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Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball League: Ones to Watch

The Suncorp Super Netball League will begin on the 18th March 2023, with all eight teams taking to court across the weekend.

The season will be made of 14 rounds, with the Grand Final scheduled to take place on the 8th July 2023, just in time for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 which will begin on the 28th July in Cape Town, South Africa.

Ahead of the domestic league season starting, we have made note of just some of the international players you should watch out for…

Adelaide Thunderbirds

First up, is the Adelaide Thunderbirds and they have a new international star joining them this season in England Rose, Eleanor Cardwell.

Cardwell has switched Thunder for the Thunderbirds, having left Manchester Thunder in the UK’s Netball Superleague at the end of last season after winning the league unbeaten.

During her champion season with Thunder, Cardwell scored 641 goals, making her the leagues 4th highest goal scorer, and she will be looking to produce more the same down under as she hopes to impress Jess Thirlby to be selected for the England side heading to Cape Town in July for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023.

Other Thunderbirds’ hoping to be heading to Cape Town at the end of this season are Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson. The two Jamaican Sunshine Girls were part of the Jamaican team that made history at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games winning silver.

Sterling finished the 2022 Suncorp Super Netball League season with 52 interceptions to her name, having played 14 matches.

Collingwood Magpies

From one Sunshine Girls duo to another, the Magpies will have Shimona Nelson and Jodi-Ann Ward taking to court for them again this season.

Nelson joined Magpies in 2019, and since then has been a shooting sensation in the league, scoring 93% of her goals in the 2022 season.

Ward joined the Magpies one year later in 2020, and has had just as much an in impact at the other end of the court making 23 interceptions and 14 turnovers last season alone.

Ward is often joined in the defensive circle by another Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 hopeful, England Rose Geva Mentor, who the Suncorp Super League are all too familiar with as she was one of the first import players to join the inaugural Trans-Tasman League in 2008.

We can’t wait to see which of these players are selected for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023!

GIANTS Netball

Next up, we have GIANTS who are just as decorated with international talent.

From England Rose Jo Harten in the shooting circle, to Australian Diamonds Jamie-Lee Price and Maddie Hay in the middle, there are international stars throughout court.

Harten finished the 2022 season with a 87% goal shooting percentage, with 524 goals to her name, whilst in the same season Price made 65 general play turnovers showing just why she is known as one of the league’s most defensive midcourters.

Price was named as a reserve for the Birmingham 2022 Australia Diamonds squad, but we have no doubt she will want a place on the plane for Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 in July.

Melbourne Vixens

The Vixen’s squad is shining with Diamonds this season, with Kiera Austin, Liz Watson and Jo Weston among the roster just to name a few.

All three were part of the Birmingham 2022 Diamonds squad that won gold this summer, beating the Jamaican Sunshine Girls in the final.

Watson was the captain of the Diamonds side, and she will be showcasing her leadership skills again this domestic league  season as she co-captains her side.

Joining the Diamonds trio is Malawi Queen Mwai Kumwenda who is a shooting sensation the netball family will want to watch out for ahead of the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023.

Kumwenda shot at 91% in the league last season,  and then had a busy summer as she was part of the Malawi squad for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Netball World Cup Qualifiers – Africa, where the Queens qualified for the first NWC on African soil.

New South Wales Swifts

Speaking of star shooters, New South Wales Swifts have two of their own that need no introduction – Helen Housby and Sam Wallace.

Last season the Trinidad & Tobago, Calypso Girl, Wallace faced some time of the side lines due to an injury, but fans around the world will be looking forward to seeing Wallace re-united with her shooting partner, England Rose Housby this season.

Housby shot at 81% last season, with 453 goals to her name and  just like Wallace she will be wanting to head to Cape Town this summer to represent her country at the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023.

Speaking of international stars, we mustn’t forget Diamonds duo Paige Hadley and Maddy Proud, who are a force to be reckoned with in mid-court both for Swifts and for Australia.

This is an attacking line-up you don’t want to miss!

Queensland Firebirds

Being Australia’s Elite Domestic League, there is no surprise that the Suncorp Super Netball league is full for Diamonds and the Firebirds is one team that has plenty.

Gretel Bueta and Donnel Wallam will be just a couple of the names that will be familiar to the Australians and to the international netball family.

The Netball Family will have to wait a little longer to see Bueta back out on court though, as she is pregnant and expecting a little boy – Congratulations Bueta!

Wallam however will be ready and raring to go this season, wanting to try and get a space in the Australian Diamonds squad for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 as she was only named as a reserve for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Last season, the shooter converted 86% of her shots, with 519 goals to her name by the end of the season. 

Sunshine Coast Lightning

As the domestic league season begins again, Kadie-Ann Dehaney will be switching her Jamaican Sunshine Girls’ dress to a Sunshine Coast Lightning dress for a few months.

The Sunshine Girl has had a very successful summer, where she shone at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, making history as Jamaica finished 2nd, missing out on 1st place to the hands of Australia.

Steph Wood was part of the Australian Diamonds squad that stopped the Sunshine Girls taking gold, but now Wood and Dehaney will become teammates again as they begin the 2023 season.

The international netball family will want to keep an eye on the duo, as they are two of the league’s most versatile players, with Wood switching seamlessly between goal shooter, goal attack and wing attack, and Dehaney between goal keeper, goal defence, and goal shooter.

West Coast Fever

Last, and by no means least we have West Coast Fever and there is no better place to start with this team than their star-studded attacking and defensive circles.

In the shooting circle, Jamaican Sunshine Girl, Jhaniele Fowler was key for Fever in 2022, as she produced a season-long shooting masterclass, which ended with her having a shot conversion rate of 97% and a staggering 929 goals to her name.

Whilst at the other end of the court, young Diamond Sunday Aryang has fast become an exciting prospect with her performances in the Suncorp Super Netball League in 2022  leading to her first Diamonds selection for the 2022 Quad Series.

Aryang made history with this call-up, as she became the first African-born Australian to play for the Diamonds.

The defender will now be hoping she can do enough this season to get a call up for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 in Cape Town this July.

More information…

To find out more about the Suncorp Super Netball League, click here.

To view the full fixture list, click here.

 

To find out more about the start date of the other domestic leagues around the world, visit our Domestic League page here.

 

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