There’ll be excitement both on and off the court with fans encouraged to come in fancy dress as their favourite female icons for the event at the Arena Birmingham on Saturday 5 January 2019.

Celtic Dragons will be taking on five-time champions Team Bath Netball to open the new season, which will be followed by a repeat of last season’s Grand Final as Wasps Netball face Loughborough Lightning.

It will then be the first chance for fans to see the new club London Pulse in action as they take to the Vitality Netball Superleague stage to play Severn Stars.

Jodie Gibson, who has signed for Severn Stars for a third season, will be out to impress with the Netball World Cup 2019 on the horizon.

She said: “I am so excited for the 2019 Vitality Netball Superleague season with Severn Stars. 2019 is an exciting year for netball in England and the Super 10 competition is such an exciting event to showcase the talent we have across all teams. It’s always a thrilling day of netball so be sure to get your tickets for the day!”

Strathclyde Sirens, now in their third season, will be up next to battle it out on the opening weekend against Surrey Storm, who have announced Mikki Austin as their new Director of Netball.   

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Kadeen Corbin is set to reunite with Sasha Corbin at benecosMavericks ahead of the new season, following her departure from Team Bath Netball.

The Corbin sisters will go head-to-head with Manchester Thunder in the final fixture of the Super 10 opener. 

Kadeen said: “Super 10 is the most exciting place to see all 10 teams in one venue. I’m excited to get the Vitality Netball Superleague started and what a better way than to start altogether. It’s going to be very competitive with all teams out to win first game of the season. We want to see all the colours and support throughout the day. So you know you don’t want to miss out!”

Clubs are still fine-tuning their squads but there has been plenty of off-season movement and announcements with plenty more still to come in the build-up to the opening event of the 2019 season.

All of the 2019 fixtures are now available to view on the Vitality Netball Superleague website.

Courtesy of England Netball

The annual event, held at the Genting Arena in Birmingham, saw last year’s finalists go head-to-head once again with the ‘hosts’ running out 10 goal winners thanks to a cruising final quarter performance.

Coach Hoffman made just one change to her starting 7 compared to the opening weekend win over Severn Stars, with Scarlett Williams coming at WD in place of Beth Sutherland. The defensive change didn’t seem to phase Storm though, with Lorraine Kowalewska making some key early interceptions to hand her side the lead. Thunder returned to good form late on in the quarter though, and led 12-15 at the first break.

Storm made a strong start to the 2nd quarter and quickly leveled the scores back to 15-all, before Katy Holland’s stop on Mvula forced Thunder to lose possession and fall 2 goals behind at 20-18. The quarter went goal-for-goal for a long period, before Storm broke away to lead 30-26 at half time.

Naida Hutchinson arrived on court back from injury to make her Storm debut in Q3 at GK, pushing Holland forward to GD. A few missed chances allowed Manchester to tie the game once again at 32-all before leading by a single goal 35-36. Mikki Austin moved to WD to add some more pressured in the defensive third which, alongside the dominance held by Hutchinson, allowed Storm to lead by 2 (41-39) heading into the final quarter.

Surrey made yet another big start to the period and were almost immediately 5 goals up. Multiple turnovers followed from that point with Sutherland (back on at WD) and Hutchinson making some key interceptions for Katie Harris and Megan Craig to comfortable finish off. Thunder were down and out with a few minutes left on the clock, allowing Storm to make it two out of two so far and secure their first win at the Genting Arena.

Storm are back in action this Saturday with a trip to Team Northumbria in round 3 for a 6pm centre-pass, where they will be looking to maintain their 100% record heading into Netball London Live in round 4 on Saturday 11th March.

Lead photo shows player of the Match Georgia Lees (right).

Report courtesy of Surrey Storm