NETBALL got scared and blacklisted the most electrifying move to happen in the sport’s on-court history.
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The rugby-style chair-lift in defence is outlawed in new global rules changes the International Netball Federation unveiled this week.
Right when Test cricket has gone all radical with pink balls and a day-night match – enough to make its purists blanch into their whites – netball took a huge backward leap. Of course, that backward leap was nowhere near the goal circle because that could be considered goal-tending and goal-tending, with its chair-lift derivative, is bad.
Make no mistake: goal-tending (using a vertical leap to “deflect a shot once the ball is on a downward flight towards the ring”) will not incur a penalty, because even the term “penalty” got wiped for the more politically correct term “sanction”.
Unorthodox for sure, the defensive chair-lift move or “ladies lineout” takes elite skill to execute. The move did not even feature at this year’s Netball World Cup. A defensive duo must be incredibly athletic, quick, light and strong to pull it off.
When Northern Mystics goal keeper and former volleyballer Anna Harrison nailed the first launch in ANZ Championship action in 2012, she stunned and incredibly impressed the world’s best defenders. Harrison captured headlines and attention in other sporting circles across the world. This was a move even the Australian Diamonds had toyed with in training, yet never quite perfected.
The lift has only been seen a few times since. Traditionalists have won this preemptive strike.
The INF stated rule changes, effective from New Year’s Day, “aim to improve players’ enjoyment of netball, as well as making the game more attractive to spectators.”
Speeding up the game, including a play-on style rule, and eliminating whistle-blows for goals and obvious out of bounds is logical and long overdue. This should make the game easier to follow, especially for the uninitiated, and improve player enjoyment.
But these changes are merely tinkering.
Injury time-outs, including the blood rule, have been slashed to 30 seconds. Great – nothing is more frustrating for a team on a roll when the opposition exploits the injury stoppage in a bid to sever that momentum.
If the INF really wanted to make a statement in speeding up the game and adding to the excitement, it need only look to its shortened format Fastnet.
Netball should have unlimited rolling substitutions. There is a huge purist fear the game will become too much like basketball. Greater tactical innovation will ensue – just watch Fastnet. Rolling substitutions would add to the game’s thrill and “attractiveness” for spectators, just like the chair-lift did.
Netball needs to roll with the times in and increasingly competitive market for sports fans. Be like Test cricket and try to appeal to a broader audience.
Keep the lift. Technically, goalers could employ a similar move where one can launch another to slam-dunk the ball. Aerial tactics would take on a whole new meaning and that, would be awesome to watch.