The 2022 season starts with the traditional 'Season Opener' weekend on Saturday and Sunday; 10 matches will be played across the two days and every one will be shown live on Sky Sports and streamed on the Sky Sports YouTube channel
Wednesday 2 February 2022 07:04, UK
With the 2022 Vitality Netball Superleague season upon us, we take a look at some of the talking points as the teams prepare to launch their campaigns at the 'Season Opener' weekend.
This season will see the return of the traditional home and away format, with fans back in the stands. Before that can happen, however, all 11 outfits are heading for a weekend of netball at Birmingham's Resorts World Arena.
The 2021 champions Loughborough Lightning will kick-start the 10-match weekend and every contest across the two days will be shown live on Sky Sports and streamed on the Sky Sports YouTube channel.
With 19 rounds of the regular season to come after that, plus the play-offs and Finals Weekend, it's time to take a look at some of the key talking points...
After a scintillating 2021 season, the forthcoming campaign is set to reach even greater heights due to some of the world's best players returning to play Superleague.
Peace Proscovia became a favourite among fans during her first stint in England with Loughborough Lightning.
Proscovia's dedication and exceptional skills, saw her take the position of goal shooter to new levels. She inspired her fellow athletes and will do so again upon her return to Surrey Storm.
Proscovia performed with a 90 per cent accuracy rate during the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball season and scored 670 goals in 42 games. Needless to say, Mikki Austin has made an astute move in securing her serves.
With Austin, Yasmin Parsons and Sophia Candappa in Storm's mid-court mix, the franchise are in a good position to attack the 2022 season.
Another shooter set to raise standards this year and to join up with a fellow former international at Severn Stars is Cat Tuivaiti.
Tuivaiti's presence alongside Liana Leota will see sparks fly at Stars, and Tuivaiti's ability to produce passes and skills that no-one else can will mesmerise fans.
Leota's exceptional reading of the game and her own creativity, means that she'll be able to get the best out of Tuivaiti.
With Melissa Bessell's acquisition of Summer Artman, Nicole Humphrys and Michelle Drayne, her squad really turned heads during pre-season and is one that many are keen to seen in action.
The arrival of Shadine van der Merwe and Nat Metcalf at Thunder, plus the return of Towera Vinkhumbo to Strathclyde Sirens are some of the other notable pieces of personnel news.
At the end of the 2021 season, Vinkhumbo had secured 60 interceptions for Strathclyde Sirens - more than any other player in the league. She also created 93 turnovers and added 56 deflections to her tally during the 20 rounds of action.
Vinkhumbo's partnership with Emily Nicholl set the platform of Sirens' best-ever Superleague season and the settled squad will want to kick on again in 2022.
Van der Merwe and Metcalf are both exceptional athletes in their own right and their presence will boost Thunder's bid to win a fourth Superleague title.
During the 2021 season, the centralised venues in Wakefield and London were outstanding in their ability to enable the competition to continue safely and ensure fans could watch the action. However, they did impact clubs in terms of the amount of travel that was involved week in and week out.
With home venues reopening, teams have a chance to play in front of their own fans and have matches that are easily accessible and on courts that are familiar to them.
The presence of home fans will lift the players on court; the recent Netball Quad Series highlighted just how much a crowd can boost a home team when England faced New Zealand and Australia in the group stages.
The recent Netball Quad Series also highlighted that there's still plenty to ponder on when it comes to England's Vitality Roses squad selection for this year's Commonwealth Games.
The Roses' squad depth is greater than it has ever been and as Tamsin Greenway pointed out in her latest column, so many different elements came together to influence decisions.
For the athletes playing in the Superleague, their focus will be on making themselves undroppable to Jess Thirlby and the presence of the Commonwealth Games looming will lift their performances.
It's not just England's players that will have the competition and squad selection in their sights though.
With Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland occupying positions between seven and 12 in the Netball World Rankings, their presence in Birmingham should also be confirmed, meaning that their athletes will also be eager to catch their head coaches' eyes and secure selection.
Speaking of head coaches, the 2022 Superleague season has a number of franchises with new personnel at the helm.
Danielle Titmuss-Morris steps into the leading role for the first time at Celtic Dragons. Victoria Burgess is also stepping up at Loughborough Lightning due to Sara Francis-Bayman taking an 18-month leave of absence.
Leeds Rhinos Netball will be led by the former Malaysia national coach and NSW Swifts assistant coach, Tracey Robinson.
Robinson takes the place that Dan Ryan held during Rhinos' inaugural season and will aim to replicate or improve upon a campaign that saw them secure play-off netball at the first time of asking.
For all three, pre-season will have been about bringing their squads together and generating an understanding of their coaching style and philosophies.
Relationships will need to have been developed quickly and the opening rounds of the competition will be incredibly beneficial to further increase their understanding of their athletes.
Despite there being 20 rounds of netball in the regular season, teams cannot afford slow starts; every new head coach must settle in quickly and make it seem like they've been at their club for years.
