Australian domination, changes in coaches, umpires requiring security and the announcement of a new national league - there was plenty to talk about last year.
Netball writer Robert van Royen looks back - and also touches on football and athletics.
Let's start with the not-so-good.
Australia again set the benchmark and the Diamonds edged the Silver Ferns to win their 11th World Cup title in Sydney in August.
Another Constellation Cup series win against the Silver Ferns followed in October, when goal percentage separated the two teams after the series was split 2-2.
Earlier in the year, Australian teams dominated the ANZ Championship.
The Queensland Firebirds romped through the regular season with a record of 11 wins, one draw, one loss,
and went on to topple the New South Wales Swifts in an epic final, 57-56.
New Zealand teams struggled against their Australian counterparts.
The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic's 45-44 win against the Adelaide Thunderbirds in round one was the sole win by a Kiwi side against an Australian team.
The new conference system attracted plenty of criticism, particularly from people across the Ditch, who felt the New Zealand teams were making up numbers at the expense of their teams.
To be fair, they had a point.
Under the old system, which required a top-four finish to make the playoffs, only the Northern Mystics would have squeaked in.
The new system guarantees three teams from each country a spot, something our own Southern Steel benefited from, when it made the playoffs despite winning just three of its 13 regular-season games.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
In a somewhat surprising move, Dunedin's Janine Southby was appointed
the new Silver Ferns coach in November.
She replaced Waimarama Taumaunu, who stepped aside after four years in the job.
Southby, who co-coached the Steel in 2012 and was head coach the past three years, will lead the Silver Ferns to the 2019 World Cup in England.
She named her first squad last month and did not waste any time in making a statement, when she left out shooter Malia Paseka and defender Phoenix Karaka for not meeting fitness standards.
They will get a chance to get back in Southby's good books when another camp is held later this month, but the Silver Ferns are not scheduled to play until August.
Noeline Taurua, who was widely tipped to get the Silver Ferns gig, took the vacant Steel coaching job.
BREDIN UNDER FIRE
It turns out netball fans can be nasty. Just ask Dunedin-based umpire Jono Bredin, who received extra security at ANZ Championship games after a drawn match between the Pulse and the Steel.
He was heavily criticised on social media, particularly by Pulse fans, who felt he wrongfully penalised their team in the dying minutes of the 55-55 draw.
The call in question was against Pulse captain Katrina Grant, whom Bredin penalised for contact outside the circle, before advancing the penalty next to the goal post, where Jhaniele Fowler-Reid scored the match-tying goal.
Grant was infuriated with the call, and voiced her frustrations at Bredin after the final whistle.
She was warned and given a suspended ban by the league. The threatening criticism on social media prompted the league to beef up security for Bredin and other league umpires.
Bredin deactivated his Twitter account, but has since reactivated it.
NEW NATIONAL LEAGUE
After years of languishing in Australia's shadow, Netball New Zealand [NNZ] has finally decided to take action. A new national league will begin in April and run in conjunction with the ANZ Championship between April and June.
It replaces the week-long national championships, and it is hoped it will increase the player depth and quality of players in the country.
NNZ confirmed league details in November, with each zone - Northern, Waikato-BOP, Central, Mainland and South - having a team.
The five teams will play a double round-robin, before the top two teams meet in the final in Auckland on June 26.
Former Otago coach Lauren Piebenga will coach the South team.
SOUTHERN STEEL
Three wins, two draws and eight losses was somehow enough for the Steel to sneak into the playoffs under the new conference system.
Its most memorable game was a thrilling 50-49 win against the Pulse in Dunedin, where Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler-Reid scored the winner in the final seconds.
While her shooting percentage was 6% down from her first two seasons with the team, she still shot 607 from 697 (87.08%).
Fowler-Reid also became the franchise's leading scorer, when she surpassed Daneka Wipiiti's tally (1247) early in the season.
The 1.98m Jamaican took her tally to 1804 by the end of the season. Had the Steel been able to close out games - it lost the fourth quarter in six of its nine losses - things would been different.
But the youthful team should only be better this year, particularly with the emergence of wing attack Gina Crampton and goal attack Te Paea Selby-Rickit.
FOOTBALL
Southern United sure does it tough in the ASB Premiership.
After finishing dead last in the league last season, it has gone into the Christmas break of this season at the bottom of the ladder.
Just one win from six games leaves it on three points, and an awful long shot at making the semifinals.
The side has mustered just four goals of its own, while it has leaked 14.
To make matters worse, captain Matt Joy is departing for the police force, meaning coach Mike Fridge needs to find a new captain mid-season for the second straight year.
ATHLETICS
In a year the Russian doping scandal overshadowed the sport, Tori Peeters was Otago's standout athlete.
The 21-year-old defended her national javelin title and extended her national and Otago records to 55.14m in Melbourne.
She competed in the World University Games in South Korea in July, and finished sixth in a tough field.
King's High School pupil Felix McDonald (17) represented New Zealand the first time, when he was selected for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.
He finished fifth in the long jump and 110m hurdles, while he was seventh in the 400m hurdles.
The first half of the track and field season on the new Caledonian Ground track is compete, but there is still plenty to look forward to, most notably the national track and field championships from March 4-6.
HEAD-SCRATCHERS
The curtain-raiser after the main event
Netball New Zealand's decision to schedule national league matches after ANZ Championship games is odd. It will be interesting to see how many fans stick around after the feature match.
Mediocrity rewarded
The ANZ Championship conference system, which makes it possible for a team to win three of 13 games and still make the playoffs.
Hanging on
Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic and Silver Ferns defender Leana de Bruin (38) refuses to go away. But what is more surprising than her decision to keep playing is Silver Ferns coach Janine Southby's decision to pick her in this year's squad.
Premier netball on a social grade night
Dunedin Netball has moved its premier A grade matches to a Thursday night after all clubs voted in the change for next season. Premier grade club sport on a weeknight just seems wrong.
Good odds
Just eight people entered the Otago 10,000m championships at the Caledonian Ground across all age groups last month. In other words, runners were guaranteed a podium spot in an event which used to attract droves of runners.
