NSW Swifts coach Rob Wright remains unfazed that the heart of his side from last year was ripped apart for the sake of the new Super Netball competition.
Wright put in three years as head coach of the Swifts, guiding them to two grand finals.
However, amid the much-hyped relaunch of the competition, his roster lost a remarkable 811 elite club games of experience, including Diamonds players Susan Pettitt, Kim Green, Caitlin Thwaites and Sharni Layton, as well as Taylah Davies, Steph Wood and Silver Ferns star Laura Langman
Yet Wright was upbeat after his new-look Swifts succumbed 58-53 to the more fancied Giants in the season-opener at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre on Saturday.
"It's good for the sport because having three new teams in this competition is an outstanding thing for netball in this country," Wright said.
"It's a terrific thing and I see it as a bit of a compliment that six players went to the three new sides.
"It's just a great challenge as a coach to say 'Right, we start again and we see what we can build'. Today was really day one of that. We'll just see where we go every week."
The departures have opened opportunities for new players, such as Sam Wallace, the Trinidad and Tobago shooter who produced an eye-catching 34-goal performance.
"Sam could be anything," Wright said.
"She was here for Worlds last year and she's lucky she played here because she would have been freaked out by the stadium otherwise.
Where she lives, she doesn't even have a gym, it's going to be amazing to see where she is by the end of the season."
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