page_title: ANZ Championship
section_title: 2010–11: Format and rule reviews
hierarchical_section_title: ANZ Championship / History / 2010–11: Format and rule reviews
caption_attribution_description: Tactix versus Mystics game: Anna Thompson (GS, Tactix) has possession of the ball inside the shooting circle.
context_page_description: The ANZ Championship was the premier netball league in Australia and New Zealand. The competition was held annually between April and July, comprising 69 matches played over 17 weeks. It was contested by ten teams, five from Australia and five from New Zealand. The competition was administered by Trans Tasman Netball League, which was formed as a joint venture by the netball governing bodies of both countries. ANZ Bank was naming sponsors of the competition since its inaugural season.
  The ANZ Championship was launched in 2008 as a successor to the Commonwealth Bank Trophy in Australia and the National Bank Cup in New Zealand, both of which were retired after 2007. The ANZ Championship saw netball become a semi-professional sport in both countries, with increased media coverage and player salaries. The final champions before the competition's folding were the Queensland Firebirds, who defeated the New South Wales Swifts in the grand final of the 2016 season, becoming the only team to win the tournament 3 times and the only team to win back-to-back titles. 2016 was the last season of the competition.
context_section_description: A review of competition rules was conducted after the 2009 season. While the format of the competition remained unchanged, several rule changes were announced. To aid the struggling Central Pulse, who finished 10th in the first two seasons, teams that finish in the bottom two placings of the competition ladder were granted the right to use two import or non-eligible players, and were also made eligible for a NZ$25,000 financial assistance grant. Starting from 2010, two modifications of the international rules were implemented in the ANZ Championship, including the ability for coaches to talk to players during playing stoppages.
  The 2010 season started two weeks earlier in the year compared with other seasons, to accommodate the 2010 Commonwealth Games, held from 4–14 October. After the conclusion of the round-robin stage, the Swifts, Thunderbirds, Magic and Steel qualified for the finals stage; defending champions the Vixens suffered a mid-season form slump, finishing seventh. In the finals stage, minor premiers the Swifts suffered two successive losses to finish the season third. The grand final was contested between the Thunderbirds and Magic in Adelaide. Tickets to the match sold out within 12 minutes: a capacity crowd of 9,300 watched the Thunderbirds defeat the Magic by 52–42 to claim the 2010 ANZ Championship trophy.
  For the 2011 season, the competition format has been reduced to 15 weeks, including a 12-week round-robin, to accommodate the 2011 Netball World Championships being held in July that year. Teams will not have byes during the season, and some will play two matches per round in "double-headers". In addition, changes to player eligibility rules allow all teams one import player as of right, while teams may also apply for a "citizen ineligible" player. As a result, the assistance package introduced for the 2010 season has been discontinued.
caption: Canterbury Tactix play Northern Mystics in Auckland during the 2011 ANZ Championship season.
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix J10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix J10 Ver1.00", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:07 04:42:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2278", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "26/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:04:07 04:42:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:07 04:42:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "13/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "174/25", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4757/1000", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "64/25", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "93/5", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2800", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2800", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4164"}