Tasmanian Netball League 2025 live stream: Cavaliers coach reveals secret to sustained success

An undefeated start – sparked by an injection of youth – has the Cavaliers primed for another TNL title challenge ahead of a clash against the Suns. See how to watch LIVE on Saturday.

Striking the balance between a refresh and a rebuild is always a tricky act, but if any club has come close to mastering the art it would be the Cavaliers.

The Tasmanian Netball League powerhouse has continually been a premiership contender across the last decade and that’s despite an ever-revolving door of talented youngsters making their Opens debut.

Two more names – Ella McArthur and Grace Ebbelaar – were added to that list in back-to-back wins last week, with the Cavs hoping a third-straight victory to kickstart the season will once again have them well-placed to contend in 2025.

The Cavaliers versus South East Suns TNL clash will be live and exclusive on KommunityTV from 5.30pm with the U19s clash also available from 4pm.

Cavs coach Katie O’Neill was pleased with McArthur and Ebbelaar’s contributions in both games and confirmed another highly touted youngster wouldn’t be seen until after their round 4 bye.

“Grace and Ella have come up from our 19s program, along with Sophie Brewer who’s away with the Pacific Games (and will be back for our next game),” O’Neill said.

“They are three really top athletes and it’s exciting to have them come in and both Grace and Ella played their role in two really crucial games for us.”

Featuring in seven of the last 10 TNL grand finals, the Cavs have won two premierships across that time and while it’s a strike-rate they’d no doubt prefer to be more slightly in their favour, the fact they continue to compete while blooding young talent is a win in itself.

“I think Cavaliers have always been a pretty good club as far as we never have a team full of just experienced senior players in the Opens space,” O’Neill said.

Cavalier Ella McArthur made her Opens debut in round one. Picture: Minch Media

“Each year, we’ve always been able to inject a couple of standout players from the under-19s from the previous year and bring them up. Just so that we do have a really good mix of youth and experience in the team.

“When you bring up a (younger) athlete, it’s really important to have that maturity and experience around them on the court to be able to give them direction, it’s just invaluable.

“It’s one of the things I love about giving these girls opportunity. Because each year you just don’t know with some of these older athletes whether that’s it (and they retire), or they’re going to start having families. I think that’s why it is so important to build capacity each year with a mix of your young and your older athletes.”

Saturday’s game against the Suns will shape as the middle point of a big opening month for the Cavs who face cross-town rivals Northern Hawks in a grand final rematch in round 5 following a bye next week.

“I know how ‘Jacko’ (Suns’ coach Andrew Jackson) coaches, he’ll have his wing defence and his goal defence sitting in the midcourt looking for balls to pick off from our defensive transition, so we’ll be prepared for that,” O’Neill said.

“And we don’t take any team lightly, we know what we need to do to play our game really well.

“That’s a really sort of strong, quick brand of netball. We are known for being a very good defensive team, so we’ll just take those strengths into this weekend and hopefully come away with another win. I think the competition is a little bit more even this year. I don’t think there’s any team that you can go in and underestimate.

“You’ve just got to go in and expect every game to be tough.”

KommunityTV will exclusvely live stream double-headers each round of the TNL season for the third successive year in 2025.

Originally published as Tasmanian Netball League 2025 live stream: Cavaliers coach reveals secret to sustained success