NETBALL NORTHERN ZONE ANNUAL REPORT 2014 2 CONTENTS From the Chair and CEO 4 Commercial Partners 7 Community Netball 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 New Zealand 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 Netball New Zealand 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 equals or 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 Auckland 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 The Trusts Arena. 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 Northern Mystics. 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 us in 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.