The 16 teams who will vie for the Margaret Forsyth Cup have emerged after the completion of pool play on the second day of the 2024 Netball New Zealand U18 Champs at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin on Tuesday.
With the competition moving to post-section play on Wednesday, all teams will be allocated into four groups with the top two teams from each of the eight original pools completing the top 16.
The third and fourth-placed teams move into the middle 16 and will play off for 17th to 32nd while the fifth-placed teams from each of the pools that had five teams move to the bottom six and will play off for 33rd to 38th positions.
Eight teams – Wellington Black, Hamilton City, Waitākere, Auckland, Dunedin, Rotorua, Howick Pakuranga and Eastern Waikato – have come through round robin play with their unbeaten records intact but will face sterner examinations tomorrow when the cross-over matches get underway.
With the imminent announcement of the NZ U21 squad for next year’s Netball World Youth Cup, one who is taking a vested interest in proceedings is NZ U21 assistant coach Te Aroha Keenan, who expects the tempo to rise with closer match-ups in tomorrow’s action.
"At the moment the four top teams are probably Auckland, Howick, Waitākere and Wellington and while there are other teams that are unbeaten, they’re not playing probably as impressively as those four team,’’ she said.
"But those four haven’t really been tested yet and tomorrow is going to be a big day when we get to see the cross-overs and players being challenged on more even terms, and seeing how they cope under pressure.
"Being indoors has also been of huge benefit and with no wind or rain to contend with, it means the players have all got equal opportunity. There’s no conditions that are going to stop them from executing other than the players on court.’’
With some players on show who have been in previous NZ U21 squads, Keenan is keeping close tabs on their performances in what she described as a good day of netball.
"There are some that are showing the potential to possibly make it again and overall, there are just some really, lovely younger players that are just playing the game,’’ she said.
"It’s encouraging that they’re just getting in there, working really hard, and showing some composure that have caught our eye. There’s probably one or two of those in every game that we’ve watched but we have to wait and see them up against each other tomorrow to be really able to say if they’re the ones we think are going to jump into that squad.’’
The quarter-finals will be played tomorrow afternoon.
With six teams competing in the equivalent Men’s U18 Champs, Waitākere are the front-runners after posting four straight wins to remain the only unbeaten team. They are closely followed by Dunedin and Tauranga who have both had three wins and a loss.
The men complete their round robin phase on Wednesday morning ahead of the afternoon’s semi-finals.