Netball Super Cup: An insight into the competition

London Pulse celebrating the win in the final | photo taken from @londonpulsenetball on instagram

On Saturday 8th March, the Netball Super League held a new competition known as the Netball Super Cup which was held in Sheffield. The day marked a special start to the new era of the Netball Super League as newcomers Nottingham Forest and Birmingham Panthers started off their campaign. Additionally, this year all games will be available to watch Live or on demand and free-to-air across both Sky Sports and the BBC. 

The teams were split into two pools for the group stages and each team played three shorter length games. Then after the games, the top two teams from the groups progressed to the semi-finals and then two teams will make the final of which the first ever champion will be crowned. Each of the games will be 14 minutes long with two seven minute halves. There are three new rules, Super Shot, Tactical time outs and extra time that will debut in the newly revamped Super League which commences the week later. 

Group One: 

The teams in group one consisted of Birmingham Panthers, London Mavericks, Nottingham Forest and Manchester Thunder. During the day, the sides played each other once with Nottingham Forest and Manchester Thunder going through to the semi finals after Thunder were unbeaten throughout the day. 

Group Two: 

The teams in the second group consisted of NIC Leeds Rhinos, London Pulse, Loughborough Lightning and LexisNexis Cardiff Dragons. The shock of the day was reigning champions Loughborough Lightning not going through to the semi-finals as both NIC Leeds Rhinos and London Pulse finished the day in the top two spots. They faced Nottingham Forest and Manchester Thunder respectively. 

Despite being unbeaten throughout the day, Manchester Thunder were beaten by Pulse in the Semi-Finals and after their win, they went on to claim the victory against Leeds Rhinos in the final. 

One thing that the season can expect is goals goals goals after the Soft & Gentle Super Shot has been announced. Many players have already played it to their advantage after playing in Australia prior to arriving in the Netball Super League. The Soft & Gentle Super Shot made its debut on the day in Sheffield and for the final three minutes of each half, goals from a designated area at the edge of the circle counted double and turned many games on their heads. 

Emily Andrew used to play in Australia before coming to the Netball Super League and she will go down as the first scorer of the super shot ever in the United Kingdom. The Australian is one to watch for London Mavericks as she continued to show her powerful aim especially when the super shot came into play. Although this happened, there is still a chance for becoming the first player to nail a super shot in the Netball Super League as four teams will be playing on the 14th March. 

Another player to watch is veteran Geva Mentor as she returns to the Netball Super League for a second season with Leeds Rhinos. She has played in six World Cups since 2003 and previously featured for Team Bath before moving away from England. She is a player to watch as the 40 year old looks to be a strong asset to the defence of the Yorkshire side in Lauren Palmer’s first season as coach for Rhinos. 

Finally, One more player to watch is Manchester Thunder’s Captain Amy Carter. She has been with the side from the very start and is in her first season as Captain. Throughout the day, she helped her side be unbeaten throughout the group stages and produced many turnovers and was pivotal as centre breezing up and down the court. 

This year, in the new era, there are two new sides as four teams got taken away from last season. Out went Team Bath, Surrey Storm, Strathclyde Sirens and Severn Stars and in came Nottingham Forest and Birmingham Panthers. This was a vital change but also saw both the South West and Scotland getting rid of their Netball Programmes as well as London Mavericks changing their name from Saracens Mavericks. The one day tournament showed that both new sides are not to be underestimated in their debut seasons. 

The season commences on Friday 14th March with both Cardiff Dragons, London Mavericks, Leeds Rhinos and Birmingham Panthers all taking the stage at 7pm.