#38 Super League Predictions

Apologies for another pre Super League 2021 blog! I am so bloomin’ excited! 

Thought I’d give my crystal ball 🔮 a dust off and see what we can come up with in terms of predictions, for the new season. Long term readers will know this isn’t a strength of mine, but we’ll have a bit of fun with it nevertheless! 

Controversy: Netball is, thankfully, not known for football- like ‘dust ups’ and long may that continue! With such a bright light being shone on every single game though (woop!) there is bound to be something that goes from molehill to mountain in 60 seconds. 

We’ve already had Franchise Managers ‘banned’ court side and tweeting their disappointment at the decision, which I believe has since been overturned! (The tweet has also, since, been deleted!) 

Whether it’s a misbehaving player, coaching decision or umpiring mistake, in current times it will be very easy for the little things to become escalated! We all have an opinion & with social media as it is, those opinions are easily shared! 

Upsets

Think Severn Stars beating Wasps in the ill-fated 2020 season. There’s always a giant killing or surprise result somewhere and they’re normally, in netball anyway, a close and exciting spectacle! 

So, who are we going for: Storm beating Thunder by 1 or Sirens coming from behind to take the victory against Team Bath? How many ‘upsets’ will there be? 

Injury

Unfortunately, elite sport can be cruel. There’s bound to be a season ending injury like an ACL or Achilles tear. 

Some of the fixtures don’t offer a lot of recovery time ( I am sure this would have been taken into consideration along with a whole heap of other factors getting this league up and running) but that could have an impact on bodies. 

Fingers crossed, with Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, just around the corner, it’s not one of our home grown athletes. 

Spectators

Maybe this is more of a Hope than a prediction! 

The season is played over 4 months with the semi finals and final scheduled for the Copperbox on the weekend of the 26th & 27th June. If everything goes to plan (everything crossed!) you’d think and hope that by then the world would have some resemblance of ‘normal’ about it and we might even have fans allowed in! 

I’m first in the queue!🤞 

Winners 

There are a lot of unknowns to the 2021 Super League season. We haven’t seen any of the teams or players for nearly a year and we have a brand new franchise entering the fray - which, for me, doubles the excitement! 

It makes informed predictions on who might win even more difficult! 

I am going to take a punt on Team Bath though. They have really exciting players, from hugely experienced Roses Captain Serena Guthrie to the emerging talent of GA Sophie Drakeford-Lewis. 

I think it’s fair to say Team Bath haven’t fulfilled potential in recent years so their desire and hunger after a very long pre season (!) will be evident. 

I also believe they have one of the most tactically astute coaches in the business in Anna Stembridge. 

All those factors together make for a very heady cocktail of success! It just remains to be seen if the right ingredients can be mixed at the right time, to see the ‘right’ results! 

#37 The anticipation is insane!

In the 17 year history of the UK Super League, has there ever been a more anticipated start to a season?!?! 

I doubt it. 

Social media is awash with excitement, team Whats App groups have a daily countdown and the elite players excitement levels must be off the scale! 

We must remember the huge effort, work & sacrifice to get us to this point. The teams behind the teams are just the most remarkable people. 

It’s such an achievement getting this league up and running in the midst of a global pandemic. We simply must ‘turn up and watch’ in numbers, in appreciation of the ‘behind the scenes’ inevitable blood, sweat and tears. 

For me, it’s also not JUST about the netball! 

For netball lovers across the UK it’s also about hope. 

Hope that grass roots level sport will soon return. 

Hope that youngsters will be inspired by strong, athletic role models and return to the sport they once loved or will come to love. 

Hope, that whilst many facets to life right now are shockingly shit, we can turn on our TV or lap top and ‘escape’ to whistle happy umpires, whoops of delight as long bombs drop and gasps of amazement following glory interceptions. 

(Joke about whistle happy umpires, honest!) 

BRING IT ON! 

The teams I am most looking forward to watching are probably pretty obvious. 

Manchester Thunder are defending champions and I think, the Super League team that has changed the least- says a lot about their faith in players, development pathway and strength in depth. 

Leeds Rhinos are the great unknowns. That’s excitement right there! Even without Maddie Brown, (ticket sales anyone! 😉) they have a really impressive mix of youth & experience and Aussie GS Donnell Wallam comes with rave reviews, despite not actually playing in Suncorp Super Netball.......yet! 

For me the strongest team on paper is Team Bath. Serena Guthrie. Layla Guscoth. Eboni Usoro- Brown. Need I say more!?! 

There are also individual players I am excited to see. 

Donnel Willam has already been mentioned. She was lauded as the stand out player from a ‘friendly’ Suncorp Super Netball pre season 2020 game, in which she played for a Perth ‘best of the rest’ team against eventual league finalists West Coast Fever. 

I am REALLY looking forward to her linking up with Rhea Dixon. I’m not sure why Dixon didn’t get the ‘rub of the green’ at Surrey Storm, but to me the GA has bags of potential. Her movement off the ball and link up play is sublime. Perhaps a change of scene and a boost in confidence is just what she needs. I really hope so! 

Ashleigh Dekker started all three matches for Pulse in the ill-fated 2020 season and as long as she’s recovered from the ankle injury that saw her limp off in a pre season friendly, I think she is definitely one to look out for this year. 

She is one of those Centres who will just not give in, stubborn, and that’s going to be great to play with, but very challenging to play against! She is going to learn HEAPS coming up against opponents like Guthrie, O’Hanlon and Clarke. 

Team Bath GS Kim Borger (Cummane) has a style all of her own and I absolutely love it! There is not another shooter in the UK Superleague like her, her footwork in that circle and agility is breathtaking at times! 

Of all the players I’ve missed watching she comes out on top and I’m looking forward to trying to emulate some of those swing balls and footwork patterns, when I can don the GS bib again, myself! 😉

Not long to wait, I’ll be sat on my sofa with a celebratory G&T waiting with baited breathe for the Celtic Dragons v Leeds Ehinos game on Friday. Who’s with me!?! 

Full fixtures for 2021 can be viewed here: https://www.netballsl.com/fixtures-results/