Confronting Super Netball’s biggest issues: What’s next for the sport at the elite level?

With Project Super Netball 2.0 underway, EMMA GREENWOOD explores the league’s ‘super power’, the solution to its player logjam, how Hutchy’s Mavericks want to drive change and more.

The simple solution to Super Netball’s player logjam is expansion.

Growth is a buzzword at Netball Australia headquarters, where project Super Netball 2.0 is being carried out as former Cricket Australia broadcast and commercial boss Stephanie Beltrame engages the game’s stakeholders to help design the future of the world’s best league.

Super Netball clubs may not all agree on exactly what that growth looks like or the pace at which it should proceed but there seems little debate over whether there should be movement at all.

Netball’s super power is the enormity of the game at grassroots level, with more than a million participants in the sport nationwide.

The Thunderbirds have won two consecutive titles with a mix of local talent and star imports. Picture: Maya Thompson/Getty Images

But with clubs adamant Super Netball should remain the best competition in the world, and no interest in capping import numbers, something has to give to ensure local talent has a pathway to the top in a league that still has only 80 full-time contracts available almost a decade after competition started.

Adding another round of fixtures to the schedule is seen as the easiest, quickest and most economical way to increase playing opportunities, while also maximising clubs’ chances to raise crucial revenue.

But some argue a sudden jump from 14 home-and-away matches to a 21-game season - one that would be approaching the length of an NRL or AFL season - in which the same teams meet three times, provides little extra interest for fans.

MAVERICK BY NAME AND NATURE

When SEN boss Craig Hutchison snaffled the eighth licence last year following the demise of Collingwood, he promised to do things differently.

After a horror on-court run with injuries that claimed two players before the opening centre pass of the season, the Mavs only narrowly missed the finals in their maiden campaign. But they are not content to stay still and it should be no surprise they want to help drive change in the game.

“We’d like to see it grow in length of season, more games, and we pretty much embrace the idea of growth in the league and more teams,” Hutchison said.

“We’re new and respectful of the history and appreciative of the opportunity to be in the league in the first place - but with that said, our view is that players want to play.

Craig Hutchison wants to drive Super Netball change. Picture: Supplied

“The pre-season has a disproportionate amount of games in it and for us to continue to be the elite league, having more, meaningful matches that really matter would showcase our brand sport better and improves our overall position as a television product and an in-venue product.

“The broadcast trajectory is strong, the next deal is in a couple of years from now and we think there’s absolutely room for a ninth and 10th licence.”

SEN has various stakes in basketball teams in the NBL and WNBL, as well as in New Zealand but Hutchison could see the value in netball - both in the sporting and commercial sense.

And growth seems a no-brainer.

“As a business that invests in lots of sports, we’ve been really overwhelmed by the potential in this one … it’s one of the most engaged sports we’ve come across, the fan base is incredible, the product’s brilliant, the athleticism’s great, the TV ratings are growing … over a million participants.

“We haven’t even scratched the surface yet of the league and where it could go.”

THE GROWTH DILEMMA

The manner of growth will be debated though.

Several clubs who spoke to Code Sports preferred a two-step model where playing lists were added to before the number of clubs in the league increased.

Netball Queensland and Firebirds CEO Kate Davies, along with Adelaide Thunderbirds boss Bronwyn Klei, believe playing more games is the first step in adding content.

Davies pushed for the inclusion of four training partners in last year’s CPA negotiations, players that would compete for selection each week, providing competitive tension within the squad while allowing for load management of internationals that would likely have to take place in a longer domestic season.

Import Romelda Aiken-George has been a star player for Adelaide. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

“It just means that competitive tension is there, and those girls feel like they’ve got an opportunity to get on the court any given week as a training partner,” Davies said.

“And that also expands the list size for all intents and purposes - because we’re competing with the big lists of AFLW and NRLW.”

While that idea was ultimately rejected, with the 11th player, or nominated athlete eventually added to lists last season, the extended training partner model remains an option if extra fixtures are added - something that could be rolled out before the end of the current broadcast cycle.

“I think the first step (in expansion) is extending the amount of games we all play, the amount of times we play each other,” Davies said.

“If we can’t do that in immediate future, the only way I think you can increase the squad size, is by utilising the training partners more and allowing them a playing opportunity.

“When you do expand to more games, you do need to expand the actual contracted list to carry the load. So it’s got to be more games with a bigger list, and then you move to more teams.”

Future of Super Netball

PART 1: ‘Nearly too late’: Ticking time bomb facing Super Netball

CHAMPS’ OWN BLUEPRINT

The Adelaide Thunderbirds have won the last two premierships with a mix of local talent and some of the best players in world netball, who have helped drag a young group up to the top level by building a relentless competitive environment.

Netball South Australia and T-Birds CEO Bronwyn Klei believes the league’s expansion needs to follow the same model.

“I think it does need to be a staged approach, because the last thing you want to do is dilute the talent,” Klei said.

Netball SA, Thunderbirds CEO Bronwyn Klei says expansion must be staged. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Emma Brasier

“Everybody wants to be the best in the world, but how many businesses actually have the opportunity to have something that is the best in the world?

“If you can own a competitive advantage like that, that is something worth fighting for and hanging on to, in my view.

“(Expansion) has got to be staged, and it’s got to be measured. You’ve got to be making sure that if there are new teams, you’re putting them in locations where there are facilities, where there are fans, where people are going to come, where you’re setting them up for success for the future.”

Klei believes Super Netball Reserves, the competition successfully piloted last season, will “contribute enormously” to providing opportunities for rising Australian talent.

But she said the role of imports could not be overlooked either.

“Those marquee international players, they had excitement,” Klei said of players like Thunderbirds Shamera Sterling, Latanya Wilson and Romelda Aiken-George - one of the international pioneers.

“Fans come and watch them, they give the media something to write about, they absolutely add to the league.

“And the other thing is it’s got to increase the standard for our young Australians - because if you want to be the best in the world, you’ve got to play at that level.”

BEEN HERE BEFORE

While Beltrame’s Super Netball 2.0 report will summarise the opinions of all stakeholders and make recommendations, it’s important to remember, we’ve been here before.

The State of the Game Review, led by now-NA chair Liz Ellis and released in 2020, may have taken a whole of game view but among its key recommendations were aligning player pathways and high performance programs with Super Netball, and making “Super Netball the commercial jewel in the crown of Australian netball by capitalising on growth and realising its full potential”.

That was four long years ago.

“If you look at that report, none of that has happened or been acted upon,” one source said of the report that was essentially put in a drawer at NA headquarters.

But there needs to be an urgency this time around.

Netball Australia Chair Liz Ellis led a State of the Game review in 2020 but little has changed. Picture: Jason O'Brien/Getty Images

With crucial rights negotiations likely to open mid next year, England Netball touting its revamped Super League 2.0 as a future best league in the world, and New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership starting at an uncertain future, Australia cannot leave the future of Super Netball to chance.

Netball New Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie would not completely close the door on a reunion of some kind.

“There is always the chance of that next iteration, you have got to keep ensuring your relevance to fans and consumers, so I think any decision around what a future state it might look like, whether it be a crossover or a trans-Tasman league, it needs to be in the eyes of what the consumers actually want and what is the right thing for the game,” Wyllie told Code Sports in September.

“Looking forward, I think we have to be driven by some clear objectives of what both parties would be after, but also what the consumer wants and how fans want to engage with the game – that’s super important.”

Grace Nweke will line up for the Swifts in 2025. Could we see New Zealand enter the SSN? Picture: May Bailey

NA boss Stacey West acknowledged conversations with her Kiwi counterparts but said there was no further progress on “the specific nature of New Zealand’s involvement in Suncorp Super Netball”.

“We will absolutely continue to explore what growth is for the league, but that will fall in line with that strategic plan process and understanding what opportunities present for the league,” she said.

“I think we’ve seen a change. We’ve seen an athlete who’s now made herself available to come across and play in season 2025 in Grace Nweke and we have a really great relationship with netball New Zealand.

“We’re still working through (Super Netball participation) but I think the relationship between the two nations is good and strong.”

JUST DO IT

If there’s someone who knows exactly what is possible when it comes to expansion though, it’s Mavericks chief executive Shae Bolton-Brown.

When the Mavericks were awarded the eighth Super Netball licence last year following the demise of the Collingwood Magpies, Bolton-Brown was tasked with getting the operation off the ground in just months.

Despite NA and players being locked in a bitter pay dispute that lingered for months, the Mavericks were able to fly off a short runway and take flight in season 2024.

“To me, the lever to pull is more teams,” Bolton-Brown said on expansion.

Melbourne Mavericks CEO, Shae Bolton-Brown built the new team up in just a few months. Picture: Jason Edwards

“It was a difficult thing to start up a club in a short amount of time, but it was also possible, we did it.

“It was just proof that you can do that and from what we’ve learned, I think it can be replicated.

“I think that there’s a there’s a lot of missed moments in time, and if we’re too conservative, we might miss that moment to really make sure that we keep putting netball at the top of the agenda and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible … making sure that we’re balancing both commercial outcome and high performance outcome.

“But taking a too risk-averse approach to it (won’t get it done).”

Tomorrow: Show me the money

Originally published as Confronting Super Netball’s biggest issues: What’s next for the sport at the elite level?