AMMNA will debut a new “All Star 7” concept at the National Champs in Perth, an exciting new initiative adapted from Suncorp Netball and other elite world sporting competitions.
The initiative will see each division have a best in position player awarded from the Championships, presented at the AMMNA Awards on the last evening of the competition.
AMMNA President Andrew Simons highlighted the historical significance of retaining individual recognition alongside team success at the Championshi
“The headline goal for any team is to win a national title, but secondary to that is rewarding standout individual performances. The roar of your home state as an athlete gets recognised has always made our Awards Nights unique and created life-long memories for those recognised.” Simons said.
The best performing players will be agreed upon by state coach input, and overseen by our national elite, semi-elite and dev-elite coaches.
One of the driving forces of the change is to enhance the Australian Team selection process, which will see national teams selected after the tournament and only once international tours are confirmed. Heath Brown, who leads the AMMNA strategy function, believes this approach delivers on the traditions of individual recognition while modernising our national team selection.
“Individual performance recognition has historically been captured by the announcement of national teams at the AMMNA Awards. Something which now has to be spread across a longer cycle to deliver better high performance outcomes for the program. The All Star 7 concept provides real-time recognition for the tournament performance of athletes, while our national selection process will broaden and not be ring-fenced to a forced selection at nationals.” Brown said.
“This process aligns closer to Netball Australia High Performance team selection processes as we continue to enhance and align the way we develop elite programs.” he added.
National Head Coach Nerida Stewart will lead the ushering in of the new selection process, and is excited by the growth opportunities it provides for the category.
“Our championships will continue to be the main selection environment for national teams, however we as coaches needed more time to squad teams, place them in a training environment and then decide on teams once international tours are announced.” Stewart said.
“The All Star 7 concept is to say congratulations on an epic tournament, which is important. National team selection is about finding the winning combinations for the tours as they arise, and we need the flexibility to pick purpose-built teams as our international programming grows.” Stewart added.
Comments