NSW Swifts, GWS Giants will be force in new national netball league

NSW netball teams will feature international stars and have the local talent to be bona fide contenders for the inaugural national netball league despite poaching of their top guns.

Paige Hadley in action for the swifts in 2016.

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AGGRESSIVE scouting from AFL and NRL backed clubs may cream talent from NSW but the Swifts and GWS Giants netball teams will feature international stars and have the local talent to be bona fide contenders for the inaugural national netball league according to the sports boss.

New club, the Collingwood Magpies, is nabbing big names for a ‘super team’ with the potential to beat the majority of netball’s international line-ups thanks to the procurement of multiple key Diamonds squad players.

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Signings, which could be confirmed as early as this week when contracting to the eight teams commences, reportedly includes Swifts defender and fan favourite Sharni Layton and shooter Caitlin Thwaites.

Sharni Layton has major pulling power with fans.

Other Diamonds stars tipped for a Melbourne move include Queensland Firebirds guns Kim Ravaillon and April Brandley and mercurial Vixens mid-courter Madi Robinson if they fit under the $675,000 each club has to spend on its list of 10 contracted athletes

However the CEO of NSW Netball, which will run the Swifts and Giants teams in the new competition, is adamant both clubs will have the talent to combat the losses of marquee players to interstate rivals.

“We are not going to speculate on who is going where until it is finalised. But yes, we are confident we can put up two teams that will be finals contenders next year,’’ Carolyn Campbell said.

Campbell also revealed there will be international stars in both the Swifts and Giants line-ups.

Two of netballs star players are Jamaican Romelda Aiken and Sharni Layton.

The new competition, which includes three new teams in the Magpies, Giants and Lightning, has sparked an unprecedented bidding war for Australian players.

Top shooter Caitlin Bassett is expected to make the move from West Coast Fever to the new Sunshine Coast Lightning team.

Swifts shooter Steph Wood, who recently made her Diamonds debut, is also rumoured to be on the move to Lightning, as is her old Swifts roomie, Silver Ferns star Laura Langman.

But recent Diamonds debutant Kristiana Manu’a is one player tipped to return to NSW after playing the trans-Tasman league in New Zealand last season.

A now pregnant Laura Geitz and Caitlin Thwaites. who played for the Swifts in 2016.

Leading players expected to stay put in NSW include veterans Kim Green and Susan Pettitt and Diamonds squad member Paige Hadley.

Netball Australia last week unveiled a collective bargaining agreement to ward off any attempts by the AFL to nab their stars.

The 80 contracted players in the league will share in a total payment pool of $5.4 million.

The average salary will increase to $67,500 and the minimum wage has doubled to $27,375.

AFL’s new women’s league has a minimum wage of $5,000.

The netballer’s income is protected for up to two years in the event of injury or pregnancy, their health insurance is paid by the club and new mothers will be able to travel with a carer at the club’s expense.

Laura Langman made the move from New Zealand to play with the Swifts in 2016.