Superleague sell-out fuels call for greater professionalism

Birmingham opening day attracts 9,000 fans Full-time players will lift England, says Agbeze

That netball is booming is evident by the record 9,000-strong capacity crowd who will fill the Arena Birmingham today to watch all 10 Superleague teams compete on the opening day of the season.

Not long ago, the sport had no television presence and little exposure outside the niche netball world. Now every match will be shown on Sky as the sport rides the wave of England’s historic Commonwealth Games triumph less than two years ago.

But if England are going to regularly challenge world No1 side Australia and world champions New Zealand, there is general agreement about one hurdle that must be overcome.

“We’re not professional enough,” said Ama Agbeze, the Severn Stars defender and former England captain. “Teams and players aspire to be professional, but if people have a day job to go to you can’t train as much as you need to train.

“In Australia and New Zealand, their leagues are really intense and it’s almost like playing an international. Lots of England’s players who played in the Commonwealth Games and World Cup have played abroad and so have experienced the intensity and consistency you need to perform at that elite level.

“There’s an array of players coming through who haven’t experienced that, so need our league to be as good, if not better, than Australia and New Zealand.

“If the intensity and pressure doesn’t increase there’s going to be a disparity. As long as Superleague has that feeling of being blown away when you play an international, the league isn’t good enough.”

Fran Williams, England and Wasps defender, said: “With extra funding and money to make us professional athletes, that’s where we’ll see the rise in the league and the quality of the performances.”

We’re all training as professional athletes in the Superleague, but not all players can actually be professional. They’ve still got other jobs.

“The players are ready and the league has the ability to grow to that – it’s just taking it to the next level.”

Agbeze also said she would like to see more respect given to players at the highest level of the sport.

“It’s taken a long time to shift the mindset [that] netball is something girls used to play at school,” she said.

“If it was football, we’d never compare the England team to going to watch your daughter or son play football. But that’s the mindset people take with netball. People’s mindsets have started to shift, but not completely. There needs to be a differentiation between netball for participation and netball at elite level.”