What it takes to win the Netball Super League

For the first time in 11 seasons, on Saturday 20 June 2026, I was supporting a team in the Netball Super League Final as their performance analyst. The crucial moment came when, with 40 seconds left on the clock, we had just gone two points ahead thanks to a clutch supershot from Sophie Fawns and London Pulse had the next centre pass to restart play. A 2-point play from Pulse would have tied the game up and taken us to extra time. However, a strong defensive effort on the centre pass ensured we won back possession and the girls kept their composure to keep the ball and see out the game with Sophie adding a further 1-point goal on the buzzer. We had done it. After a season of hard work, grit and determination AO Manchester Thunder had won the Netball Super League Grand Final!

My netball journey

For me this journey started in December 2015 when I was given the opportunity to work with Hertfordshire Mavericks (now London Mavericks). I was fresh into the sport and remember feeling overwhelmed as I did not know much about netball. During my time with Mavericks there were so many nearly moments, for example we finished third in my first season. During many subsequent seasons we would have excellent starts to only tail off and lose crucial games, finishing fifth multiple times and missing out on the playoffs all together. Despite these setbacks, I had developed as a pracititioner and knew the sport inside out from an analysis perspective.

When the Netball Super League rebranded in 2024, I left Mavericks after nine seasons and was not sure if I still had a place in the sport anymore. However, I had built up a strong reputation and I was lucky enough to land on my feet with AO Manchester Thunder and was now working with Karen Grieg (a multi-time Super League winner). This was an exciting but different role for me going forwards. I was no longer doing the late-night training sessions and being around the team, I was working more remotely but I had realised my work in netball was not complete. My first job was to build up the performance analysis systems from scratch while the coaches were doing a lot of work behind the scenes to gather information manually as they watched games. My first season in 2025, we managed a third place finish which was an amazing achievement given the injuries suffered to the squad.

Road to the Final - 2026 Season

As an analyst my main role is to provide information and insights to the coaching team. We set out in the off-season to create some clear performance goals for the upcoming season. Briefly, we looked at the previous season’s data on all teams to determine what it takes to win a game of netball in the new supershot era. This information was then presented to the players to set targets for the season.

Furthermore, during the off-season we sat down as a coaching group to reflect on the year 1 PA and made changes to how we provided our PA support to the players heading into 2026. Our main aim was to simplify the information given to the players.

During the season, I have various roles to ensure I am providing the best possible information to the coaches and players. This has to be balanced with my full-time lecturing role at Middlesex University within the London Sport Institute. A large portion of my time is spent on opposition analysis. This is where I use previous game data to see any trends in their performance and watch previous game footage to identify attacking and defensive strategies they use. I will be drawing annotations on these videos (similar to Monday Night Football on Sky) and these will be presented to the players along with information about our upcoming opponents.

On a match day I am based at home analysing the game using the TV footage and feeding down information to the coaching team on the bench through a visual statistical output screen. Then when the match has finished, I will create a more detailed and visual match report of the key information from the game for players and coaches.

Fast forward to the final, I was lucky enough to be at the game in person; it was only the second on-site game of the season for me. When the final whistle blew, a quick sprint down to the court to celebrate with the team and after 11 seasons of hard work and development, I had finally achieved a first Super League win!