"....The incumbent standalone national league entities (franchises) will be able compete in the NLS through either affiliating as a new member club of a federation under the relevant rules or amalgamating with an existing member club. As a transitional measure to allow an appropriate timeframe for such changes, in 2021 a national league entity may enter into a partnership with an existing member club through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) approved by NZF and the federation. For the sake of clarity, any partnership means that all players are registered with the partner club and that, should the partner club qualify for the championship, the partner club could operate under the national league entity brand.....".
so actually pretty much the same but no regional rep teams (well except for in the Women's league)