Top level Australian netball league
The Super Netball League[1] (known predominantly by its sponsored name Suncorp Super Netball (SSN)) is a professional netball league featuring teams from across Australia. It superseded the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship, which also included teams from New Zealand, as the top-level netball league in Australia in 2017. Since 2019, the league has been governed on behalf of Netball Australia by an independent commission. Its main sponsor is Suncorp Group. Sunshine Coast Lightning were the inaugural Suncorp Super Netball winners.
History
In May 2016, Netball Australia and Netball New Zealand announced that the ANZ Championship would be discontinued after the 2016 season. In Australia, its replacement league – initially known as simply the National Netball League before an official name was decided upon[2] – included the five former Australian ANZ Championship teams (Adelaide Thunderbirds, Melbourne Vixens, New South Wales Swifts, Queensland Firebirds and West Coast Fever) plus three brand new franchises: Collingwood Magpies, Giants Netball and Sunshine Coast Lightning.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
With a team coached by Noeline Taurua, captained by Geva Mentor and also featuring Caitlin Bassett, Karla Pretorius and Stephanie Wood, Sunshine Coast Lightning finished the 2017 season as inaugural champions after defeating Giants Netball 65–48 in the grand final. In 2018 they retained the title after defeating West Coast Fever 62–59 in the grand final.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
In 2019, Briony Akle guided New South Wales Swifts to their first Suncorp Super Netball title. Despite losing their new captain, Maddy Proud, to injury early in the season, Swifts finished the regular season in second place. In the major semi-final, they lost to Sunshine Coast Lightning. However, they then defeated Melbourne Vixens in the preliminary final. In the grand final they faced Lightning again but this time defeated them 64–47 to emerge as champions.[16][17][18][19][20][21]
In 2020, with a team coached again by Simone McKinnis and co-captained by Kate Moloney and Liz Watson, Melbourne Vixens finished the season as both minor premiers and overall champions.[22][23] In the grand final they defeated West Coast Fever 66–64.[24][25][26] In 2021, with a team coached by Briony Akle and co-captained by Maddy Proud and Paige Hadley, New South Wales Swifts won their second Suncorp Super Netball title. In the grand final they defeated Giants Netball 63–59.[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]
In 2022, head coach Dan Ryan and captain Courtney Bruce led West Coast Fever to their first premiership. In the grand final they defeated Melbourne Vixens 70-59.[34][35][36][37] In May 2023, news reports disclosed that the Collingwood Magpies were in financial distress, and later that month the Collingwood Football Club announced it would withdraw its netball team at the conclusion of the 2023 season.[38] The 2023 premiership was won by the Adelaide Thunderbirds, defeating the Swifts 60–59 after extra time was required in the grand final. It was the Thunderbirds' first national league premiership in a decade, and came off the back of years of lowly finishes in Super Netball.[39]
Following the demise of the Magpies, speculation circled as to who would be awarded the eighth license for the 2024 season and beyond. Submissions for the new license closed on 20 June 2023, with as many as six initial bids being whittled down to two by the closing date, according to media reports.[40] On 21 July 2023, the league announced that the Sports Entertainment Network (SEN), led by chief executive Craig Hutchison, was awarded the license for a team to be based in south-east Melbourne. As part of the licensing agreement, Netball Australia will operate the team for the rest of 2023 before transitioning to SEN for 2024 and beyond.[41] ABC News reported that the SEN bid was preferred by broadcasters Fox Netball over the alternate bid put forward by Netball Victoria, which suggested a regional team 'floating' between Geelong, Bendigo or Ballarat.[40]
Venues
Current venues
The following table shows a list of all of venues that have been used throughout the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball season. Where venues have had other/sponsored names, only those names in place from when the venue was being used in the league have been listed.
Former venues
The following table shows a list of all of venues that have been used throughout the entirety of Suncorp Super Netball. Where venues have had other/sponsored names, only those names in place from when the venue was being used in the league have been listed.
Season structure
Pre-season
Beginning in 2019, a structured round-robin tournament known as the Team Girls Cup has been conducted, named for the titular campaign established in 2017 that aims to decrease the dropout rate in junior netball.[42] The league's eight teams are divided into two pools, where they play each of their fellow pool members once. A fourth round is then held to determine final placings across the combined pools, and a champion is crowned from the match held between the two top-ranked pool teams. Matches are held over three consecutive days and are all played at the same venue. Locations to have hosted the tournament so far include Brisbane, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.
Regular season
The regular season is played across 14 rounds, with the league's eight teams playing each other twice in home and away fixtures.
Finals series
Commission
In January 2019, Netball Australia announced it would form an independent commission to become the governing body of Suncorp Super Netball.[64] In April 2019 they named five commissioners which included Marne Fechner, Netball Australia's CEO. Two more commissioners were appointed in May and August 2019.[65][66][67]
2024 Suncorp Super Netball season.svg){kind=logo}
