A brutal selection policy is hurting the Ferns.. but that’s not the glaring issue NZ need to face

Let’s talk about the criteria to become a Silver Fern.

We all know what it is. We all know what happens if you don’t meet the mandatory fitness standard. And when people are missing that mark, we are going ‘hey she’s not fit enough!’.

But I think we’re missing the point.

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We’re trying to figure out why these people aren’t making the selection call based on their pure netball ability. We know, we can just point a few fingers and go ‘hey Peta Toeava should be in that team’, right?

I’m beginning to wonder if it’s more of a case of WON’T when it comes to these fitness standards, which includes a minimum 16.3 yoyo test result.

They are not doing it, so they are getting the boot.

They know what that minimum standard is, so a part of me is like yes Netball NZ, you put your stake in the ground and you don’t move it. I have a lot of respect for that.

Moving it, shaking it and letting other people have a little bit more leniency than others, I think that would really affect the culture they have worked so hard to develop in the Silver Ferns environment.

But then the other part of me is wondering why our most effective and successful individuals aren’t Silver Ferns.

They are not making the standards and then we are going, ‘Management, how dare you? Change the rules’. But why aren’t we going, ‘How come you guys aren’t doing enough to make these fitness standards?’.

These rules aren’t new. I know this because those standards were on me in my time too. I absolutely had to hit those numbers to be a Silver Fern.

I’m stuck here wondering.

What is the state of netball in New Zealand? Why does the Black Dress not drive them to train hard enough knowing that’s what’s keeping them out?

I think if we focus in on Peta, who we all know, think and agree collectively as a netball community will actually change that Ferns attacking end if she got an opportunity to take the court against either the Roses or Diamonds. I feel like she would set the court on fire again.

I think what Dame Noels is maybe focusing on is if she can do that consistently for 60 minutes. And as she continues to miss selection, I’m not convinced she truly can anymore. Not against a Jamie-Lee Price. I think Peta would have struggled.

She is good with the ball in hand – it’s about getting the ball in her hands for the entire 60 minutes. Can she do it? Is she fit enough to do it?

It’s really unfortunate that we might not get to see it. Peta is not getting any younger. Your body changes. If you miss one tour, you miss about a year of international netball and so it will keep setting her back. How much more can she keep trying to push before getting pushed back based on her fitness standards alone. Because let’s not forget about the whole mental side of this gig. Non selection and public scrutiny is not for the weak.

We’ve got Saviour Tui who is also a pretty good goal attack, goal shoot option – offers something completely different to what we have on offer at the moment, but we are putting Maia Wilson at goal attack. Maia is pretty good there – she’s pretty solid. But she’s a goal shooter. Where are all the Goal Attacks?

I think the emphasis is going on fitness because we’re putting it on fitness and I’m saying we as the netball community. We’re not actually seeing the bigger picture and it’s quite alarming.

This game has changed. It keeps changing from year to year – it gets more physical, more aggressive, more violent in all the most beautiful ways.

We buy tickets to go watch this in real life in the flesh because this game is beautiful but it’s getting hard – it’s not about just running it out. It’s about getting hit for 60 minutes, holding your space for 60 minutes and on top of that doing all the stuff that is so successful – shooting, passing. This game is getting hard.

What worked for the era when Noels came in and put these standards in, which was 2019, she had a different breed of athlete.

She had Casey Kopua, she had Laura Langman, Maria Folau, some big names in our game. She had a different breed of athlete who were just absolute animals.

They were just ready to go.

That’d come off the back of the historically horrific result of the Comm Games in 2018, and they were driven by pure anger.

Maybe those standards don’t necessarily align with the athletes of today. Maybe they need to be altered. Five years is a long time. So much has changed.

It is a little bit heartbreaking to see the Ferns’ result against England – I’m not going to lie.

It’s really hard to see these girls put in all this effort and it’s very clear they are trying to do as much as they can but there is a breakdown somewhere.

I don’t know whether the game plan fits the type of people they have on the court.

The one thing I do admire is Noels is actually willing to give people a chance.

We sometimes bypass that when we get so clouded with anger when there’s a loss or the Silver Ferns don’t play well. We’re like, ‘it’s you, it’s your fault’. But she’s so open to seeing what sometimes other coaches can’t see in players.

She showed us before the last World Cup too. She rolled through so many midcourters to see who would fit, who would last and if they could implement the game plan that was set out for that group.

You need to impress her, you need to do your job because she won’t give out too many chances. That’s not how you are going to set up a high performing team.

It is possible for the Ferns to return to the top of international netball ranks – we just need to figure out what we’ve got, who we are and make sure we stick to our style, our brand and what makes us New Zealand netballers, and I think we’ll go back to where we are comfortable … and those are winning ways.