Northern Stars
The Northern Stars are a New Zealand netball team based in Papakura that, since 2017, has competed in the new ANZ Premiership New Zealand Netball competition. The franchise was formed in 2016 as the sixth team to compete in the ANZ Premiership following the announcement that the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship competition would be retired following the 2016 season. The Stars joined the five already-established New Zealand franchises of the ANZ Championship, representing the areas of South and East Auckland. The Stars home venue for training and games is Pulman Arena at Bruce Pulman Park, Papakura. History . Background. The ANZ Premiership was founded in 2016 as the new elite domestic netball competition in New Zealand. It replaced the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship competition, which was competed between five New Zealand teams and five Australian teams. For the new competition, the Northern Stars were formed as a sixth team to compete in the new competition against the five existing New Zealand teams, the Northern Mystics, the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, the Central Pulse, the Mainland Tactix, and the Southern Steel. In May 2016, it was announced that the new Northern team to join the competition would be  from the 'greater Auckland area'. It was later confirmed in October that the name of the team would be the 'Northern Stars', based in the South Auckland area. For their first year their training base was located at the new High Wire Trust gymnasium in Papakura, and home stadium at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau. In 2018 the team moved to their current home venue, Pulman Arena in Papakura. Former England and Fiji coach Julie Hoornweg was named as the head coach of the team in August 2016, who has also had experience in the ANZ Championship as the  coach of the Melbourne Vixens from the establishment of the competition in 2008 until her resignation in 2012. She is joined by former Silver Ferns and Northern Mystics midcourter Temepara Bailey as assistant coach, who was part of the Silver Ferns 2003 World Netball Championships winning squad and Netball at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 2017: Inaugural season. For the new competition, teams sign ten players before the season, with up to one player being 'imported' from overseas. In 2017, the Stars will be headlined by Silver Fern and former Mystics player Kayla Cullen, whose  versatility and experience means Kayla will have a significant leadership role in the Stars inaugural season. Leana de Bruin, a former Silver Fern and Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic defender also joins the new team, along with 19-year-old 2016 Silver Ferns debutant Maia Wilson. The import spot will be filled by Fijian netballer Afa Rusivakula.