Netball Super Club

1st: Collingwood Magpies 2nd: Northern Mystics 3rd: Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse 4th: Splice Construction Magic 5th: Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel 6th: The Good Oil Tactix 7th: Northern Stars 8th: Wasps Netball

Delayed because of the Netball World Cup held earlier in the year, the third edition of Netball Super Club featured all six New Zealand ANZ Premiership teams with the international flavour being added by the Collingwood Magpies (Australia) and Wasps Netball (England).

With teams in preparatory mode for their respective 2020 domestic seasons, the opportunity to gain court time and valuable insight into combinations, processes and a week of team bonding proved invaluable to all concerned.

There was also added incentive for the New Zealand players with the event acting as an opportunity for the national selectors to cast their eye over Silver Ferns candidates for January’s Nations Cup in England, being a particular focus.

After dusting off the early season cobwebs, teams continued to improve during the five-day event and there was no lack of competitive spirit while training partners and young up-andcomers were given valuable exposure to the higher level.

After three days of pool play (two pools of four teams), the talent-rich Magpies emerged as the form team of the competition after being the only unbeaten side. They went on to despatch defending champions Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse 54-40 in the first semi final while an ever-improving Northern Mystics held out a spirited Splice Construction WBOP Magic 49-42 in the other.

The Mystics and Magpies played out an entertaining and high quality final before the visitors got the edge in the final quarter to run home 49-42 winners, retaining their clean sheet for the tournament in the process.

Twenty games were played over the five days of action, which involved 12-minute quarters. While it was a demanding schedule that required plenty of flexibility to ensure players were not overloaded, there was some respite with the mid-week community engagement day where teams did some coaching at local schools followed by sight-seeing and activities in the wider Nelson region.

A special thanks to Nelson Netball, the Nelson Regional Development Agency and Major Events for the support of Netball Super Club.