By Paddy Regester -UPDATED
Last season’s frantic finish only barely answered the questions swirling around such an exhilarating Suncorp Super Netball season.
The prospects of the grand finalists – NSW Swifts and the Sunshine Coast Lightning – are just some of the tantalizing questions facing the 2020 combatants.
Can an injury ravaged Magpies team take that next step? Will Australia's next great goal shooter emerge in 2020? What will a Kim Green-less GIANTS midcourt look like? And can the Thunderbirds midcourt bridge the gap between their exciting attacking and defensive ends?
Are the Lightning done?
The most dominant team in Suncorp Super Netball’s three-year history is soon to reveal what it is made of.
Without Noeline Taurua, the rock who built the expansion club from nothing, the Sunshine Coast Lightning must turn to new sources of leadership and inspiration.
Only the most hasty pundits would predict their demise.
Two of the world’s best netballers – Laura Langman and Karla Pretorius – still call the Sunshine Coast their home.
And new head coach Kylee Byrne has never been more ready. After 15 years in elite programs, she is far from a rookie and boasts a perfect strike rate from her opportunities as head coach while Taurua was on personal leave.
Did the Swifts overachieve?
Based on what they showed in 2019, an empire beckons for the NSW Swifts’ whose rise from plucky underdogs in 2018 to champions a year later was fairytale stuff.
Losing Kate Eddy is a blow because she is on the cusp of becoming one of the premiership’s most influential shut down players.
If they have shown anything during their successful charge, it’s their ability to fill a vacancy and to adjust.
Briony Akle’s recognition as the Joyce Brown Coach of the Year underlines the Swifts’ strong leadership and sharp planning.
And the expected return from injury of Maddy Proud will provide the team with substantial midcourt oomph.
Can the Magpies transform from prospects to powerhouse?
Everyone expected Collingwood’s internationals would immediately mould the side into a championship winning outfit.
That they have not yet won a finals match would be a source of immense frustration both internally and externally. And that elusive first finals victory wont come easy in 2020 after losing Ash Brazill in the offseason to a knee injury as well as Kim Ravillion, Nat Medhurst and April Brandley being set to miss the season as they all become mothers.
The key to making the next step could be the development of Shimona Nelson.
Nelson’s 637 goals at 88 per cent accuracy was a statement of intent and, at 21, she can only improve.
Who will be Australia's next star GS?
Australia has, for the past two World Cup cycles, been blessed with the amazing talents of Caitlin Bassett and Caitlin Thwaites.
They have shown no signs of going anywhere, but the time has come to unearth more depth at the shooting end.
Sunshine Coast star Cara Koenen helped her side to a grand final but opportunities exist for the next layer of talent to emerge.
Before a knee injury in Round 13 halted a brilliant year, Adelaide Thunderbirds shooter Sasha Glasgow was having a breakout season with her uncanny ability to reel in rebounds and keeping the scoreboard ticking over earning her a spot in the Diamonds pre-World Cup camp.
GIANT Matisse Letherbarrow has some work ahead to win court time but she comes highly recommended after a promising apprenticeship in the Australian Netball League and could further enhance her claims at next year’s World Youth Cup in Fiji.
Who will be Jamie-Lee Price’s partner in crime?
GIANTS Netball never fully recovered from the departure of foundation player, Serena Guthrie.
Now they must develop another attacking midcourter to cover the retirement of Kim Green.
Jamie-Lee Price answered every challenge last year with the GIANTS and the national team but she can’t run the centre court on her own.
Madeline Hay, who made her debut in Round 1 last year, looks set to slot straight in to the vacant wing attack position. The hype surrounding Hay has hopes high that she can make the transistion from training partner to starter in 2020.
Training partner and former Swift Claire O’Brien, could have a beefed up creative role to create space for the GIANTS’ gun shooting combination.
Is Hannah Petty ready to power the Thunderbirds’ engine room?
The Adelaide Thunderbirds’ bookends are as sharp as any in the competition.
Shamera Sterling was a sensation in her debut season and the arrival of shooter Lenize Potgieter has injected further international class.
But who will stitch it together?
After injuries affected her introduction to the elite level, Hannah Petty showed signs at the end of last season she was ready to stand alongside Super Netball’s most fierce centres.
