Fa'amu Ioane was stood down two minutes for dangerous play against the Magic. Photo: Kerry Marshall/www.photosport.nz
Analysis: Two players received suspensions in round one of New Zealand's ANZ Premiership last weekend, the same number across the entire season of last year's Australian netball league.
After five rounds of Australia's 2025 competition, there have been no suspensions so far, despite being considered the more physical league.
In last year's ANZ Premiership, several suspensions were dished out across the season, where fewer games are played compared to the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) competition, begging the question whether New Zealand and Australian umpires are on the same page, when it comes to interpreting dangerous play.
World Netball's updated rules came into force at the start of last year, putting greater emphasis on player safety and effectively lowering the threshold for suspending players for two minutes.
Under the new rules, any play that results in the head and/or neck being contacted must be considered dangerous play, whether intentional or not.
An umpire must suspend a player in instances of dangerous play, and a player must be ordered off for the rest of the game for intentional or highly reckless acts of dangerous play that endanger player safety.
A settling-in period was always expected, as umpires and players adapted to the various rule changes, but there seems a gap between what is considered dangerous play, depending which side of the Tasman you are on.
From a World Netball perspective, the application needs to become more consistent, because Silver Ferns players will compete in the international window under Australians umpires and vice versa.
In the first game of the season, Pulse midcourter Fa'amu Ioane was sent to the sideline for two minutes for dangerous play, after an intercept attempt resulted in a Magic player falling to the ground.
Steel goal shoot Aliyah Dunn was also sent to the bench for two minutes, when she wasn't able to fully avoid Tactix defender Karin Burger, who tried to land after grabbing an intercept.
Netball NZ national technical officials manager Josh Bowring is in a unique position to understand the subtleties between the two countries.
Last year, the Australian retired after a very successful international umpiring career. Bowring also spent three years in New Zealand from 2019 and officiated in the ANZ Premiership, where he picked up two Umpire of the Year awards.
Steel shooter Aliyah Dunn served two minutes on the sideline for colliding with Tactix defender Karin Burger. Photo: Photosport
Bowring spent many years umpiring in the Australian league and officiated the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) Grand Final last year. He's shifted back to Wellington for his new role at Netball New Zealand.
"The style of play is different between New Zealand, Australia, and England, so I do think we see very subtle variations in officiating," he said. "Those styles do influence what umpires are managing.
"They're exposed to their own, so in Australia, it is very man on man, very physical week in, week out. In New Zealand, there's a mixture of man on man verses space playing and similarly in England.
"I think umpires do become a little bit more acclimatised based on the style of what they are exposed to week in, week out."
Bowring said the two suspensions in the Australian league last year were both for head contacts.
"The rulebook is very clear now with head-high contact. I think that is being applied equally, and now high performance umpires in New Zealand and Australia understand that anything head high will warrant an automatic suspension."
Bowring said ANZ Premiership umpires were encouraged to confer with each other.
"What we really focused on this year in our pre-season environment is team-work and collaboration, so when we're dealing with these sort of high-impact decisions like suspensions or ordering off, the two on-court umpires can consult and collaborate with each other.
"Ultimately, we are wanting the best outcome. I think having that conversation in those moments probably puts us in a better position to make the right call."
Former top New Zealand umpire Jono Bredin is a member of World Netball's Rules Advisory Panel (RAP), which developed the revised rules.
Ultimately, each country runs their own competitions, and are responsible for their own umpires and their decisions. There have also been suspensions in this year's UK Super League (NSL).
Bredin said they were still closely monitoring the application of the new rules and were available to support member countries.
"We're only 12 months into these new rules in full force, so there is certainly still an element of education and application required to get that consistency.
"The intent of the dangerous-play rule changes were predominantly to protect against those risky scenarios, where everyone watching kind of shuts their eyes and holds their breath, and to discourage players going for balls that they have no feasible chance of getting and, in that action, the collateral damage is bowling someone to the ground.
"Also protecting people, and the main one was contact to the head or neck."
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