The Netty Life

Round three saw two matches where teams could only be separated by extra time. A Jamaican legend hit 8000 Super Netball goals and an English Rose became a centurion. The Giants and Mavericks are still without wins and Fever make it three wins from three rounds. Plus we hear from sports journalist Bridget Tunnicliffe about Netball New Zealand’s desire to enter three of their teams in the Super Netball league.

Fever announce themselves as true contenders for 2024 after just two rounds after two massive victories. Diamonds goal keeper and new Lightning recruit Courtney Bruce drops by to discuss the importance of mental health, finding balance after switching clubs and her puppy, Oliver. Before we discuss the possibility of New Zealand joining Super Netball and the new rules around dangerous play.

The 2024 Super Netball season is officially underway and we welcomed brand new club the Mavericks to the family. Round one saw attendance records broken, the West Coast Fever start their season with a 19-goal bang, and the Adelaide Thunderbirds cap a fantastic weekend for South Australian netball with a tight victory. On this podcast we chat with Melbourne Vixens defender Rudi Ellis, who was one of the absolute standouts in the Melbourne derby.

A brand new Super Netball season is upon us and we’ve got you sorted with all you need to know in our season preview! On top of discussing each of the eight team’s headline story to watch, we also cover some of the biggest talking points from the past week. Such as Sam Wallace-Joseph’s brush with controversy relating to Easter and International Transgender Day of Visibility, Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua’s re-appointment, the new elusive No.11 player rule that some teams are using and others are ignoring completely.

Katie McCarthy has a passion for women in sport and … scrunchies! Her business aims to make comfortable and colourful hair ties for girls to wear without it falling out as they play sport. At the Team Girls Cup, McCarthy ventured into netball for the first real time, partnering with Amy Parmenter’s Tie-Dye Project to donate money to the Confident Girls Foundation. We hear more about the partnership, about Scrunchiko as a business and as a great example of the commercial opportunities that often go missed in women’s sport.

Another exciting instalment of the Team Girls Cup wrapped up last weekend at Sydney’s Ken Rosewell Arena. In front of their home crowd, the NSW Swifts were crowned champions after defeating the Melbourne Vixens by one goal in a thrilling grand final. The three-day tournament was a chance to see all eight teams and their extended bench before the Super Netball season officially starts on April 13th; with 12 of the 16 games decided by four goals or less, it was one of the best pre-season tournaments yet, and an exciting introduction to the 2024 season.

The Diamonds added to their trophy cabinet with another international win at the Netball Nations Cup, defeating the Roses in an emphatic win in the final by 20 goals. We discuss: - How good can the Sophie Dywer and Sophie Garbin combination be for the Diamonds? - Is Jess Thirlby the coach to take the Roses to the next level? - Should the Silver Ferns relax their import player rule, and should New Zealand Netball allow their athletes to play in the SSN competition without jeopardising their Silver Ferns opportunities? - Uganda only just finished fourth. Could they be the next big thing in international netball?

The Aussie Diamonds are undefeated midway through the Nations Cup, as the teams now get a week off and the tournament heads from London to Leeds. The team have got one more game to come against Uganda before they reach the final, where they’ll to meet their old foes New Zealand or England. We caught up with Diamonds assistant coach Nicole Richardson to get her thoughts on how the Australian team has performed so far. And also to see how she felt about the viral Collingwood video that has been criticised for flaunting off the AFL team’s new synthetic grass training area that covers up the old netball court and was likely paid for by government money intended for upgrades to women’s sport facilities.

The Aussie Diamonds are in the UK, ready to battle New Zealand, England and Uganda for the Netball Nations Cup. It's a trophy they've never contested and coach Stacey Marincovich has assembled a World Cup winning squad to claim it. In what will be an historic moment in international netball, Australia and Uganda will meet for the first time in the sport’s history. We also share interviews with Diamond defender Sunday Aryang and Ugandan star Mary Cholhok.

After several months of an unbelievable shit show, Netball Australia and the Australian Netball Players’ Association finally agreed on a landmark Super Netball CPA deal that will see the players and administration enter a partnership in the sport’s very first revenue-share model. Was former CEO Kelly Ryan used as a scapegoat for the rest of the board? And should more heads roll as the governing body pick up the pieces of this ugly dispute? We take a look at the timeline of the negotiations and how they reached a point of no return for one party, before casting our eyes over the 2024 teams now the CPA is sorted and all clubs have been able to lock in their playing rosters. Who is the best buy of the off-season and which new import will make the biggest impact? Thank you to Netball Scoop for the thorough 2024 playing lists and to ABC Sport for the Liz Watson audio.

After 11 years competing at the elite level of netball, Verity Simmons, West Coast Fever's talented mid-courter, has decided to retire from the sport. Her decision was partly influenced by the ongoing disputes between Netball Australia and the unresolved CPA, which has left netballers without pay for nine weeks. Throughout her career, Verity has faced injuries, grand final losses, two premiership wins, and has even had the honour of wearing the Diamonds dress. It was truly inspiring to speak with one of the most hardworking netball players the sport has ever seen and hear her plans for the future.

The Diamonds have held onto the Constellation Cup by aggregate goals despite losing the final two matches of the series to the New Zealand Silver Ferns. Should the series be changed to a three or five match contest? Why did the Diamonds drop off in intensity on the New Zealand leg? And what sparked the resurgence in the Silver Ferns - was it all down to Grace Nweke? We also pay tribute to our Aussie men, the Kelpies, who won the Trans Tasman Cup 3-0, before previewing the Diamonds vs South Africa upcoming series.

On a special bonus episode of The Netty Life, we catch up with Jillian Joyce, business owner of Pride Human Performance in Townsville and Head coach of the North Queensland Netball Academy. Jillian is one of the best netball brains in NQ. In this candid interview, we chat about the role she plays in uncovering netball talent up north, the growth of the men’s game, how her team are breaking down the stigma that is still associated with women’s health in the high-performance arena, her support of Sharon Finnan-White’s First Nations Academy of Excellence, and how Sharon and the athletes in that program have changed Jillian’s life.

The Aussie Diamonds have asserted their dominance early in the greatest trans-Tasman rivalry in sport. After taking a 2-0 lead on home soil, the Constellation Cup tour now heads to New Zealand for the final two matches. Meanwhile, in the men’s, the Aussie Kelpies have done the same in their Trans-Tasman Cup. Securing the trophy for another year with one game left to play in Auckland. We analyse all the games so far and also provide an update on the Super Netball CPA dispute, as Netball Australia and the ANPA agree to enter mediation.

As the Diamonds gear up to face their fiercest rivals, the Silver Ferns, so do their Aussie and New Zealand male counterparts. For a second year running, the Trans-Tasman Cup will be played as a double header alongside the women’s Constellation Cup, with all matches to be televised. The Australian team will debut its new name – the Kelpies – when they hit the court Thursday for Game 1, after a long time between games and a lot of training. Here to help us preview the men’s series and share some of his netball story is midcourter Riley Richardson. We hope you enjoy hearing more about his career!

It has been a while since our last podcast, and some tension is brewing in the Australian Netball scene. We discuss the growing unease between Netball Australia and the Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) as Super Netball players are currently left without income due to the CPA that is yet to be finalised. We also discuss the upcoming Constellation Cup that starts in Melbourne on October 12th, which is set to be a thrilling event as it marks the 500th international game for the Diamonds, who will be facing off against their arch-rivals, the Silver Ferns. The four-game series promises to be a hotly contested tournament, with the Silver Ferns looking to prove their worth as the second-world ranked team despite their fourth-place finish at the recent World Cup in South Africa.

After the old Super Netball collective player agreement lapsed on September 30 without the Australian Netball Players’ Association and Netball Australia reaching an agreement on a new one, all 80 athletes in the league have been off contract without pay now for 10 days. Despite negotiations starting way back in February, the two parties have not been able to see eye-to-eye and have now gone public with their versions of each side of the story. Without a CPA in place none of the eight Super Netball teams can start contracting their players for 2024, making it hard to start planning their pre-seasons. It’s been a complex issue for many netball fans to get their heads around, so we caught up with Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan and former ANPA vice president Maddy Colebrook (nee McAuliffe) to hear what they had to say. If you enjoyed this bonus episode, please leave us a review or share the episode with your friends!

Collingwood Super Netball head coach Nicole Richardson has been to hell and back this year. Her side were made defunct six weeks before the end of the Super Netball season, where they finished with their second-ever wooden spoon and won their last two home games in an emotional and bittersweet farewell. Then she won the Netball World Cup in South Africa with the Diamonds as an assistant coach, standing on the podium alongside five Pies players. Beyond this, Richardson witnessed Collingwood’s development team win another ANC title in the netball club’s last hurrah. In this chat, Richardson reflects on her overall time with the Pies, where it all went wrong for the club and her frustrations playing second-fiddle to their football department. Richardson also shares where she plans to head next and what advice she would give the new SEN-owned team replacing the Pies in the Super Netball league for 2024.

In an exclusive interview, the Netty Life catch up with Diamond #105 Sharon Finnan-White who is about to launch her new initiative, The Sharon Finnan-White First Nations Academy of Excellence (FNAE). We also hear from two athletes playing in the 2023 Indigenous Diamonds squad (coached by Finnan-White), Tenisha Solomon and Sonny Anne Ragget.

The Australian Diamonds win the Netball World Cup in Cape Town for the 12th time to take back the last elusive trophy missing from their cabinet. The England Roses had a historic tournament finishing with their first silver medal, the Jamaican Sunshine Girls left with bronze and the New Zealand Silver Ferns failed to medal for the first time in the 60-year history of the tournament, solidifying their worst performance at a World Cup. Should alarm bells be ringing across the ditch?