With just over a week until the curtain-raiser on 1 August, Super Netball has released a draw for the first six weeks of the competition that features a condensed opening schedule, after the season start was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the hectic new-look fixture list, which includes tricky three-day turnarounds for some clubs, has prompted fears over injury and player burnout.
It is not known if that format will be repeated in subsequent rounds – due to be announced in mid-August – but such an approach carries risks, according to a top sports scientist. Australian Catholic University applied sport science researcher Dr Rich Johnston said injury could be the price to pay for asking teams to back up too quickly.
“That load will be more than what they are used to and if they are not as well conditioned, there will be increased fatigue, which could be detrimental to performance and potentially injury,” he said.
“They would have enough time to recover, but may not then have sufficient time for the other aspects of training that we know are important, like strength work as a performance, recovery and injury prevention aid. The fitter and stronger you are, the quicker you recover.”
Dr Johnston – who has worked across rugby league and Australian rules, focusing on training load monitoring, physical capacities and understanding the match demands of competition – said all teams would have to prioritise what they needed between fixtures.
Melbourne Vixens defender and vice-president of the players’ association Jo Weston said the potential load and the exceptional circumstances of the season as a whole had prompted the association to lobby the league for extended benches.
At present, Super Netball squads are set at 10 players, but the players’ association wants to make it 12 for 2020, meaning each team could have five players on the bench on match day. It would effectively see some training partners, who are travelling with teams anyway, transition to full squad members.
“Given the nature of the season, we would like to see benches extended for sure and this is something we’re discussing now. While I have full faith in all the clubs’ performance staff, we need to ensure we’re monitoring player load and hopefully avoiding any injuries,” Weston said.
In addition to the physical and wellbeing challenges of this extraordinary year, players have to adapt to game-changing rules, the two-point shot and rolling substitutions too, Weston said.
“There is certainly a lot for players and coaches to wrap our heads around. There is a lot to balance in a really short period of time.”
Clubs have not been told how the “super shot” in particular will work, in terms of how the five-minute period at the end of each quarter will be signalled. “There is so much change, so many moving parts this season, it’s crazy, but everyone is doing their best to get the season happening,” Weston said.
While much of the focus has been on clubs in the eastern states like Weston’s Melbourne Vixens, the West Coast Fever and Adelaide Thunderbirds do not have an easy road, first travelling to Sydney and then onto Queensland – and then maybe home again, depending how the season pans out, before potentially heading back to Queensland.
While the final series is locked in for Queensland, league bosses said it is “likely” matches will be played in Perth, Adelaide and in regional Queensland later in the season.
The season is scheduled to open, perhaps fittingly given Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has been the saviour of this year’s competition, with an all-Queensland derby between the Firebirds and Sunshine Coast Lightning in Brisbane on 1 August.
In Sydney later that day, the Giants play the West Coast Fever, followed by the Swifts’ game against the Adelaide Thunderbirds on 2 August. Then in what may be a first in world sport, Victoria’s two sides, the Melbourne Vixens and Collingwood Magpies, will play in Brisbane while still technically in quarantine.
The draw looks a lot like one for a conventional season – with generally four games a round, mostly played on weekends – but the schedule includes tricky turnarounds for the two Sydney-based teams early on, as well as other clubs as the season unfolds, with three-day turnarounds not uncommon.
After both playing at home round one, the Giants and Swifts play another two home games in quick succession in round two, before heading north. The Giants will take on the Swifts at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena on the evening of Wednesday 5 August, before playing the Thunderbirds at the same venue on the Saturday.
The Swifts will have to back up after the Wednesday night match and play on Sunday 9 August against the Fever, who themselves have to play three days later in Queensland. Both NSW sides then have a bye in round three, before moving to the Queensland hub.
