The inaugural Samoa Netball Association Cup 2023 is now officially open as close to 500 netball players from Samoa and abroad get competitions underway from Wednesday.

A first of its kind in Samoa, the official opening ceremony was held on Tuesday evening at the Tuana'imato Multipurpose Stadium ahead of the opening matches for the five teams competing for the cup. 

The tournament brings together over 500 players and supporters from Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. The event also marked a major win for sports tourism.

There was a parade on Tuesday during the official opening ceremony, followed by a brief service to mark the commencement of the tournament, and an ava ceremony to conclude the formalities. 

The objective of the tournament is to bring together the Samoa netball community within and outside the country, so they can further grow the game of netball, with the hope of nurturing players to feed the national team for international competitions. 

Speaking during a press conference on Monday afternoon, the C.E.O. for Netball Samoa, Rosemarie Lome expressed her appreciation for the collaboration and commitment of the teams from Australia and New Zealand who will be competing in this year's competition.

Ms. Lome said that the tournament provides an opportunity to recognise the potential of netball to inspire and empower young netballers, which will feed into the country's national team's pathway going into the future. 

"We need tournaments and games like these just so we can develop our skills and get to that international level. When it comes to national representation, we have to pick the best of the best," she said. "Most of our international games are world-ranking games so it does put a lot of pressure on the country and sometimes it does put pressure on us and we are forced to look elsewhere to pick players. 

"The more we have these types of competitions, the more we can develop our local players. For this tournament, it's all about working together. 

"One of the greatest aspects of this tournament is unity. We are all working together to identify our strengths and help one another to improve. It hasn't been easy but I think all of us working together has made this possible."