Netball Super League 2.0: First Season Overview
- Lauren White
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
London Pulse won the Netball Super League on Sunday after their win against Loughborough Lightning. This season was the first instalment of the newly refreshed Netball Super League, with many fans being vocal about positives and negatives of the league and what could be improved next season.
Additionally, there are many stand out players throughout all 80 plus players in the league including some newcomers and some long standers.
The relaunch promised to improve arena experiences, increase salaries for players and coaches, attract more investors and boost media coverage. This would hope that the fan base would be expanded and elevated netball's status in the sport industry.
The NSL Managing Director, Claire Nelson, said that she hoped the changes would make the league more professional and successful with bigger arenas, new investors and more matches accessible to watch.
Positives in the Netball Super League:
The new era saw that 50% of games would be played in major arenas across the country to draw in bigger crowds and enhance the matchday experience.
New franchise, Nottingham Forest saw 100% of their home games being played at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham with Manchester Thunder playing one of their arena games in Liverpool.
This was a monumental moment for the city as it was the first time Netball returned since the 2019 Netball World Cup.
Some positives that came from the new 2.0 was that all matches were broadcasted and there were more closer games in the regular season.
Having all games broadcasted was a massive boost as more fans were able to watch even if they were not able to attend in person.
Negatives in the Netball Super League:
Due to the restructuring, two new teams were added but four teams missed out on professionalism. Team Bath, Severn Stars, Strathclyde Sirens and Surrey Storm missed out which gave the South West and Scotland no Super League Netball.
Another Negative would be that there was no half-time analysis which would have boosted coverage as more people would stay tuned in to the programme to see what was happening.
Also, there was a lack of crowd noise in attendance when listening to the game on TV apart from the semi-final game with London Pulse vs Loughborough Lightning. This was because sometimes the arenas were too big to pick up the fans.
Standout players in the league:
In the Netball Super League, there were two stand out shooters and two defenders. Thunder’s Elmeré van der Berg and Forest’s Rolene Streutker were key shooters for their sides and were the highest scoring Super Shot players with 83 and 157 respectively.
Alternatively on the other side of the court, Forest’s Jayda Pechova and Pulse’s Funmi Fadoju were stand out players helping their teams defend from stand out shooters.
Goal Defence Funmi Fadoju had the most Interceptions, Deflections, and Gains in the league with 31 Interceptions, 120 Deflections and 77 Gains.
For Jayda Pechova, she was a stand out performer in Goal Keeper with 70 Gains, 56 deflections and 24 deceptions which helped Forest in their inaugural season.
Comments