Super Netball 2023:

The Vixens were the runaway firsts last year but fell 11 points behind the West Coast Fever in the grand finals.

They will try to be the first team to lose a grand final and get there again the following year.

Another team set to do well are the Collingwood Magpies, whose captain Geva Mentor said it’s exciting to be in a side that hope to win a finals in a World Cup year.

“I really want to have a good game with the Collingwood Magpies. We’ve kind of touched the finals in the last couple of seasons, so I think we need to really focus on that to really cement ourselves in those kinds of top four positions,” Mentor said.

“And the exciting thing is that you see some of your teammates, some of the Roses girls [England national team] play in the league, obviously all Diamonds, and then there are a few Jamaicans and a few African nations. That makes it exciting to work into a World Cup year, but I think the main focus is on SSN [Suncorp Super Netball] at the moment.”

At the end of the 2023 season, the current Players’ Collective Bargaining Agreement expires and the Australian Netball Players’ Association and Netball Australia are in early negotiations for his replacement.

The union operates a “partnership model” which it hopes could increase wages, but says Netball Australia has signaled it has no intention of increasing Super Netball players’ wages as part of a new agreement after incurring losses of more than $7 million in the past two years.

Watson said the players will be consulted about the negotiations if necessary but choose to keep their attention on the season.

“To be honest, if you’re at your club and you’re performing, that’s what you have to do,” Watson said.

“It’s kind of there and we know the Players’ Association and Netball Australia are working on it…[But] They kind of can, and we can just perform, and as athletes, that’s what you want. Because sometimes it happens in the season or at less than ideal times and you want to focus on playing.”

Similarly, Mentor said players are aware of the conversations but put that aside early in the season to focus on playing well.

“We are aware of that [CBA talks] and I think the great thing about our sport is that we have the players’ association and Kath Harbs [Kathryna Harby-Williams, CEO of the Australian Netball Players’ Association] was a fantastic voice for us and represents all of us players,” said Mentor.

“Obviously there’s a lot of talk about it in pre-season but once the season starts the focus shifts to our players’ association so we can actually focus on what we’re good at and that’s playing netball. ”