Super Netball 2024: Captains claim Lightning the team to beat

The recruitment of two of the sport biggest names has made one team a Super Netball title favourite in the eyes of the competition’s captains, who gave their picks ahead of the season.

It’s official. The Sunshine Coast Lightning are the captains’ pick as the team most likely to make the Super Netball grand final this year.

Hardly surprising considering their recruitment of Diamonds captain Liz Watson and world’s best defender Courtney Bruce but it’s not often there’s almost universal agreement among the game’s biggest names on the likely dominance of any club.

Asked to rate which team would play alongside theirs in the Super Netball grand final, only two captains did not pick the Lightning.

One of them was Lightning skipper Steph Fretwell - who obviously had to nominate another team to play alongside her own in the grand final.

Sunshine Coast Lightning’s Steph Fretwell is leading the team Super Netball captains believe is the one to beat in 2024. Picture: Getty Images

So the only leader not to name the Lightning? Giants captain Jo Harten, who believes her side will take on the Swifts in a repeat of the 2021 all-NSW decider.

Team Girls Cup winners just last month, the Swifts have certainly shown they are on song early and Sunday’s opening-round clash between them and the Lightning at Sippy Downs could tell us a lot about the season.

FIREBIRDS FLYING UNDER RADAR

The Queensland Firebirds will have to defy recent history if they are to achieve their season goals and reach the post-season.

The Firebirds have made the finals just once in the Super Netball era - and not since 2018 - so have a tough task in lifting themselves into the top four this year after finishing seventh last year.

The Queenslanders were the only team not to be nominated as a top-four chance by a rival skipper, with only their own captain Kim Ravaillion rating them a chance.

Even newbies the Mavericks were named by two rival captains as a finals chance.

The result of our straw poll for the top four though?

The Lightning (eight votes), Swifts (6) and Vixens (5), with the Fever, Giants, Thunderbirds and Mavericks all on three votes and the Firebirds just one.

Firebirds captain Kim Ravaillion was the only Super Netball leader to give her team a chance. Picture: Getty Images

HOUSBY COMES OUT TOPS

She’s already been named no.1 in Code Sports’ list of the top 50 Super Netball players but it seems captains agree that England international Helen Housby is the best athlete in the competition.

Asked their views at the recent competition launch in Sydney, three of the captains nominated Housby as Super Netball’s top of the pops.

The only player to be nominated more than once, Housby is recognised as a threat across the competition, by those who play directly opposite her on court and those who watch her matchwinning ability from a little further afield.

Kate Moloney and Steph Fretwell, who also watched Housby power England to a World Cup round win over Australia and into a final they eventually lost to the Diamonds, nominated her as the best player in the league based on last year’s form.

Swifts star Helen Housby is regarded the No.1 player in Super Netball. Picture: Getty Images

The Fever’s Jess Anstiss also rated Housby the best player outside of her own teammate, formidable Jamaican shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard.

Swifts skipper and occasional Diamonds captain Paige Hadley nominated Fretwell for her shooting ability and tactical mastery, while the other four captains nominated teammates.

Giants captain Jo Harten felt Jamie-Lee Price was putting her hand up as the best in the league after coming off a “stellar international season”, while Firebirds skipper Ravaillion named Queensland’s Diamonds defender Ruby Bakewell-Doran as a player set for a big year.

Adelaide’s premiership mentor Hannah Petty couldn’t think of a player better than ball-winning Jamaican defender Shamera Sterling and Mavericks skip Amy Parmenter nominated last year’s grand final MVP Eleanor Cardwell.

Whoever “wins”, it’s a group that underlines Super Netball’s claim to be the best competition in the world.

Originally published as Super Netball 2024: Captains claim Lightning the team to beat