Netball's key stakeholders will return to the negotiating table on Thursday, but the delay in finalising the terms of the collective bargaining agreement is unlikely to allow players to be contracted for next year's relaunched domestic league for at least another week.
Madi Robinson has added another personal accolade to her list of comeback achievements.
Melbourne Vixens captain Madi Robinson will return to the Diamonds team for the first time since her 2015 knee reconstruction as part of a Quad Series line-up missing rested captain Laura Geitz.
Netball star Sharni Layton decided early in life that is she ever made it as a professional athlete, she would not participate in highly sexualised advertising campaigns.
Julie Fitzgerald harbours no animosity towards Netball NSW and is thrilled to be given another opportunity to return to Sydney in a coaching capacity.
Plenty of uncertainty surrounds the make-up of the NSW Swifts' squad next year, however they have been bolstered by the re-signing of coach Rob Wright for at least three more seasons.
NSW Swifts captain Kim Green says her side's most recent ANZ Championship grand final defeat feels different to last year but hurts just as much, however Firebirds skipper Laura Geitz feels little sympathy for her rivals after similar heartbreak in years gone by.
The ANZ Championship final will go down as one of the greatest contests in netball history.
Firebirds look to make history with back-to-back titles.
Every team in the ANZ Championship has been asking that question when coming up against the Queensland Firebirds, led by their target woman Romelda Aiken.
They were close to perfect against the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, but the NSW Swifts know they will need to exceed those lofty heights in their grand final against the Queensland Firebirds on Sunday in Brisbane.
It was a strange feeling for Laura Langman, returning to Hamilton last week for an elimination semi-final and suiting up for the opposing Australian team, not her home-town Magic side.
In the minutes following last year's ANZ Championship grand final, there were simply no words in the NSW Swifts' change room on what many say was the darkest day of their careers.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander says there are "definitely" national spots still up for grabs.
The recruiting window for netball's new national league will not be opening on Monday as scheduled, as negotiations continue over a new collective bargaining agreement that officials hope will be finalised within two weeks.
ANZ CHAMPIONSHIP GRAND FINAL: QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS v NSW SWIFTS
One of the ANZ Championship's foundation imports will on Sunday end the competition in a far different place than she started, in all but a geographical sense.
Maddy Turner watched last year's famous Queensland-NSW grand final from the family couch in suburban Adelaide, as a teenager with a dream but not, yet, an ANZ Championship team. Her debut season will end on Sunday, in the rematch, Turner having succeeded the great Julie Corletto as the Swifts' first-choice goal defence, and exceeded all expectations.
NSW Swifts coach Rob Wright says his side's emphatic victory on Monday evening has them firmly on track to exact revenge on the Queensland Firebirds in a tantalising grand final rematch.
The trans-Tasman final will be an all-Australian affair for the fourth season in a row.
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