Sunshine Coast Lightning’s links to Liz Watson and Courtney Bruce present difficult, but not impossible, salary cap challenge
How could the Lightning squeeze two more stars into an already talented squad? LINDA PEARCE crunches the numbers.
Netball
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As Diamonds captain Liz Watson prepares to slip into a domestic shade of yellow at the Sunshine Coast Lightning and leave her decade-long home at the Melbourne Vixens, what of the potential trickle-down effect?
Specifically, can a team already containing another two current World Cup winners and a decorated South African international — assuming Steph Wood, Cara Koenen and Karla Pretorius remain at the Storm-owned outfit — also stretch its salary cap to accommodate Courtney Bruce, one of the league’s highest earners?
“I’d like to see how,’’ says one netball insider.
Not impossible, but not easy, either.
So to the numbers. In 2023, the eight SSN clubs were bound by a salary ceiling of $655,000 and up to $150,000 in Part A/promotional payments for the contracted 10, plus collective health insurance of $30,000 and $20,000 for the four training partners each on a miserly $5,000.
Total player payments: $855,000.
Things may be structured slightly differently in the new Collection Player Agreement still being negotiated and expected to rise overall by approximately two-to-three per cent, while the mechanics of Part A may also be remodelled for 2024.
Using current figures that would be adjusted in percentage terms when contracts can finally be signed – but working on the old minimum wage of $40,000 (plus health cover), and at least $100,000 as a ballpark figure for Diamonds and other top-tier targets (although West Coast Fever shooter Jhaniele Fowler, for example, is known to be on considerably more) – there is not a lot of dollar room in which to manoeuvre.
Nor, however, is there the huge disparity in athlete salaries as occurs in some other domestic leagues such as the AFL and NRL, so money tends to be less of a factor in netball than lifestyle, opportunity and culture/environment-related considerations.
THE BRUCE QUESTION
How much would it take to lure Bruce, whose last SSN deal was well into three figures? The West Australian, who will be 30 by round one, has played 130 ANZ Championship/Super Netball games, all of them with the Fever.
She is known at contracting time to be a source of regular trade rumours, which nevertheless are thought to have more validity this time, and has been linked with the Lightning since even before leaving for Cape Town, where she was named the standout defender of the World Cup and was crucial to the Diamonds’ success.
Does Watson’s imminent signing make the Bruce move suddenly less likely, given a possible wage squeeze? Perhaps.
Or is it more appealing, given the calibre of a Coenen-Wood-Watson attacking triumvirate? We shall see. Sources suggest that, Fever and Lightning aside, there are three other interested parties.
Where Bruce ends up will also influence multiple others when the dominoes eventually fall, including her management company stablemate Rudi Ellis, who has been a thumb-twiddling fixture on the Fever bench for most of the past two seasons, and has family and a footballing partner in her home state of Victoria.
There is also a suggestion that Bruce is keen to spend more time at goal defence, so where would that leave her current circle partner, Sunday Aryang, and the Lightning incumbent, Pretorius, among others?
VIXENS LOSE A SHOOTING OPTION
Thunderbirds’ premiership defender and Diamonds’ squad member Tilly Garrett is tipped to remain in her adopted Adelaide rather than return to her home state, despite interest from both the new Melbourne franchise — to be coached by 2023 T-birds’ assistant Tracey Neville — and the Vixens.
The various shooting circles are fascinating, too, and much depends on whether the much-sought-after former Magpie Sophie Garbin chooses the SEN-owned newcomers or its established rival, given her preference for staying in Melbourne. Which could, in turn, impact the future of Mwai Kumwenda, for example.
There is more clarity over the future of rising South African star Elmere van der Berg, who had both a fine World Cup debut, and the advocacy of her Australian Spar Proteas’ coach Norma Plummer to graduate to the world’s strongest league.
Despite overtures from the Vixens, CODE Sports has learned that van der Berg recently signed with Manchester Thunder in the UK Superleague, a second-tier competition home to several of the goaler’s South African teammates, and one likely to be a stepping stone to SSN when she feels the time is right.
Whispers persist that all may not be well between Donnell Wallam and the Queensland Firebirds, where it’s been confirmed that Wallam’s close friend and fellow goaler Mia Stower is not being offered a new contract, and champion Gretel Bueta’s plans following the recent birth of her second son are still to be revealed.
An obvious replacement is Queenslander Tippah Dwan, whose partner Josh Dunkley plays for the Brisbane Lions. Dwan is understood to be weighing up whether to remain in Adelaide, where she enjoyed both her best season and winning the championship, or a return to the Firebirds alongside Josh’s sister Lara.
TEAM SEN
To paraphrase an athlete manager with a handful of SSN clients from Diamonds down to training partners, most clubs in this non-binding player negotiation period know who they want to keep.
What they’re less sure about is who intends to stay.
With all 80 players out of contract, none is obliged to remain, and if many are never really likely to leave then some rationalise that there’s no harm in floating the idea.
The fact one team has folded and its replacement is starting from scratch is adding to the uncertainty fuelled by the ongoing delays in making league-sanctioned deals while not just the CPA, but also Team Participation Agreements, remain unconfirmed.
Former Pie Molly Jovic appears headed to the SEN team, and fits Neville’s Vic-centric recruiting philosophy, where that’s possible, but the shortage of locally-produced shooters is glaring.
Emily Andrew is one long-term prospect contesting this week’s Australian Netball Championships for Victorian Fury, along with fellow Vixens’ training partners Sharni Lambden and defensive duo Maggie Caris and Gabby Coffey, plus Jordan Cransberg, who made her debut for the Fever last season.
Another Vic pathway product who transferred her medical studies to WA after accepting a training partner role, Cransberg is tipped to win her first contract in 2024 — but whether in Perth or Melbourne is yet to be determined.
Oh, and what will the new team be called?
One under consideration: the (South-East Melbourne) Mavericks.
Originally published as Sunshine Coast Lightning’s links to Liz Watson and Courtney Bruce present difficult, but not impossible, salary cap challenge
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