It is virtually that point of 12 months once more, as we inch nearer to a ninth season of Tremendous Netball and the world’s greatest league held its pre-season event in Sydney for the primary time over the weekend to present us a glimpse into how every of the eight groups are shaping up for 2024.
There is a brand-new aspect to keep watch over, because the Melbourne Mavericks formally fill the defunct Collingwood Magpies’ spot, whereas final 12 months’s runners-up the NSW Swifts confirmed – because the group with the least quantity of modifications – how advantageous a constant line-up with cemented combos could be as they clinched their first Group Women Cup trophy.
Simply as we’ll do each Monday afternoon of the Tremendous Netball season, we’re right here to deliver you the largest speaking factors of the spherical/weekend. So, let’s have a look at what we learnt throughout an action-packed three-day netball competition at Ken Rosewall Enviornment.
Double blow for the Mavs
As the brand new children on the block, the Mavericks have already received over the netball group with the signings of former England 2018 Commonwealth Video games-winning head coach Tracey Neville, in addition to a bunch of much-loved stars like Amy Parmenter and Eleanor Cardwell.
However the aspect has already been hit laborious with accidents earlier than it has even been in a position to take the court docket for its inaugural Tremendous Netball recreation. Throughout a pre-season pleasant, shooter Sasha Glasgow went down with a compound leg fracture that’s prone to rule her out for the season and on the Group Women Cup we noticed defender Lauren Moore helped off the court docket after she suffered a knee damage.
Moore will go for scans on Monday and plenty of are hoping she is going to keep away from the dreaded season-ending ACL damage that’s sadly so frequent in our sport, but when that’s to be the case, that’ll be two senior gamers worn out for the Mavs.
The group was already up towards it as a start-up franchise due to the short turnaround Tremendous Netball required to fill Collingwood’s spot when it was introduced it will now not proceed within the league final Could, in addition to the drawn-out pay negotiations that meant no person might formally be signed till December.
Factoring in Christmas and the involvement of a few of its gamers at January’s Nations Cup abroad, the aspect has solely had a few months at greatest to arrange. Sadly, that context coupled with these main accidents could have folks questioning if their aspect is probably a bit under-conditioned, to no fault of its personal.
Regardless of a reasonably good first hit-out on the Group Women Cup, the place it registered a draw and suffered two tight losses earlier than battling towards the Giants within the last-place play-off, the group was unable to keep away from the underside of the ladder within the pre-season event.
There have been patches of brilliance and Neville has executed an unbelievable job pulling this group collectively in such a short while. However within the wake of these accidents, there’s fear about the way it will carry out come the season begin on April 13.
As we all know from the Pies instance, early success is essential to constructing a fan base and longevity in a metropolis already occupied by a basis membership just like the Melbourne Vixens.
Will Lightning reside as much as the hype?
Perhaps it was the drawn-out pay negotiations that left gamers sitting on their fingers with out pay for 11 weeks, with an excessive amount of time to consider their future. Perhaps there was simply one thing within the air? However this low season has been essentially the most fascinating in Tremendous Netball’s historical past with some shock motion and big-name signings.
The Sunshine Coast Lightning was the largest winner, managing to nab Australian captain Liz Watson from the Vixens, earlier than luring Diamonds goalkeeper Courtney Bruce throughout the nation from the West Coast Fever.
Each are late into their careers, debuted for his or her dwelling golf equipment, spent the previous 10 years representing these groups as one-club gamers and made their means right into a captaincy place. Their faces not solely felt synonymous with these franchises and the colors they put on but additionally their respective state pathways. It was a shock to see them transfer on and watching them in yellow this weekend felt a bit unusual.
Nonetheless, their signings have introduced a way of hope and pleasure to a group that wowed everybody when it received back-to-back premierships within the first two years of Tremendous Netball (2017/18) however has now missed the finals two years straight.
At Lightning, Watson and Bruce will hyperlink up with their Netball World Cup-winning teammates Steph Fretwell (née Wooden) and Cara Koenen at a home stage, so there was loads of curiosity round how this aspect stacked with Diamonds expertise is gelling in membership land.
It was entertaining watching Watson match up immediately towards her former co-captain Kate Moloney within the midcourt when Lightning performed towards the Vixens, the place loads of bumps between their our bodies made for a bruising encounter. Identical goes for Bruce’s encounter towards her previous teammate, Jamaican purpose shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard within the circle on the ultimate day, as Lightning and Fever performed off for fifth place.
Bruce regarded sharp (13 features) throughout the weekend and was the distinction on this specific match, as her maintain over Shanice Beckford’s two-point shot delay the purpose assault’s likelihood to steal the lead within the closing 30 seconds, earlier than Bruce pounced on the missed try and ship possession again up the Lightning’s finish to seal a two-goal win.
Watson’s connections within the midcourt nonetheless want some work (12 basic play turnovers), as there have been moments over the three days the place there was a breakdown in communication, or she was caught in the identical gap as one other participant. Both means, the group many have tipped as “favourites” this season is monitoring properly and must be higher positioned come the season begin.
Can the Group Women Cup develop into a vacation spot occasion?
Netball Australia was pleased with the 7,707 whole attendance for the Group Women Cup, because it managed to get its greatest consequence on the occasion for the reason that pandemic and doubled the earlier crowd eventually 12 months’s event on the Gold Coast. However there is definitely room for progress, as an analogous pre-season event in basketball for the 2023 NBL Blitz final September noticed greater than 20,000 followers attend.
The Group Women Cup is discovering it powerful to lure folks interstate and though the NSW golf equipment typically do a superb job at filling the stands, Sydneysiders could have been delay attending with the annual Easter Present on and restricted parking out there at Homebush.
The occasion served its goal although for this 12 months, permitting groups to trial an entire vary of combos and expose their coaching companions with such restricted preparation for groups in a brief pre-season. However consequently, it was troublesome for a lot of followers to get a correct gauge on who may be within the working this 12 months, with vastly totally different line-ups run from quarter to quarter and fatigue administration which means among the largest stars sat out video games.
The highest two finishers, the Swifts and Vixens, had no robust want to win the event and the $10,000 prize cash, as an alternative specializing in their objectives to check out their squads.
This method was frequent within the previous NRL Nines collection earlier than rugby league dangled a $1 million cheque over the winner’s heads if a group was in a position to end on high of each the pre-season and official competitors, in a bid to attempt to encourage golf equipment to area their greatest groups and subsequently appeal to followers.
That amount of cash could by no means fairly be out there in netball, a sport nonetheless in debt and within the means of making an attempt to show its monetary standing round after the pandemic, however maybe there’s something on this that netball might study from. Up the stakes and the golf equipment could also be extra dogged of their want to win it, attractive extra followers to return alongside.
The previous two Tremendous Netball grand finals had been offered off to state governments to generate higher prize cash and create a vacation spot occasion. If we sit tight, maybe the Group Women Cup might in the future comply with go well with.
