Super Netball Round-Up: Disney on Ice spoiled the sport's finals plans, so how does it secure better venues?

In the penultimate round of the Super Netball season, the top four were locked in.

The Adelaide Thunderbirds' success at Ken Rosewall Arena on Saturday, 66-60, saw them secure the minor premiership and knock the NSW Swifts out of finals contention.

We now know the Thunderbirds will host the major semifinal on Sunday June 21, but they've been shut out of their home venue for the important game.

The Queensland Firebirds also put a line through the Sunshine Coast Lightning's chances on Saturday with a 66-59 victory in Brisbane as they clinched the Queensland Cup.

The Mavericks beat the Vixens for the very first time in the Melbourne Derby on Sunday, 59-50. It's taken them three years to outplay their cross-town rivals and claim a finals spot.

Not only did they win but they improved their for and against goal percentage to leapfrog into third position and put themselves in the hot seat to host the minor semifinal.

They very well could be the most dangerous team moving forward but a comment from their coach about the umpiring has slightly rocked the boat.

The last game of the round saw the Giants get pipped by the West Coast Fever in Sydney, 61-60. It's not often you see Player of the Match awarded to someone from the losing side but Aussie Diamonds goal attack Sophie Dwyer had her best game in a long time, nailing 19 goals and three super shots at 92 per cent.

If you missed it, don't worry — we'll get you up to speed with our Super Netball round-up.

Super Netball misses out on big-time finals venues

Does netball need to rethink its planning for finals venues?

Many fans are sure to miss out on finals tickets because the largest indoor venues in the southern states are unavailable.

Disney on Ice will take place at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre across the semifinals weekend from June 19–June 21 before the tour heads to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on the grand final weekend from July 2–July 6.

This means the Thunderbirds have been shut out of their regular stadium and will instead need to play the major semifinal at the Adelaide 36ers Arena, housing roughly 2,000 fewer people.

It also shuts down the opportunity to repeat the success of last year's record grand final crowd of 15,013. The deciding match will be held at John Cain Arena with about 5,000 fewer seats.

Demonstrating how much of a hot commodity these tickets will be is the fact that the Vixens are already at full capacity here week-to-week during the regular season.

During the home and away fixtures, hosting responsibilities lie with the clubs. During finals, these fall to Netball Australia. It would be easy to point the finger at the organisation and ask why it didn't tentatively book the bigger venues earlier.

Especially considering the increasing interest in the league. Last year's regular season hit an all-time high of 343,634 total fans, making it the most attended campaign in history across the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, ANZ Championship and Super Netball eras. 

But the ongoing nature of Disney on Ice contracts means the company locks in its locations a year in advance, long before fixtures are released.

In 2022, Netball Australia announced from now on that it would be selling off the grand final to the highest bidder. Bought by the West Australian government, it was staged at Perth Arena.

Although the abandonment of the tradition of allowing the highest-ranked team left standing the right to host did not go down well, there have been commercial benefits.

Netball can chase investment for its showpiece event and can also organise related events around the match to generate further revenue, like the grand final lunch.

We all came to terms with that plan, and then it got a little more complicated.

In late 2022, the Hancock Prospecting saga left the Aussie Diamonds chasing sponsorship. Visit Victoria stepped in to match the $15 million dollars withdrawn by Gina Rinehart's company.

As part of the five-year deal, it's thought that the Victorian government was granted first dibs in the bidding process and so, three of the past four grand finals have been in Melbourne.

Except for 2024, which was bought by the South Australian government as the next best thing it could do for the Thunderbirds after failing to pinch the 2023 decider in an 11th-hour bid.

The question now is what process does the sport commit to moving forward? What is best practice? Put simply — how do we ensure the bigger venues are available for the biggest game on the calendar?

Now feels like the perfect time to reflect on this with so much change afoot, as we close in on the end of 10 seasons and look to a new TV deal on the Nine Network.

The Visit Victoria sponsorship runs out in June 2027. Once the obligations of that deal are done, is there a hybrid process that could take into account both monetary value and capacity?

For instance, Perth Arena seems to be available on Saturday July 4 with a capacity of 14,000. Sydney SuperDome is also available that weekend on Sunday July 5 with 18,000 plus seats.

It's time to create a transparent process and try to spark a bidding war.

The coaching comment that would have been fined in other sports

The Mavericks are arguably the most dangerous team in finals.

They've gained some serious momentum in recent weeks, are the hungriest on court and with a wild sense of courage and self-belief spurring them on, nobody quite knows what to expect.

In the second half of the season, they've lost just one of six games. The only side they haven't been able to beat in 2026 is the Thunderbirds, but they came close to that in round 10, with a scoreline of 55-51.

In the past two rounds they beat the Fever and Vixens for the first time. They may not be the most clinical side, yet they make up for it with sheer will and tenacity.

Previously, where they were late to contests and taking out the landing space, they've now found a better balance around when to pull out and when to challenge for loose ball.

Their closing speed is almost as good as the Thunderbirds, and it would be interesting to see which side dominates that aspect should they meet again in finals.

Beyond that, it feels like the Mavericks could become everybody's second team. They stand for the individual and pride themselves on celebrating personalities.

However, there was a moment in the Melbourne Derby where their head coach may have overstepped the line. Gerard Murphy's honesty has been refreshing in his first season of Super Netball. In the third quarter, coming out of the half-time break, he was asked by the host broadcaster about his frustrations regarding the penalty count at one end of the court.

"The penalties the [umpires are] calling are slightly different … hopefully it's just consistent throughout the whole game," Murphy said on mic.

Then when Jamie-Lee Price lost her shoe in live play while heading up the other end and the game was allowed to continue, he made a quip.

"Hello, her runner is off, learn how to umpire."

In the NRL and AFL codes, criticism of the officials is pretty rife. But so are heavy fines to try and curb the behaviour. Of course, this was tame, but in the game of netball, this is pretty rare to hear from a coach despite there being no formal process in place to discourage umpire scrutiny.

In a professional sport, officiating really should be a topic that's up for discussion, and this was said in jest, so we don't want to overreact. But the umpires themselves aren't paid professionally, so was it fair to criticise them so publicly? It's a topic that needs nuance.

We love the access we get on the broadcast and want to encourage coaches to speak their mind, it's just interesting to note that it probably wouldn't fly in other Australian codes.