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Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander says the proliferation of imports in Super Netball will continue to eat away at Australia's player development.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has renewed her call for a cap on imports in Australia's Super Netball league, claiming it is stifling the development of the country's premier young players.
Nine months out from the World Cup in Liverpool, Alexander admitted the sport and the national team are in good health as she reflected on a 3-1 Constellation Cup series win over New Zealand.
However, while Super Netball was a burgeoning showpiece for the sport, she was increasingly anxious about the influx of imported players.
Alexander had previously voiced her concern after the inaugural season, believing England's Commonwealth Games triumph in April could be attributed to their players' exposure to the world-leading Australian league.
Her views have hardened after the second season and will continue into next year, when more than a quarter of the league's 80 contracted players will be from overseas.
"It's a problem for our national programme," Alexander said.
"I understand the philosophy ... to have the world's best competition. So that's what our board has decided.
"(But) We have a restriction on our players getting court time so that's always a concern for me as national coach.
"Particularly our younger players who are knocking at the door - they don't get those opportunities easily."
Eight English players and five from Jamaica have contracts for 2019 in an ideal World Cup lead-in for those top-four nations.
Netball Australia chief executive Marne Fechner has said Super Netball's policy is partly for commercial reasons but also for the good of the game, promoting its growth internationally.
"If we were purely looking at it through a high-performance lens we might make different decisions," Fechner told AAP.
"But for us we aim to deliver the world's best women's league ... and a really diverse international group of athletes competing in it is good for the game."
