Time can often be the best judge of how good a sporting team was.
Sometimes it takes that distance to realise exactly what a side achieved.
That is certainly the case for the 1998 Otago Rebels.
The Southern Sting were a true dynasty, winning every national netball title from 1999-2004.
But it was no match for their neighbours in blue and gold the year before — the Rebels capping an unbeaten season by beating the Sting 57-50 in the final at the Edgar Centre.
It was the first national competition of its kind, but the team had been building in the years before the win.
A core of the players had won the national club title with Albion the year before, as well as being in the Otago NPC team.
While some of the details of that final were hazy, shooter Jo Morrison said many of the players remained great friends and still looked back on the season fondly.
"We always had a very fierce rivalry with our Southland counterparts, it was awesome.
"The Otago public was right behind us, I remember people were queueing to get tickets and [the final] was a sell-out early in the week.
"For us it was about keeping it pretty basic, not getting over-anxious or over-hyped.
"I don’t remember the game that much.
"But looking at the footage recently, I was quite amazed at how quick our ball speed was back then, which is pretty cool to see that.
"We had some really skilful players in our team. They’d be up there with some of the best players we’ve had in the country in our netball history."
A lot has happened since then.The Otago Rebels played their last game in 2007, combining with the Sting to form the Southern Steel.
That was the beginning of the transtasman competition, which has also been and gone, folding in 2016.
However, the game has become increasingly professional and the money involved was the biggest change.
In 1998 — the first year of professional netball — the Rebels players received $25 per game and an additional $25 a win.
That left them "pretty determined to win", Morrison joked.
There was also a sign-on fee, which varied between players and could be up to $1000.
"It wasn’t huge amounts of money but for us as students and being paid, it was pretty awesome."
As far as the game itself went, though, she felt much had remained the same.
"I think the fact we loved the game so much and we functioned well as a team, I don’t think that’s any different now from what it was then.
"That’s what you want to achieve in a sports team.
"I think the fundamentals are the same. The game is slightly more physical, but I was pleasantly surprised when I looked back at the video footage.
"It was really fast paced, lots of open space and really skilful netball that we put out there. It was a good product."
Another key difference came in the new set-up.
In the new zonal system Otago and Southland merged to form Netball South, meaning the regional rivalry no longer existed.
"The Otago public are amazing supporters, when your team’s winning they’re right behind you.
"You saw that in the rugby and the netball in 1998 and all around that era.
"Unfortunately for us now we don’t have an Otago netball team.
"In yesteryear Otago and Southland had huge rivalries, so to merge and for it to logistically work can be challenging.
"We’re really on the right track to getting it right, but geographically, it’s a huge area to catch everybody and get the backing of both.
"Southland have got amazing support and Otago have too, but I think that parochialism has been lost a little bit by merging the two."
