The ANZ Championships’ Pre-Season Shootout matches will trial some new rules this year including three-point super goals, rotating interchange and only getting the centre pass after the other team score.

The ANZ Championships have decided that now is the time to start experimenting and progressing the game of netball to ensure its continued growth. 2015 was a huge year for the game of netball in Australia, with the national team the Diamonds winning the World Championships in Sydney.

“Netball’s a sport that needs to continue to grow and needs to push itself as an entertainment product and also appeal to new fans”, the General Manager of the ANZ Championships, Andy Crook tells upstart.

“We’ve looked at all opportunities and all possibilities over the past four years, certainly since I’ve been involved, and we felt this is the time give them a go… it’s not a World Cup year, it’s not a Commonwealth Games year, so the opportunity is now.”

Since Netball’s beginnings as ‘women’s basketball’ in the 1890’s in England, it has always been a game of tradition and permanency when it came to the rules: seven players on the court, one point for each goal, position changes happening at the quarter breaks.

However, like everything in the fast-paced, ever-changing world that we live in, netball must adapt to ensure its survival.

The new rules will be trialled within the coming weeks and the decision as to what happens next will be made afterwards by a combination of people.

“It would be great to see them introduced, if they work well, but there are a lot of people that have to be involved in that decision making process including players, teams, broadcasters and umpires”, Crook says.

“We will make our decision and suggest whether they are something that we recommend for the future or whether it’s something that needs more tweaking or we need to look at again next year.”

These rule trials come after the International Netball Federation (INF), the sport’s highest governing body, introduced some changes to the previously concrete rules of netball.

The 2016 ANZ Championship season will see the implementation of the new Official Rules of Netball, released by the INF in August 2015.

Changes include players only needing to have one whole foot within the circle when taking the centre pass, a significant reduction in the length of injury stoppages, and the abolition of goal tending, where players block a shot after it has reached the peak of its arc.

While these rules are intended to speed the game up and reduce superfluous whistling, the rule trials will have a much more dramatic impact if they are ultimately introduced, as they will have an impact on how the game is scored and the general flow of the match.

The Pre-Season Shootout will boast two three-day events to be held simultaneously at The Trusts Arena, Auckland and Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, from 18-20 March.

Fans will also be able to watch all of the action live on SKY Sport in New Zealand and FOX Sports in Australia. The television deal is of great significance to the league, ensuring that the new rules are seen as far and wide as possible.

“It was important to do it on TV as well, to see how it came across as a broadcast product”.

The ANZ Championships continue to work towards a bigger and better netball competition with a variety of different things that will continue to happen throughout the year.

“The people that work for the ANZ Championships and work on the draw and those sort of things, really make a big effort to ensure that more and more games are scheduled in the bigger arenas, and those games are of consequence and at the right end of the season.

“We will have a new marketing campaign this year which will be around Experience Netball”.

To add to the changing environment and culture of netball, an under 13s netball team in Brunswick, Victoria were recently approved to ditch the traditional dress and opting for shorts and singlets.

The Brunswick Birdies netball team play as part of the Parkville Netball Competition, which is the biggest in the state.

“Girls have been wearing shorts here off and on for around four years, including school teams in their uniform and Muslim players that are covered up”, Parkville Netball Coordinator, Sue Flynn tells upstart.

The change in the nature of the game of netball is upon us, to ensure the survival of this traditional sport.

 Vivienne Duck is a third year Bachelor of Journalism (sport) student and a staff writer with upstart. You can follow her on twitter @VivienneDuck