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Silver Ferns montage - Source: ONE Sport
Sterling Silver: Legends and Superstars of the Silver Ferns
This new DVD is an enjoyable, informative and entertaining look at some of the netballers who have become household names in New Zealand sport.
The world championship in 1987 really brought Netball into the public eye and the thrilling battles with Australia are some of the most keenly anticipated clashes of the New Zealand sporting year.
It is immediately apparent that while fashions may have changed over the years on court the passion has remained the same.
It features 20 icons of the game telling their own stories, interspersed with quaint historical footage (who knew that the Silver Ferns used to do the haka) and action shots that demonstrate what made these players so good.
From our modern stars - Casey Williams, Irene Van Dyk and Laura
Langman to names from the past like Sandra Edge, Belinda Colling
and Tracey Fear to ornaments of the sport like Dame Lois Muir and
Yvonne Willering.
It is also includes a CD, with the favourite song of each player
and a generational span from "The Mamas and the Papas" and "Meat
Loaf" to "Shakira" and "Boyzone".
Some of the choices are predictable enough but who would have thought that tough as teak captain Casey Williams will plump for 1980's tearjerker "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
The game is now fully professional and the women who weat the ferns enjoy a public profile up there with the All Blacks, Kiwis and Black Caps.
In this way the producers of "Sterling Silver" faced a real challenge - what could they unearth that we didn't already know?
You would have to say they have succeeded in finding some real gems
Bernice Mene revealed that she first took up the sport at school because they didn't have a full set of hockey sticks for girls but they did have the full complement of netball bibs.
Like many players before the professional era, Mene was a teacher and remembers enlisting other teachers in the squad in a frantic bid to finish writing her school reports before they embarked on a tour to South Africa.
Current coach Ruth Aitken admits her life has changed greatly since she became "the most noticed New Zealand woman besides Helen Clark" but she is still treated just the same in her hometown of Paeroa.
Viewers are treated to some exclusive footage of Aitken in action at halftime, delivering team talks and also her admittedly rare angry side.
Aitken recognises that times have changed since the move from outdoor courts - "In the old days you bled when you fell - now you bounce - and this has changed the way people defend."
Laura Langman remembers being in a New World supermarket, when her mother's mobile phone rang. It was Ruth Aitken on the line, telling a gleeful Langman she had just made the national side for the first time.
Superstar shooter Irene Van Dyk has come a long way since playing barefoot on grasscourts as an eight-year-old in South Africa.
Among many revelations, she is surprisingly candid about the challenge of 2000, when she toured her native South Africa as part of the Silver Ferns for the first time and the emotion of hearing both national anthems.
Dame Lois Muir is one of the immortals of New Zealand netball and "Sterling Silver" features some lovely, never-before-seen footage of the coaching sessions and team talks at the 1987 world championships in Scotland.
Temepara George has recently returned to the Silver Ferns, following a two year exile for personal reasons.
During this time she featured on "Dancing with the Stars" and talks about how it has helped her netball.
The DVD will obviously appeal to netball fanatics but the fast moving nature means that general sports fans will find plenty of interest.
It has been lovingly produced and good to see that our extensive historical archive is being utilised in this way.
One hopes it could be a trailblazer for a whole series of similar productions on rugby, cricket, rugby league, athletics etc.
Players:
Bernice Mene
Margaret Forsyth
Ruth Aitken
Anna Rowberry
Rita Fatialofa
Lesley Rumbell
Yvonne Willering
Casey Williams
Margharet Matenga
Julie Seymour
Waimarama Taumaunu
Leigh Gibbs
Belinda Colling
Laura Langman
Lyn Gunson
Temepara George
Tracey Fear
Irene van Dyk
Dame Lois Muir
Sandra Edge
