The good news is Otago will remain under-21 champion in perpetuity.
The bad news is the cup has already been returned and will be put into the Netball New Zealand [NNZ] archives.
But unless the tournament is reinstated at some stage in the future, Otago will be the last team to have its name engraved on it.
The Lois Muir Challenge and the under-21 national championships have been replaced by an under-23 national age group tournament, which will be held in Wellington from July 15-18.
The 19-23 age group was identified as an area with a high drop-off of player numbers, so NNZ's solution is to initiate an under-23 competition to bridge the gap between club, age-group and secondary school levels and provide a pathway for players and coaches, as well as umpires and other officials, towards the ANZ Championship.
''History has shown that often, players take a break from netball during this time due to study or travel and, when returning to netball at age 21 or 22, have missed the window of opportunity to compete at the under-21 level and are not as prepared for the step up to the ANZ Championship,'' NNZ operations director Kate Agnew said.
New Zealand's five netball zones will select a team to represent their zone. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format followed by semifinals and a final, alongside the under-19 national championships.
