Super Netball contract signing 2021: Caitlin Bassett snubbed, free agency and done deals
Former Diamonds skipper Caitlin Bassett has offered an incredible sacrifice to reignite her career after a contract snub which has stunned Super Netball.
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Former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett says she would play for free to reignite her Super Netball career and earn the chance to push back into the national team.
Speaking in a radio interview with Bill Woods on Sydney’s 2GB, Bassett – who was left without a full-time Super Netball deal for next season at the end of the contracting period – said she was willing to put her hand up for a position as a training partner with one of the clubs to try and maintain her place in the Diamonds squad.
Bassett gained a release from her Super Netball contract with the Giants at the end of the 2020 season and played in New Zealand this year with the Wiakato-Bay of Plenty Magic.
While the Magic won just one of their 15 games to finish in last place on the ladder, Bassett had a strong season, shooting at 92 per cent accuracy (474/518) despite being hampered by ongoing knee issues.
SUPER NETBALL TRADE CENTRE – EVERY SIGNING, EVERY CLUB
But having decided not to return to the ANZ Championship and remain in Australia, where she has recently undergone surgery on both knees, Bassett missed out on a Super Netball contract, with all eight clubs retaining their incumbent goal shooters.
“I don’t know what the future holds but I know that whatever it takes, I’m willing to do,” Bassett told Woods.
“If it takes being a training partner at a club, I’m willing to put my hand up and go back to square one, which is being that young player who still lives at home with their family and gets paid zero dollars.
“If that’s what the future holds for me in order to try and be an Australian Diamond, I’m willing to do that.”
While seven of the eight starting goal shooters last year were internationals, Bassett has not just missed out to overseas stars.
Five clubs have elevated former training partners to positions in their shooting circle, while two others clubs – Collingwood Magpies (Sophie Garbin) and Adelaide Thunderbirds (Tippah Dwan), recruited Australian goalers from other clubs, while West Coast Fever maintained the same line-up as last year.
Diamonds squad member Garbin, in particular, will challenge for a starting spot at the Magpies.
Even if she is signed as a training partner though, it won’t mean regular game time for Bassett.
Super Netball coaches do not have the ability to go outside their full-time contracted players for form reasons, only elevating players from the training list in the case of injury or illness.
It’s the reason the Australian Netball Players Association argued for rookie contracts, which would have given coaches the ability to pick a match-day 10 on form from their squad of full-time contracted players and two rookies.
But financial constraints meant that proposal did not make the final Collective Player Agreement and Bassett would have to train with a club and rely on her efforts there getting her ready for international competition.
But it’s a path she seems ready to take.
“I guess I just want to show other young players that not everyone’s journey is the same and if you work hard and you do the right things and you don’t take no for an answer, then you can find yourself in the position you want to be,” she said.
Clubs are expected to fill their training partner positions in the coming weeks.
CONTRACT THAT COULD HAVE STOPPED BASSETT FARCE
A rookie contract proposal that could have saved the Super Netball career of former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett was rejected during the recent collective player agreement talks.
The Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) pushed for a rookie system as part of the recent pay talks to help bridge the gap from the pathway system to the elite league.
The proposal — for each club to add two rookies at a pay level below minimum wage but above the $5000 honorarium now paid to part-time training members — would have cost clubs about $60,000 each, including match payments and health insurance.
SUPER NETBALL TRADE CENTRE – EVERY SIGNING, EVERY CLUB
The move would have expanded each club’s squad to 12, including the two rookies, with coaches to choose a match-day team of 10 on form.
Rookies would earn match payments if they were elevated.
While there was substantial support for the idea, financial constraints meant it was ultimately rejected, with the status quo standing.
Bassett has been left without a club for 2022 despite being a member of the national squad.
It’s unclear whether the 33-year-old, who played in New Zealand this year before undergoing clean-out surgery on both knees in the off-season, would have qualified as a “rookie” given her standing in the game.
But if rookie contracts were available, clubs may have been prepared to list Bassett in their 10 rather than elevate a training partner to the main group, if they had the safety net of a rookie goaler in the wings.
ANPA chief executive Kathryn Harby-Williams said the body had pushed hard for the rookie positions.
“Across the sport there was agreement that it was a good idea,” Harby-Williams said. “Unfortunately, in the end, we couldn’t get it across the line because of the financial negotiations.
“Initially, we as a playing group wanted it mandated … (but) it’s off the table at the moment. But we will revisit it and we will constantly press forward to try and (get it across the line).
“If it’s not two rookies to start with, one perhaps but, as a sport, it’s a really good concept for everybody really. The sport’s in agreement that that’s the way we should head.”
The Collective Player Agreement (CPA) was agreed on by ANPA and Netball Australia and delivered significant pay rises for all players, maintaining their position as the country’s best-paid female domestic athlete.
NA boss Kelly Ryan said it was unlikely rookies would be added in the current broadcast cycle.
“We have set out that we want 10 players and two training partners,” Ryan said of the agreement. “We will always look at what the best model is, if at any time we want to increase list sizes. But we’ve all agreed — ANPA, teams and ourselves (NA) — that this is the right model for where we are at this particular point.”
But that could come at a cost, with Harby-Williams pointing to the loss last week of a pair of former Melbourne Vixens players to the UK Super League after they were unable to break into the Super Netball ranks.
“The classic example to me was when Tayla Honey and Sasha McDonald (were signed by London),” Harby-Williams said. “They’re young talented players who have been training partners for a period of time and haven’t picked up a contract.
“They either remain doing what they’ve done for a number of years or the only option that’s available to them if they want to take a step up is to look elsewhere.
“As an Australian netball fraternity, we don’t want that to happen. You could argue that they were perfect candidates for rookie positions because that’s the next step up.”
The axing of the second-tier Australian Netball League has left Bassett with few options ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games other than to head overseas or accept a position as a training partner with one of the Super Netball clubs.
NETBALL GREAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR COUNTRY, NOT DOMESTIC
Former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett’s professional career is at a crossroads after she was left without a Super Netball contract in what has been described as an “appalling” and “confronting” situation.
Trade period for the world’s best netball competition will end on Friday and Bassett — still a member of the national squad — will not have a full-time contract with any of the eight clubs.
It leaves Bassett, who is recovering from clean-out surgery on both knees in the off-season, working with the Diamonds on a creative solution to try to find court time in a suitable competition to ensure she is able to compete for a spot in Australia’s Commonwealth Games side next year.
It’s a situation former Australia coach Lisa Alexander has described as “appalling”.
But former Diamonds captain Liz Ellis, while acknowledging the situation was difficult, backed the Super Netball teams’ right to support their incumbent players, pointing instead to the lack of a sufficient second-tier competition.
“If Caitlin was considered good enough, the fact of the matter is that someone would have picked her up,” Ellis said.
Bassett and Ellis then traded blows on social media over her snubbing from the Super Netball competition.
“It’s hard to show you are ‘good enough’ when getting sat on the bench & pigeon holed into a rebounding role,” Bassett responded. “How can a player be ‘good enough’ to be in the Australian squad but not make the court in SSN?”
Hey Liz, it’s hard to show you are ‘good enough’ when getting sat on the bench & pigeon holed into a rebounding role. How can a player be ‘good enough’ to be in the Australian Squad but not make the court in SSN? 🤔 https://t.co/xJJTQil92v
— Caitlin Bassett (@CBassNetball) October 7, 2021
Ellis fired back, however.
“Caitlin they are excellent questions that I don’t have the answers to. They are probably best answered by the people who make the recruiting decisions,” she said.
“I can only surmise by the fact that you don’t have a contract that they deemed you not good enough.
“At the end of the day no one has a right to an SSN contract.”
Caitlin they are excellent questions that I don’t have the answers to. They are probably best answered by the people who make the recruiting decisions. I can only surmise by the fact that you don’t have a contract that they deemed you not good enough. I was asked my opinion and
— Liz Ellis (@LizzyLegsEllis) October 7, 2021
Alexander, who led the Diamonds to two world championship titles and Commonwealth Games gold while Bassett was a member of the team, was not in favour of Netball Australia’s “hands off” approach to Super Netball contracting, saying the national body should have played a part in ensuring Bassett had a team to return to after a season playing in New Zealand.
“It should have been proactively managed months ago when ‘CBass’ (Bassett) got back from New Zealand and it was clear she wasn’t going to stay,” Alexander said.
“They owe it to CBass. She was in two wins for them for World Cups.
“Does she deserve this sort of treatment? No, it’s appalling. It is an appalling situation.”
Current Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich acknowledged it was a unique situation but said there was no rule preventing Bassett’s selection if she was not playing at the top level.
“Not having a contract, that’s when you’ve got to look at being creative and having those discussions about what it is we need to do to see her playing and go through that process,” Marinkovich said.
“It’s a situation we haven’t been in before and there’s no rule book or text book that tells you the process to follow and that’s the part where we can build a good system around her.
“There’s certainly nothing in our policy that says you have to be playing Suncorp Super Netball or an equal level of competition.
“So that keeps that door open and we’ve got to be a bit creative, have those discussions and work through what those opportunities can be.”
Ellis said Bassett would be “incredibly disappointed”.
“She clearly still feels like she’s got plenty to offer the game but nowhere to do it and no base to start from,” Ellis said.
“So she’s in a very difficult position. Just about all of the goal shooter positions are renewals rather than anyone picking up anyone new, so not only is she looking for a contract but she’s up against the fact that just about every goal shooter signed is an incumbent and it’s really hard to push out an incumbent.”
Plenty of focus has been on Super Netball’s lack of a cap on imports, or limit on imports in key positions but Ellis was in favour of market forces in a league pegging itself as the world’s best.
“I’m probably on my own here by saying it’s not a massive issue,” she said.
“If Caitlin was considered good enough, the fact of the matter is that someone would have picked her up.
“If she was considered good enough to bustle her way in over an incumbent goal shooter, then she would have been picked up, it’s not like the coaches have all got together and said, ‘no, we don’t want her’.
“It’s not Super Netball that’s the issue, it’s the fact that there’s no underpinning competition.”
That has left Bassett with a difficult decision, given she may need to take on a role as a training partner with one of the Super Netball clubs — a position usually reserved for an emerging player — to ensure she is at least able to train regularly against the league’s best and be in the position to step up in the case of injury.
Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) chief executive Kathryn Harby-Williams has been in regular contact with Bassett, lending the 33-year-old support in a difficult time.
“It’s a terrible situation that Caitlin finds herself in, it’s quite confronting and I’ve been in regular contact with her, so it’s not an easy time for her,” said Harby-Williams, also a former Diamonds captain.
“She’s been great for our game, she’s finding herself in a really difficult situation and I’m here to support her. This is a unique situation and that’s why I really feel for Caitlin.
“It’s hard to believe that a former national captain is in the situation that she’s in but that’s where we’re at right now and as a representative of the playing group, I need to make sure that I’m there to help here any way I can so we’ve been regularly communicating.”
RACE IS ON FOR FINAL SPOT
Only one spot remains in the 2022 Super Netball rosters as trade period enters its final day.
Seven of the eight Super Netball teams have finalised their full-time lists for next season, with the Queensland Firebirds the only club with a contract available ahead of Friday’s signing period deadline.
The Firebirds need a defender, meaning former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett is almost certain to be without a domestic contract heading into a Commonwealth Games year.
The Firebirds already having three shooters locked in — Romelda Aiken, Gretel Bueta and Mia Stower — and with all the other clubs’ lists full, Bassett may again have to look to overseas if she is to make a Commonwealth Games bid.
Super Netball will also resume with fewer internationals in 2022 regardless of who the Firebirds sign.
Five players — Nat Haythornthwaite (NSW Swifts), Kalifa McCollin (Collingwood Magpies), Shadine van der Merwe (Adelaide Thunderbirds), Phumza Maweni and Peace Proscovia (both Sunshine Coast Lightning) — have been released from their Super Netball contracts, with no new internationals so far committing to the league.
Super Netball has no cap on international players — either for the league as a whole or for each club — something that has caused consternation among some who believe it blocks the pathway to the world’s best competition for emerging talent.
But there will be an influx of new blood next year, with at least 11 former training partners and pathway players elevated to the senior list as clubs turn their gaze to the future.
Each of the departing players is an international, so the show of faith in local talent from club bosses is enormous.
But it also raises questions about the ability of a competition that holds itself as the best in the world to continue to attract international stars as long as Covid continues to impact the league.
The 2020 season was played entirely in a hub in Queensland, while players this year were shuffled from state to state as rolling Covid shutdowns threatened to derail the league.
There’s little doubt though that the best in the world — outside of New Zealand — call Super Netball home.
Scroll below to see the signings made by every club this off-season.
SUPER NETBALL 2022
SWIFTS
2021 finish: Premiers
Signed: Maddy Proud, Paige Hadley, Sarah Klau, Maddy Turner, Helen Housby, Sam Wallace, Tayla Fraser, Allie Smith, Teigan O’Shannassy, Kelly Singleton
Departed: Sophie Garbin (Collingwood), Lauren Moore (Giants), Nat Haythornthwaite (Manchester Thunder – England)
Added: Allie Smith (Vixens), Teigan O’Shannassy, Kelly Singleton (elevated training partners)
Last year’s premiers have lost some big names in Garbin, Haythornthwaite and Moore but in retaining their entire starting side, they have a team that will help them challenge for back-to-back Super Netball titles.
GIANTS
2021 finish: Minor premiers, grand finalists
Signed: Jo Harten, Sophie Dwyer, Jamie-Lee Price, Maddy Hay, Amy Parmenter, April Brandley, Tilly McDonell, Lauren Moore, Amy Sligar, Matisse Letherbarrow
Departed: Kiera Austin (Vixens), Kristiana Manu’a (Central Pulse, New Zealand), Sam Poolman (retired)
Added: Lauren Moore (Swifts), Matisse Letherbarrow (training partner), Amy Sligar (training partner)
Kiera Austin is the big loss but after the rise of teen goaler Sophie Dwyer, her move to the Vixens suits the balance of the team. The key to the Giants’ performance will be in defence though, where former Swift Lauren Moore will move into the circle and Tilly McDonell gets the chance to step up against some of the best shooters in the world after Sam Poolman’s retirement.
FEVER
2021 finish: Third
Signed: Dan Ryan (coach), Jhaniele Fowler, Courtney Bruce, Verity Charles, Jess Anstiss, Alice Teague-Neeld, Sasha Glasgow, Emma Cosh, Stacey Francis-Bayman, Sunday Aryang, Rudi Ellis
Departed: Stacey Marinkovich (Diamonds), Olivia Lewis (Vixens)
Added: Dan Ryan (coach), Rudi Ellis (Firebirds)
The Fever have made just one move – bringing Firebirds defender Rudi Ellis in for Olivia Lewis, who heads to the Vixens – with the players believing they missed a massive opportunity to push for a premiership in Stacey Marinkovich’s last year in charge. Expect this motivated group to hit the ground running and be there at the end.
LIGHTNING
2021 finish: Fourth
Signed: Karla Pretorius, Mahalia Cassidy, Laura Scherian, Kate Shimmin, Cara Koenen, Steph Wood, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, Tara Hinchliffe, Reilley Batcheldor, Annie Miller
Departed: Maddy McAuliffe (legal career), Phumza Maweni (TBA), Peace Proscovia (Surrey Storm – England), Ash Unie (likely training partner)
Added: Kadie-Ann Dehaney (Vixens), Tara Hinchliffe (Firebirds), Reilley Batcheldor (Firebirds training partner), Annie Miller (Giants training partner)
The Lightning have been active in the trade market, picking up proven young defenders Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Tara Hinchliffe, while giving training partners Reilley Batcheldor and Annie Miller a chance in a long-term strategic play.
FIREBIRDS
2021 finish: Fifth
Signed: Gabi Simpson, Kim Ravaillion, Lara Dunkley, Kim Jenner, Romelda Aiken, Gretel Bueta, Ruby Bakewell-Doran, Mia Stower, Jemma Mi Mi
Departed: Tara Hinchliffe (Lightning), Tippah Dwan (Thunderbirds), Rudi Ellis (Fever), Reilley Batcheldor (training partner – Lightning)
Added: Ruby Bakewell-Doran (elevated training partner), Mia Stower (elevated training partner)
Need a defender to finalise their list. Can the Firebirds attract an elite goalkeeper to support Kim Jenner in defence?
MAGPIES
2021 finish: Sixth
Signed: Geva Mentor, Jodie-Ann Ward, Ash Brazill, Kelsey Browne, Molly Jovic, Shimona Nelson, Gabrielle Sinclair, Jacqui Newton, Sophie Garbin, Maggie Lind
Departed: Melissa Bragg (released), Kalifa McCollin (released)
Added: Sophie Garbin (Swifts), Maggie Lind (elevated training partner)
The Magpies were the first team to lock in their full list for 2022, returning eight players from last year’s squad in a remarkable show of stability and signing Sophie Garbin from the Swifts in one of the biggest trades of the season.
THUNDERBIRDS
2021 finish: Seventh
Signed: Hannah Petty, Maisie Nankivell, Georgie Horjus, Shamera Sterling, Latanya Wilson, Tippah Dwan, Elle McDonald, Matilda Garrett, Lenize Potgieter, Tayla Williams
Departed: Shadine van der Merwe (Manchester Thunder – England), Samantha Gooden (released)
Added: Tippah Dwan (Firebirds), Tayla Williams (elevated training partner)
The addition of Tippah Dwan to the goal circle gives the Firebirds a dynamic line-up in the circle but it’s also the shortest in the league and they could struggle against tall defenders. They’ll be banking on their homegrown talent to mature.
VIXENS
2021 finish: Eighth
Signed: Ten – Liz Watson, Kate Moloney, Jo Weston, Emily Mannix, Kate Eddy, Mwai Kumwenda, Kiera Austin, Rahni Samason, Hannah Mundy, Olivia Lewis
Departed: Kadie-Ann Dehaney (Lightning), Kaylia Stanton (released), Ruby Barkmeyer (likely training partner)
Added: Kiera Austin (Giants), Olivia Lewis (Fever), Rahni Samason (elevated training partner), Hannah Mundy (elevated training partner)
With the world’s best wing attack, Liz Watson, returning from injury, and the addition of Diamonds squad member Kiera Austin, the Vixens are again being regarded as genuine title threats despite finishing with the wooden spoon in 2021
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