Netball 2023: Relaunched professional England league a wake-up call for Super Netball

Netball Australia is facing a new battle, and has less than a year to get its Super Netball house in order before a sleeping giant plans to take the mantle as the world’s No.1 professional league.

Netball Australia has less than a year to get its house in order to prevent the awakening giant that is the English Super League from usurping Super Netball as the best competition in the world.

England Netball’s (EN) announcement earlier this week it would launch a tender process for clubs to be involved in Netball Super League (NSL) 2.0, a new era for the sport from 2025, should have sirens sounding at NA’s head office in Melbourne.

As the sport in Australia fights fires on several fronts, from multimillion-dollar debut, to unresolved industrial action and tension between the governing body and players, netball in England is set to capitalise on the global appetite for women’s sport and the enormous popularity and participation base of the game in the UK.

While the NSL is currently only semi-professional, with athletes unable to make a full-time living from their contracts as they do playing in Australia’s Super Netball league, the move by EN to professionalise the NSL is a massive wake-up call to those at NA.

Former Diamonds captain Liz Ellis and coach Lisa Alexander have both warned the threat from England must be taken seriously.

Former Diamonds captain Liz Ellis has warned NA to take the England threat seriously. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Ellis, whose State of the Game report in 2020 called for NA to ensure Super Netball became “the commercial jewel in the crown of Australian netball by capitalising on growth to date and realising its full potential”, said EN had every right to believe NSL could be the world’s best competition.

The State of the Game report also called for a “more concise and clear strategy for growth” and “a business case that supports investment from private equity, team franchisors and/or broadcaster/ sponsor partners”, proposals that were echoed in NA’s own Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) league analysis and ensuing SSN Evolution Project.

But the lack of a clear growth strategy and NA’s determination to wait until the end of the current broadcast cycle at the end of 2026 to expand or evolve will leave the sport eating the dust of rivals.

“In an industry where if you stand still you’re going backwards, not only have netball’s competitors rushed past – women’s BBL cricket, AFLW, they’re looking at Super Netball in the rear view mirror – it would be devastating if after the huge head start Super Netball has, that in five years’ time, the English Super League is looking at Super Netball in its rear view mirror,” she said.

“The sport continues to get these alerts and I’m struggling to see where the action is.”

Successful tenders for NSL 2.0 will be revealed in the northern spring, giving NA just months to shore up its own plans and sell Super Netball as the best option for the world’s best players.

Former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander, who has also been involved in the NSL as a coaching director, said NSL managing director Claire Nelson had made a “huge difference” in her time as Netball Scotland CEO and she was unsurprised to see her driving the competition’s rebirth in England.

England’s Geva Mentor has starred in Super Netball for a number of years but will return to play professionally in England this year. Picture: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images/Getty Images

“She was in charge of Scottish netball and she really made a huge difference up there,” Alexander said.

“Very professional, hard working and has just got a lot of persistence.”

In an Instagram post under NSL 2.0 banner earlier this week, the call for tenders for the relaunched competition was branded “the first step in EN’s ambition to build the most competitive, commercially vibrant and captivating professional netball league in the world”.

Nelson said the time was right to capitalise on the sport’s popularity and transform the domestic game.

“The launch of NSL 2.0 in 2025 presents an unrivalled and unprecedented opportunity to build an inspiring and engaging sports, entertainment and lifestyle product that speaks to, and for, women and girls,” Nelson said.

As in Australia – where figures released by Ausplay earlier this year showed that the game is now the third-highest team participation sport in the country (behind only football and basketball) after passing one million participants – netball is also the no.1 sport for women and girls in England.

But with more than three million people playing annually and a television audience of 5.6 million watching the national team, the Roses’ charge to the World Cup final in South Africa in August – a match they eventually lost to Australia’s Diamonds – there is a massive and ravenous audience for the game in the UK.

England’s proposed new professional league is a great threat to Super Netball in Australia. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Netball World Cup 2023 via Getty Images

“I think they’ve got every right to (believe they can have the best league in the world) and they seem to be doing it hand-in-hand with their players’ association, which is a bit of a salutary lesson,” said Ellis, who offered her services to the NA board earlier this year only to be told she wasn’t required.

Alexander said NA “have to understand they’ve got to pay their players well”, if they were to maintain their world-leading position.

“At the moment, clearly SSN (Super Netball) is the world’s best, there’s no debate about that,” Alexander said.

“(But) Netball Australia should not be napping.”

The announcement from EN comes at the worst possible time for the sport in Australia, with NA and the Australian Netball Players Association mired in a protracted and increasingly bitter negotiation over a new Collective Players Agreement for Super Netball.

With all players currently unemployed and waiting for the chance to sign contracts to the existing eight clubs, athletes will be keenly watching developments in the UK and could opt to sign shortened deals if they believe the NSL will soon become a more attractive option.

“I think that’s a real possibility,” Ellis said.

“And even if they sign longer than a one-year deal, you might keep them but if Super League becomes professional, you’re not going to get the next generation of stars – out of England, South Africa – they’ll all go to England.”

Originally published as Netball 2023: Relaunched professional England league a wake-up call for Super Netball