11 clubs interested in joining expanding trans-Tasman netball Championship

Netball Australia has advised that 11 clubs have expressed an interest in joining the trans-Tasman Championship when three new teams are admitted from next year.

There are currently five Australian franchises in the 10-team competition and officials are encouraged by the quality of submissions from clubs looking to sign on for 2017.

The call out came after Australia's national netball governing body, along with Netball New Zealand conducted a review late last year.

The first outcome of the review was a call for expressions of interest for additional Australian franchises.

Netball Australia general manager of marketing and acquisition David Lee said the organisation hoped to make an announcement in the next few months.

Lee explained “expressions of interest closed a few weeks ago.

"We had 11 in total. And some really strong, high-profile responses."

It has been a successful 12 months for the sport in Australia, on the back of the Diamonds winning their third consecutive World Cup title.

Diamonds and Queensland Firebirds captain Laura Geitz said although there was some trepidation about the expansion, players would support whatever the code believed would grow the sport.

Geitz told the ABC “for myself and the other girls, we support a competition that will continue to grow the game bigger and better and I suppose we have to have confidence and faith in the people making the decisions.”

NSW Swifts captain Kimberlee Green said she believed there was sufficient talent to ensure the teams would be successful ,adding “we just have to back whatever is good for the sport and ultimately we just want our players to be professional.

"We've got so many players in New South Wales that could feed into those teams to make them really successful so it's exciting."

Lee explained that the sport is committed to ongoing growth, concluding “we want to see crowds continue to grow by 10 to 15% in our projections.”

The new season starts on Friday night with the Queensland Firebirds aiming to become the first team in nine years to win consecutive titles.

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