Season seven of the Origin Energy Premier League gets underway at Netball Central in Sydney Olympic Park this Wednesday night and it promises to be the most competitive yet.
Since its introduction in 2016, the Premier League has become the pinnacle of netball competition in NSW, showcasing the best current and emerging talent within the state.
Across 10 franchises, who field teams in Opens and Under 23s Divisions, it offers a local elite platform for players, coaches, officials and administrators. This in turn provides bridging opportunities to the Australian Netball Championships and subsequently, Suncorp Super Netball (SSN).
Over the past two weeks players who were stalwarts of the Premier League in 2022 and 2021 made the step-up to SSN level with Kelly Singleton (Sapphires/NSW Swifts), Teigan O’Shannassy (Sapphires/Swifts), Wagga native Sophie Fawns (Hawks/NSW Swifts), Lili Gorman-Brown (Stingrays/NSW Swifts), Angela Frketic (Sparks/GIANTS Netball), Amy Sligar (Fury/GIANTS Netball), Jemma Donoghue (Sapphires/GIANTS) and Orange’s Annie Miller (Sapphires/Sunshine Coast Lighting) all debuting in the world’s greatest club netball competition.
“I think the past few weeks have shown how Premier League is preparing NSW’s best talent for the step-up to SSN,” Claire Dale, Competitions Manager at Netball NSW, said.
“We are at a stage now where we are seeing the vision that Netball NSW had back in 2016 becoming a reality.
“The setups that our franchises have are operating at a high-performance level, and when you couple that with the great work being done in the QBE Swifts and GIANTS Netball Academies you have a production line of talent.
“Annie Miller and Amy Sligar earned themselves fulltime SSN contracts while everyone who saw Sophie Fawns fill-in for the Swifts at the weekend is right to be excited.
“In previous years we’ve had some Swifts and GIANTS drop back to Premier League to get game time, and while that’s still likely to happen it’s wonderful to see young NSW kids getting to step-up to and be ready for the highest level in our game.”
In 2022 (across Opens and U23 divisions) there will be 14 regular-season rounds with all teams playing each other once in the opening nine before they split into Conferences for the final five.
All teams will play their respective Conference opponents once between Rounds 10-14 with each side also receiving a bye during the same period. Then, at the end of Round 14, the top-three sides from both Conferences A and B will progress to the 2022 Finals Series.
The Final Series will consist of Qualifying, Semi and Preliminary Finals across both Conferences before Opens and U23s Grand Finals decide who will be crowned 2022 Premiers.
Once again, in great news for the NSW netball community, fans will be able to watch every game live and free via broadcast partners Cluch TV.
“Cluch’s enthusiasm to bring excitement and innovation to our live broadcasts aligns perfectly with the rising profile of the Premier League,” Dale added.
“Their coverage has really filled a gap in the market to highlight the amazing up-and-coming athletes, coaches and umpires in our game, and we look forward to continued partnership with them in 2022.
“I really encourage all of our netball community to tune in and watch the Premier League because it is really easy to see where our next Swifts, GIANTS and Diamonds are coming from.”
All fans need to do is download the Cluch TV app, register for an account and they can watch for free on their Smart TV or phone/tablet.
Netball NSW would also like to thank Origin Energy – Naming Right Partners of the Premier League – for their support.
2022 FRANCHISES (Opens & U23s)
- Capital Spirit
- Central Coast Heart
- ERNA Hawks
- GWS Fury
- Manly Warringah Sapphires
- North Shore United
- Panthers
- South Coast Blaze
- Sutherland Stingrays
- UTS Randwick Sparks