the week. This allowed umpires with qualifications from Centre Award to NZB Award to participate and work together to further their experiences. Excellent coaching was available from the Coach/Assessor Panels and many umpires attained higher awards. Congratulations to the Hibiscus Coast Centre who had umpires featuring in three of the four finals.

16 National Under 17 Tournament

The Northern Zone had 14 umpires at this tournament with Cory Nicholls from NNH appointed to the final. This tournament is providing a wonderful opportunity for umpires at this level to experience tournament conditions and these umpires are the result of the development which is being achieved within the centres.

High Performance Umpires Congratulations to Yvonne Morgan who officiated at the 2014 . The Netball Northern Zone is very proud of her achievements. Congratulations to Tania Law and Lisa Paterson who are now ITID. This means they have been recognised as having the talent to achieve their International Umpire Award.

National Squads

ANZ Squad: Yvonne Morgan and Fay Meiklejohn (withdrew due to injury) National A Squad: Tania Law and Lisa Paterson Emerging Talent Squad: Matthew Davis, Lisa Stallard & Tanya McCarthy Netball Northern Zone Performance Squad: Tanya McCarthy, Lisa Stallard, Glendon Carter, Zak Middleton, Rebecca Jeans, Christina Matthews and Matthew Davis

National Tournaments The following umpires were selected from our zone to officiate at the following Tournaments: NZAGC – Glendon Carter, Tanya McCarthy, Rebecca Jeans, Lisa Paterson (final), Maru Delamere, Kalesi Tabete, Tania Law (final) and Christina Matthews NZSS – Zak Middleton, Cory Nicholls (final) and Amanda Thompson LFNC – Lisa Stallard, Matthew Davis, Tanya McCarthy and Maru Delamere

International Appointments Yvonne Morgan – Commonwealth Games: Glasgow, England v Australia Series: Australia Tania Law & Lisa Paterson – Tri Series – Ireland, Fiji & PNG: Fiji Pacific Series – Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands & PNG: Rarotonga

With this being the second year of the Netball Northern Zone, all 17 Centres have continued to make sound progress with the development of their umpire programmes. This along with the increased numbers of coaches has resulted in all Centres gaining some excellent results in the 2014 season.

17 High Performance Hamish Barton

Two years into the new Zone structure for netball in New Zealand and we believe the dust is starting to settle and we are moving in the right direction in terms of the Performance/High Performance environment in our Zone. Year one of any new structural change is always a ‘wait and see’ time as everyone works out how things are going to go and now we are through that we believe we will only get stronger and stronger. The Northern Zone had a lot of success throughout the year at all levels with our Centres and Secondary Schools continuing to have a strong presence in National tournaments and competitions. AMI Auckland 1 won the final of the National U17 tournament against Waitakere 1 which was held at AMI Netball North Harbour, and Mt Albert Grammar School continued their dominance and maintained the number 1 spot by taking out the New Zealand Secondary School Championship for the third year in a row. We continue to have a high number of athletes identified at National Tournaments and Upper North Island Secondary Schools and eight athletes selected to represent the New Zealand Secondary School Team who won International School Girls Netball Challenge in Adelaide during May. Those athletes were Chiara Semple, , Grace Kukutai, Alanis Toia-Tigafua, Kate Burley, Holly Fowler, Micheala Sokolich-Beatson and Popua Aleamotu’a.

18 Northern Mystics The Northern Mystics had another tough season in the ANZ Championship and weren’t able to turn things around from the 2013 ANZ Championship season, but there were a huge number of learnings that have been taken from both 2013 and 2014 which will only make the team and the Franchise stronger for the future. It often happens where teams hit rock bottom and a lot of soul searching occurs and through that process things start to move forward. It goes without saying that the Northern Mystics have underperformed over the last 2 years and the focus is well and truly looking forward and ensuring 2015 is a successful year for the Northern Mystics. There were lots of positives that came out of the Northern Mystics programme with four players being selected to represent the Silver Ferns at the in Glasgow with , , Catherine Latu and Maria Tutaia being part of the Silver Medal winning team and also Temalisi Fakahokotau being selected to represent the Silver Ferns for the first time against Australia after a strong performance in the ANZ Championship. Congratulations to all those players on their achievements and being part of the Silver Ferns which is a great honour and privilege.

Northern Zone U23 Programme The Northern Zone U23 programme was structured differently from 2013 with a focus put on more of a campaign based programme which was well received by the players and they had many positive things to say about the way it was structured and its content. For many of the U23 players who went to the National Age Group Championship in Dunedin they had been part of the programme since December 2013 when the Northern Zone U23 Training Programme began. The programme was designed so each player could establish balance to their development in the four key areas of athlete development, which are Technical, Tactical, Physical and Mental. Key personnel were sourced to ensure each of the four areas were well planned and resourced. Athletes were placed on Individual Performance Plans to ensure the programmes were specific to their needs and key check points were put in place to ensure goals and objectives were being achieved.

19 The one area that had the biggest impact on the athlete’s over-all development was definitely in mental skills. This programme was managed and facilitated by Daniel Stamp and ran over an 8 week period. It focused on these core topics:

 Self-Awareness and reflection

 Performance philosophy

 Pre-performance routines

 Mindfulness

 Bounce-Back-Ability

 Leadership

The consistent theme in the feedback from the players was that they hadn’t been part of a longitudinal mental skills programme before; they had done one-off workshops but never had something this in- depth. So that was great feedback for the programme and something to develop further in the years to come. No doubt we had a huge amount talent in the squad and the players worked extremely hard throughout the campaign to prepare for the National Age Group Championship in Dunedin, and although they didn’t win the competition and finishing 4th was not the goal, there were lots of wins for our athletes along the way. The U23 competition is hugely competitive and the Northern Zone philosophy or focus with regards to this age group is very clear—to give those athletes below ANZ Championship level the opportunity to compete in a highly competitive Performance Competition to see where they are at and to create depth below the Mystics programme. Our focus on this age group differs to other Zones and other Zones utilise the opportunity to fit their needs. This does mean we come up against some high quality players who have ANZ Championship experience, which is fantastic for our players development. We get to see our athletes competing against High Performance athletes like Jamie Lee Price, Sam Sinclair, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Storm Purvis, , Malia Paseka, Brooke Lever and others. It gives us a benchmark for where our athletes are at and that’s so valuable for their development and in terms of growing the base of athletes below the Mystics. One key aspect that was evident at the National Age Group Competition in Dunedin was the ability of our players to make the correct decisions and execute under pressure on court. The experience of playing against quality opposition highlighted this fact and this needs to be a core focus of all the players across our U23 squad. ANZ Championship is all about pressure, it’s all about accuracy, executing under pressure and doing the small things at the highest standard or else you won’t last. So that was a key learning for our players. We were extremely lucky to have Kiri Wills as the Head Coach and Paula Smith as the Assistant Coach. Both women are incredibly talented coaches and straight away developed a great coaching team and worked incredibly well together. They were meticulously well planned and bought into the philosophy of the U23 programme 100% understanding that this programme has a bigger picture than just winning the U23 National Age Group Competition, it’s about developing the base and preparing these players for that transition into High Performance.

20 We feel this was a very successful coaching team; both coaches put a huge amount of energy and commitment into the U23 programme. They were disappointed not to have finished further up the final standings. No coach or player likes losing, but they made some huge gains with this group of athletes. One of those wins was having Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick picked up in the Northern Mystics squad and Jessica Bourke being selected for the for 2015. In total the Zone U23 team played 18 matches which included 12 pre-tournament games and 6 games at National Tournament, they won 7, lost 10 and drew 1. It goes without saying that we all have to work extremely hard to ensure we continually grow the base of our athletes, coaches, and umpires in our Centres and our Zone but we can only do that effectively if we have well-structured programmes in place and also put an emphasis on continually growing our coach and umpire knowledge and expertise. Without well-structured programmes it’s hard to continue the growth of our athlete, coach and umpire base for the future. 2014 was a very busy year in the Netball Northern Zone and there were many notable achievements across the board which was fantastic to see. We would like to acknowledge the incredible work done by everyone in our Zone who ensures we continue to develop high performing athletes, coaches, umpires, managers and technical officials. We are a Zone with immense talent, the key to unlocking that talent is hard work, dedication and sacrifice and we look forward to working with you all in ensuring that talent is unlocked and we continue to lead the way as the High Performing Zone.

National and International Squads 2014

Silver Ferns – Maria Tutaia / / / Temalisi Fakahokotau / / Laura Langman / Anna Harrison

NZ U21’s – Malia Paseka / Kayla Cullen / Erikana Pedersen

NZSS - Holly Fowler- Mount Albert Grammar Maia Wilson- Mount Albert Grammar Chiara Semple- Mount Albert Grammar Kate Burley— Mount Albert Grammar Grace Kukutai—Lynfield College Alanis Toia- Tigafua—Mount Albert Grammar Popua Alemotu’s—Avondale College Michaela Sokolick-Beatson—Whangaparaoa College

21 Results Netball Northern Zone

ANZ Championship Northern Mystics 7th LFNC North Harbour 2nd Waitakere 6th Auckland 8th Counties Manukau Cluster 12th National U23 North Zone 4th National U19 Just Workout North Harbour 3rd AMI Auckland 1 5th Waitakere 9th Pukekohe 10th Papakura 12th Howick Pakuranga 16th AMI Auckland 2 17th National U17 AMI Auckland 1 1st Waitakere 1 2nd AMI Auckland 2 8th Mangere-Otahuhu 12th North Harbour 13th AMI Auckland 3 18th Howick Pakuranga 20th Papakura 24th Waitakere 2 27th North Harbour 2 29th Pukekohe 32nd Northern Waiora 34th Waiuku 39th Auckland U15 40th

Regional U15 -A Grade AMI Auckland 1 1st AMI North Harbour 3rd Waitakere 1 4th AMI Auckland 2 10th Papakura 11th Waitakere 2 14th Howick Pakuranga 15th Regional U15 - Division 2 AMI Auckland Yr9 1st Whangarei 4th AMI North Harbour Yr9 5th NZSS Mount Albert Grammar 1st Pukekohe 7th Auckland Girls Grammar 3rd Mangere Otahuhu 8th St Kentigerns 6th Howick Pakuranga 2 11th Westlake Girls High School 11th Waiuku 19th Avondale College 13th

22 23 24 25 26 27 28