NSW Swifts coach Rob Wright keen to keep his stars together in 2017 new-look netball competition

LIKE any coach with a team of talent, NSW Swifts coach Rob Wright’s goal is to keep his core players together next season.

Rob Wright in talks to coach the Swifts again in 2017.

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LIKE any coach with a team of talent with the potential to secure one of the top prizes in world netball Swifts coach Rob Wright’s goal is to keep his core players together again next season.

But Wright, in discussions with the NSW Swifts to coach again in 2017 in a new-look, Australian based competition, fears at least some of his big name players will be taking flight.

Full details of the new league which will replace the current ANZ championship trans-Tasman competition are still to be made public.

But eight teams — including two from NSW — will be competing and players will be operating under a salary cap of an undisclosed amount.

“Yes, I would love to keep my stars together but there is a salary cap and that could be a major factor in that,’’ he said.

Paige Hadley is just one of the Swifts top players fans would like to see stay put in 2017.

“We will potentially lose players to other teams but that is sport.’’

Swifts players are staying quiet on their individual plans for next season as they play the final weeks of the ANZ Championship.

The NSW team heads to Hamilton, New Zealand, for their second away match of the finals series to take on a Magic side coached by their old mentor Julie Fitzgerald.

The Swifts penalty for their 11th successive loss in Brisbane to the Queensland Firebirds on Monday was the trip to New Zealand for Monday’s match.

The Firebirds will host Southern Steel in the other semi-final of the ANZ championship on Sunday.

The winners of these matches will play in the last ever ANZ Championship decider on July 31 at a venue still to be determined.

“They had such a great game against Southern Steel,’’ Swifts co-captain Kim Green said of Magic ending Steel’s undefeated run in the New Zealand Conference final on Sunday.

“They will have their tails up in the air and be super tough.’’