Zones
NZSS Programme
The NCZ NZSS development programme is an identification and development programme that provides fitness testing, feedback, sport science education and some programme support for promising secondary school players during the off season. It is designed to prepare participants for the NNZ Development Camp and the upcoming season.
The programme starts in October with tournament play where the most promising players are identified for further development; this is followed by an Advanced Camp for those identified players; and ends with a January camp led by Netball New Zealand.
The tournament play is led by the participating Centres with implementation support from NCZ; the Advanced Camp is led by NCZ; and the January camp is implemented by Netball New Zealand.
The programme commences with Centre’s, in consultation with NCZ, selecting and preparing teams to compete in cross-Zone tournaments. At these tournaments NCZ selectors work with Centre selectors to decide which athletes might participate in the Advanced Camp.
The final list of athletes to be invited to the Advanced Camp will be decided by the NCZ Head of Selectors. These athletes will be provided strength & conditioning programmes and expert coaching to help them prepare for the national development camp in January. All participating athletes will receive a completed NCZ player profile detailing their achievement against the NCZ performance standards.
This is a de-centralised programme and NCZ contact with these athletes is limited. Therefore, Centres are strongly encouraged to add their support and encouragement to these young athletes during their preparation phase.
Successful NZSS athletes will be required to pay the full costs of any ongoing camps or competitions, should they be selected for the final NNZ NZSS team. Centres are encouraged to work closely with any athletes who do win national selection to ensure they can meet the additional financial obligations that will arise.
Performance Programmes in Centres
Recognising the ongoing success of Netball Wellington Centre’s performance programme, NCZ will continue to pursue the implementation of similar programmes in the other lead Centres, Netball Manawatu, Netball Taranaki and Netball Hawkes Bay. We will support all four of our lead Centres to create and/or continue their own high performance programmes, which identify and develop their best young players. NCZ will help each lead Centre to achieve this by providing advice, guidance, regular visits and guest coaches when available.
Each performance programme will be tailored to be fit for purpose for the respective Centre taking advantage of the fact that each one has excellent leaders to provide support to their Centre programmes:
- Netball Wellington Centre: Sandra Edge
- Netball Hawkes Bay: Charissa Barham and Irene van Dyk
- Netball Taranaki: Jaqua Pori-Makea-Simpson
- Netball Manawatu: Ashleigh Kate Araroa and Renee Matoe
This programme is an opportunity to grow the capacity of our lead Centres to implement performance programmes that will in turn underpin the Zone performance programme and grow our cohort of emerging, talented secondary school players.
We will also support the smaller Centres with their performance programmes, upon request in a bespoke, mutually beneficial way that makes the most effective and efficient use of our combined resources.
Centre Age-grade Representative Programmes
NCZ recognises that Centres are largely staffed by volunteers and so additional work in the performance player development area is difficult to achieve. Therefore, NCZ’s approach in this space will be to continue to support all Centres with specific resources to help them enhance their current and ongoing representative team programmes. In working in this way Centres will be contributing to the Zone’s overarching performance objectives without adding tasks to their already crowded calendars.
Centre representative team programmes are short campaigns that commence in April with trials and end with the national or pinnacle tournament event sometime in July.
NCZ will provide all Centres with a set of resources that could be used in conjunction with their representative teams. These resources include the following –
- Sample annual calendar detailing what events should take place and when
- NCZ age appropriate player profile
- NCZ age appropriate player training diary
- Sample selection policy
- Sample trial team list schedule to record player positions and quarters
- Simple analysis tool
- Simple campaign evaluation tool
- ‘Slack’ contact tool
There is no expectation that Centres will use all or any of these tools. They are simply made available for Centre use to help in the development of performance players.
NCZ will provide ongoing support around these tools for all Centres through the Emerging Talent Manager, who supports our Centres to assess, feedback and develop their athletes and coaches. We achieve this by regularly and consistently deploying our Emerging Talent Manager into Centres; by developing, reviewing, updating and distributing appropriate resources annually and by inducting Centre volunteers and staff in how to use them; and by deploying our Emerging Talent Manager into tournaments to support and mentor coaches as they are coaching.
We also work with Centres to provide ongoing support for those athletes who are identified to progress further along the performance pathway. We engage with Centres to help them support their identified athletes, with the goal of getting those athletes selected into NNZ programmes.
We will support Centre representative team managers too, with tailored development opportunities to address identified manager needs.
Pulse
The ANZ Premiership is netball’s pinnacle domestic competition in New Zealand. It is the premier professional, domestic competition for women in this country, and is the vehicle by which netball remains the most played female sport in the country.
The Pulse programme is led and implemented by NCZ and is strongly aligned to NNZ’s performance programme. The alignment of Pulse and NNZ protocols is critical in ensuring a ‘one athlete-one plan’ approach that enhances and supports individual athlete development.
The Pulse programme begins in September and the ANZ Premiership runs from April to August. Each ANZ Premiership team comprises 10 contracted athletes and an allowance of training partners. All Pulse contracted athletes are committed to a professional netball environment from September to August and they are expected to reside in Wellington for the duration of the competition season.
Selection of contracted Pulse athletes takes into consideration appropriate skill, positional roles, mindset, experience and commitment to the Pulse performance culture and expectations. Being a Pulse athlete requires strong role modelling, an element of service to our game and community and a genuine commitment to self- responsibility for the betterment of performance outcomes. Training partners are contracted for varied periods (pre and in season) and are expected to commit to all team conditioning, netball, recovery and review sessions as directed by the Head Coach. Training partners are an option for inclusion into a Pulse team roster at any given time.
Each athlete completes an induction process, which includes physical screenings along with life management skills, and has an individual performance plan (IPP), which reflects her broad spectrum of on and off court needs. We use this plan to assist the athlete to enhance both her life and netball performances. Standards are measured and monitored against NNZ national performance guidelines and protocols whilst striving to achieve world class leading results.
Following inductions, all athletes are engaged in off-season training programmes with regular monitoring to ensure they enter the season in the best physical condition to perform. Seasonal plans are developed to reflect the demands of professional netballers and as such conditioning and netball practices occur daily relative to the competition schedule. One ‘athlete day off’ per working week is included in the schedule along with recovery, analysis, IPP reviews and specialist sessions to ensure a performance culture and environment is sustained.
We contract with NNZ to provide athlete services in nutrition, athlete life, conditioning, mental skills and physiotherapy. Similarly, NCZ contracts independent providers for analysis and medical services. The NZNPA (NZ Athletes Association) are engaged by NNZ to ensure athlete contracts and conditions align to professional work standards and expectations.
Currently the Pulse team has a core of young but experienced athletes. We have been focused on building a new foundation to take us through the next four year pinnacle cycle. The legacy of success and excellence that has been established inspires us to lift our performance standards to dominate the ANZ competition and be a world class leading club.
Our Performance System
The definitive measure of any high performance team is winning in pinnacle events; and winning these events requires the ability to consistently deliver under pressure. The premise of this strategy is that players who can deliver under pressure are produced by a strong, performance system that combines a structured learning environment with appropriately challenging competition opportunities.
At NCZ we believe that to win pinnacle events, we need a performance programme that produces athletes with the skill set to win and a pathway that equips them with the playing experience and understanding of how to win under pressure.
The foundation of our netball pathway is Netball New Zealand’s Player Development Guidelines, which are attached as Appendix 1. Alongside this framework Netball Central Zone has developed Performance Standards, which are attached as Appendix 2. These Performance Standards bring together the Development Guidelines and the Essentials Elements to outline the expected hauora, physical, tactical, and technical capability of athletes at each stage of their development pathway.
The NCZ player development pathway starts with our Centre performance/representative programmes, which culminate in annual Talent Camps and/or Tournaments to identify and develop our best secondary school age players. Centre talent development initiatives link to Zone performance initiatives through the annual Advanced Camp, where the best age group players from the Centres are further developed.
Thereafter, NNZ and NCZ identify athletes to attend the annual National Development Camp, from which the New Zealand Secondary School squad is selected.
In 2024 NCZ will place emphasis on those players, coaches, managers and officials who are eligible to represent New Zealand at the World Youth Games in Gibraltar in 2025. From 2025, emphasis will focus back to athletes born in 2008 and later, in preparation for the 2029 World Youth Cup.
Senior player development is delivered at the Zone level through the Pulse and Central Manawa campaigns, which are delivered centrally through detailed campaign plans that prioritise individual development alongside team outcomes, and which are aligned to the Silver Ferns campaign plan.
NNZ campaign squads are selected annually from the domestic competitions in which our Zone teams compete. We support all our eligible players, coaches, managers, and officials to be selected for international events, culminating in the Commonwealth Games and the World Netball championships in 2027.
We continuously review our player pathway, recognising that we live in constrained financial times and that scarce resources mean our performance programs must be as effective, accessible, and targeted as possible.
Figure 2: Player Development Pathway
Player Development
NCZ player development occurs through four programmes with different delivery mechanisms. The Pulse and Central Manawa programmes are centrally driven by NCZ; the leadership and implementation of the New Zealand Secondary School (NZSS) identification and development programme will be shared between Centres and NCZ; the lead Centre Performance programmes and all age grade representative programmes are Centre led with support from NCZ.
The meeting will now be held ONLINE on Monday 25th March 2024 starting at 7pm. The link will be sent closer to the time.
We would like to congratulate the following players on being selected for the Northern Marvels and NZEPP squad for 2024.
Netball Northern Zone are pleased to announce their extended partnership with PIC Insurance Brokers as the official insurance broker.
Netball Central Zone Inc Privacy Policy
Netball Central Zone is committed to ensuring your privacy is protected according to the relevant privacy legislation. By providing your personal information to Netball Central Zone, you authorise Netball Central Zone to collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and the terms set out in this policy.
Netball Central Zone will collect, store and use the information about you which you provide when you register and/or provide in any other written and verbal communications with Netball Central Zone. This information may include, for example, your name, address, email address, phone number and teams you support. Please note that if you elect not to provide certain personal information to us, we may not be able to provide you with the services, products or information you require. Netball Central Zone may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- administer the sport of netball;
- promote the game of netball (including marketing to members by Netball Central Zone commercial partners);
- provide you services, offers and/or communications associated with Netball Central Zone and/or membership programmes;
- inform you of important netball-related information or related events;
- contact you (either directly or by appointing another organisation) to carry out market research and surveys;
- track and analyse activity on our website(s); and
- create an individual profile for you so that we can enhance your user experience, to understand and respect your preferences and to provide details of relevant offers and opportunities where you have agreed to receive
In order to provide certain products and services, Netball Central Zone may appoint other organisations to carry out some of the processing of activities on our behalf. In some circumstances, Netball Central Zone may share your personal information with service providers who perform services that Netball Central Zone have requested. Our service providers are not authorised by us to use or disclose your personal information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf in accordance with this policy or to comply with legislation.
Netball Central Zone may also be required by law to disclose information you provide. Netball Central Zone will only make the disclosure if it believes in good faith that it is required to do so.
Your personal information may be provided to Netball Central Zone commercial partners to further the purposes referred to under this policy. Netball Central Zone commercial partners may include, for example, organisations which partner with Netball Central Zone to provide sponsorship and support to Netball Central Zone in exchange for access to marketing opportunities with Netball Central Zone and its members.
Where you provide personal information to Netball Central Zone, it is your responsibility to ensure that personal information you provided is correct, complete and up-to-date. However, you are entitled to access and request correction of the personal information Netball Central Zone holds about you. You may update or correct your personal information online by:
- contacting Netball Central Zone in writing;
- by email at the following address [
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From time to time, the disclosures made by Netball Central Zone under this policy may be to organisations or commercial partners located outside of New Zealand, including cloud service providers, software providers, accountants and other service providers. This may mean that some of your information may be disclosed, held and/or processed outside of New Zealand. Where these organisations are based overseas, Netball Central Zone will take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that they are subject to privacy laws that, overall, provide comparable safeguards under the Privacy Act 2020, or take such steps in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020.
Netball Central Zone (or its commercial partners) may also contact you to tell you about offers and opportunities that are available and about a range of other initiatives in a number of ways, including by post, telephone, text/video message or by email (where required by law these marketing communications will not be sent without your consent).
Netball Central Zone will take reasonable steps to safely and securely store your personal information against un-authorised disclosure, use, loss or other misuse. Netball Central Zone emphasises that information sent over the internet may be unsecure, and it is your responsibility to ensure the secure transmission of your personal information to Netball Central Zone.
In the event of a privacy breach or potential privacy breach, you should report the breach or potential breach to Netball Central Zone's Privacy Officer on (
The Privacy Officer will review any complaint or reported breach. The Privacy Officer will respond to the complainant or reporter outlining next steps and their reasons for taking those steps. The Privacy Officer will also consider whether any privacy breach is a notifiable privacy breach, therefore requiring notification to the Privacy Commissioner and affected individuals under the Privacy Act 2020.
The factors that will be considered in their assessment as to whether a privacy breach is notifiable include:
- any action taken by Netball Central Zone to reduce the risk of harm following the breach;
- whether the personal information is sensitive in nature;
- the nature of the harm that may be caused to affected individuals;
- the person or body that has obtained or may obtain personal information as a result of the breach (if known);
- whether the personal information is protected by a security measure; and
- any other relevant matters.
Trial registrations for the 2024 Northern Marvels Squad and 2024 Northern Zone Elite Performance Programme (NZEPP) are open NOW!