But Round 1 of Suncorp Super Netball is finally upon us, and with it comes a whole heap of reasons to get behind your team as they launch their 2018 season.
Here are just a handful of the reasons you wouldn’t want to miss a second of Round 1.
SHARNI’S RETURN/#THEBATTLE
As if #THEBATTLE needed any more spice, it’ll mark the return to the court of crowd favourite Sharni Layton, who took a break from the game in the back half of last year.
Is there anything more frightening and exciting than a Sharni with a point to prove?
Having missed selection for Australia’s Commonwealth Games team, the Magpies goal keeper will be ready to tear strips off the Vixens, as the ‘Pies set out to atone for their disappointing end to 2017.
THE GRAND FINAL REMATCH (MINUS ONE BIG NAME, PLUS ONE GIANT INCLUSION)
Giants Netball don’t have to wait long for their chance at revenge after last season’s grand final thumping at the hands of Sunshine Coast Lightning.
But this time at least they won’t have to contend with evergreen Kiwi midcourter superstar Laura Langman, who has chosen to take a break from the sport.
And the Giants will be buoyed by the return of veteran Kim Green, who ruptured her ACL in Round 5 last season, as well as defender Kristiana Manu’a, who also missed 2017 with an ACL.
Whether or not the team changes will be enough to stop the Lightning, who’ve retained the majority of their title-winning squad, is something we can’t wait to find out.
FOWLER IN ACTION
No player will have a more immediate impact on their team’s fortunes than Jamaican giant Jhaniele Fowler, who is the only new inclusion for a West Coast Fever line-up that won just two games last season, and will take on 2017 wooden spooners Adelaide Thunderbirds in Round 1.
The Fever averaged less than 48 goals a game in 2017, but Fowler could be good for close to that number each week on her own, and particularly with creative veteran Nat Medhurst out front.
Fowler netted more than 52 goals a game for the Southern Steel in New Zealand’s national league last season, and is unquestionably the recruiting coup of 2018.
Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds’ bid for a more successful campaign (after only one win in 2017) has been bolstered by the inclusion of 40-year-old former Silver Ferns defender Leana de Bruin. De Bruin’s battle with Fowler shapes as one of the must-see contests of Round 1.
IS ERIN BELL THE MISSING LINK?
Round 1 will give an immediate indication as to whether Erin Bell is the answer for the Magpies.
Have the black and white brigade improved their flag credentials with the recruitment of the former Diamonds goal attack and Adelaide Thunderbird?
The team’s struggles at goal attack last season were well documented, with five players pulling on the bib at different stages throughout the year, but Bell’s inclusion should provide immediate stability and consistency.
With gun defensive duo Emily Mannix and Jo Weston awaiting them, we’ll know within 60 minutes whether the Magpies’ new-look attack end has the goods.
WILL ‘GEITZ FACTOR’ LIGHT UP FIREBIRDS?
For a team accustomed to competing in grand finals, 2017 would certainly have rankled the Queensland Firebirds.
But having missed the finals for just the second time since 2011, the Firebirds enter 2018 with a not-so-secret weapon in their arsenal: former captain Laura Geitz.
The Diamonds goal keeper is a once-in-a-generation package as a player and leader, and with three national league titles as well as World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medals in her trophy cabinet, it’s clear she possesses a golden touch.
While the Swifts will be chasing their own performance improvements after a lacklustre 2017, Geitz’s return to the national competition is worth the price of admission alone.
