Super Netball


Super Netball, also known as Super Netball League or its sponsored name Suncorp Super Netball is a professional netball league in 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 It superseded the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship, which also included teams from New Zealand, as the top-level netball league in Australia in 2017.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 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 – included the five former Australian ANZ Championship teams plus three brand new franchises: Collingwood Magpies, Giants Netball and Sunshine Coast Lightning.
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.
In 2019, Briony Akle guided New South Wales Swifts to their first 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.
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. In the grand final they defeated West Coast Fever 66–64. 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 Super Netball title. In the grand final they defeated Giants Netball 63–59.
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. 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. 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.
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. On 21 July 2023, the league announced that the Sports Entertainment Network, 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. 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.

Clubs

Current clubs

Former clubs

Venues

Current venues

The following table shows a list of all of venues that have been used throughout the 2025 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.
VenueLocationStateFirst usedCurrent tenant
Qudos Bank ArenaSydneyNew South Wales18,0002017New South Wales Swifts
RAC ArenaPerthWestern Australia14,5002017West Coast Fever
John Cain ArenaMelbourneVictoria10,5002017Melbourne Vixens
Melbourne Mavericks
Ken Rosewall ArenaSydneyNew South Wales10,0002021New South Wales Swifts
Giants Netball
Adelaide Entertainment CentreAdelaideSouth Australia9,6002018Adelaide Thunderbirds
Nissan ArenaBrisbaneQueensland5,0002019Queensland Firebirds
Netball SA StadiumAdelaideSouth Australia3,2002017Adelaide Thunderbirds
MyState Bank ArenaHobartTasmania4,3402022Melbourne Mavericks
UniSC ArenaSunshine CoastQueensland3,0002017Sunshine Coast Lightning

Former venues

The following table shows a list of all of venues that have been used throughout the entirety of 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.
VenueOther/sponsored nameLocationStateFirst usedLast usedTenant
State Sports CentreQuaycentreSydneyNew South Wales4,50020172019New South Wales Swifts
Giants Netball
Brisbane Entertainment CentreBrisbaneQueensland11,00020172019Queensland Firebirds
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition CentreBrisbaneQueensland4,00020172017Queensland Firebirds
Perth High Performance CentreHBF StadiumPerthWestern Australia4,50020172018West Coast Fever
AIS ArenaCanberraAustralian Capital Territory5,20020172019Giants Netball
Adelaide ArenaTitanium Security ArenaAdelaideSouth Australia8,00020172017Adelaide Thunderbirds
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition CentreGold CoastQueensland6,00020172017Queensland Firebirds
Margaret Court ArenaMelbourneVictoria7,50020172019Collingwood Magpies
Melbourne Vixens
Gold Coast Sports and Leisure CentreGold CoastQueensland5,00020182018Queensland Firebirds
International Convention Centre SydneySydneyNew South Wales7,20020182018Giants Netball
Bendigo StadiumBendigoVictoria4,00020192019Collingwood Magpies
Territory Netball StadiumDarwinNorthern Territory2,00020192019Adelaide Thunderbirds
Parkville StadiumState Netball and Hockey Centre MelbourneVictoria3,05020192022Melbourne Vixens
Collingwood Magpies
Townsville Entertainment and Convention CentreTownsvilleQueensland5,15420202020Collingwood Magpies
Cairns Pop-Up ArenaCairnsQueensland2,00020202020West Coast Fever
Adelaide Thunderbirds
Melbourne Vixens
SilverdomeLauncestonTasmania3,25520172023Collingwood Magpies

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. 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

SeasonPremiersRunners-upScoreVenueGrand Final
2017Sunshine Coast LightningGiants Netball65–48Brisbane Entertainment CentreKarla Pretorius
2018Sunshine Coast Lightning West Coast Fever62–59Perth ArenaCaitlin Bassett
2019New South Wales SwiftsSunshine Coast Lightning64–47Brisbane Entertainment CentreSamantha Wallace
2020Melbourne Vixens+West Coast Fever 66–64Nissan ArenaMwai Kumwenda
2021New South Wales Swifts Giants Netball 63–59Nissan ArenaMaddy Turner
2022West Coast FeverMelbourne Vixens70–59RAC ArenaSasha Glasgow
2023Adelaide ThunderbirdsNew South Wales Swifts60–59John Cain ArenaEleanor Cardwell
2024Adelaide Thunderbirds+ Melbourne Vixens59–57Adelaide Entertainment CentreRomelda Aiken-George
2025Melbourne Vixens West Coast Fever 59–58Rod Laver ArenaKiera Austin