Among the plethora of sports taking to Liverpool, netball is steadily raising its profile across the region, with The LexisNexis Dragons set to become the second Netball Super League (NSL) in recent years to grace the M&S Bank Arena.
The current sporting landscape across Liverpool is more than just a collection of teams and venues, it’s a living, breathing part of the City’s identity. From the roars around Anfield and the Hill Dickinson to the grassroots pitches and courts spotted around every neighbourhood, sport is an integral part of everyday life across Merseyside.
Being woven and shaped through decades of sporting history, Liverpool’s sporting credentials have been bolstered by fierce footballing fixtures, as well as the world-renowned Grand National hosted at Aintree, that particular event dating back to 1839.
Still now, the ties are being strengthened with an abundance of sports taking to the City, such as the British Gymnastics Championships, hosted regularly at the M&S Bank arena and most recently the Inaugural Boxing World Champions.
Amongst countless other sports, netball’s popularity across Merseyside has been rising sparked by the recent accelerated growth of the NSL, attracting more viewership and inspiring the younger generation.
Last year, NSL giants Manchester Thunder took to Liverpool for one of their fixtures against Birmingham Panthers at the M&S bank arena, attracting a huge crowd, and proving the hype of the sport around the City.
Following in their footstep’s LexisNexis Dragons (formally Cardiff Dragons) have announced they will host a fixture there too, their last of the season on the 9th May 2025.
For fans like Hannah Watson, a LJMU student from Warwickshire, who attended Thunder’s match at the M&S Bank Arena, the event captured the sense of community netball can foster.
She said: “It was really good, it brought a lot of people together that haven’t had that kind of community before and haven’t had the opportunity to engage with elite netball properly. I think it’s brilliant that the arena is being used, hopefully with Dragons using it this season it’ll start a chain reaction and we’ll see even more netball here.”
The grassroots scene across Liverpool is also thriving. According to Hannah Potter, officiating lead for Liverpool Netball league, 54 teams recently competed in the midweek summer league, a clear sign of the games expanding reach across the region.
However, despite these encouraging signs, some within Merseyside’s netball community are questioning why this growth has not yet transferred into a NSL team based in Liverpool.
Abbie Hassan, divisional secretary of Liverpool’s Netball League and head coach of reception at St Helens Bees echoed this concern.
She said: “In terms of elite netball, there are no teams in Merseyside that have national players and that’s because everyone seems to flock the likes of Oldham and Kingsway Power if they’re actually decent netballers.
“We struggle keeping the top talent in Merseyside, because there’s no options for them to go up. We’ve got Manchester Thunder on our doorstep so it’s easy for them to aspire in that direction, so I feel like it needs more work, it’s definitely going there but I don’t know if it’ll ever get to that kind of top level because we just don’t have a club that can retain top players.
“It puts a roof on the growth, not in terms of numbers, but in terms of how far we can get as a region, which is a massive shame because I imagine a lot of players do come from Merseyside, they just don’t have a club to go to that will be able to get them to that level.”
Despite these challenges Abbie is hopeful that her work at St Helens Bees is helping shape the next generation of netballers, many whom could become Liverpool’s future stars.
“We’ve got more younger players playing, my daughter who is four plays, so we’re starting them younger and younger, we’ve got nearly 300 kids that enrolled in St Helens Bees, it’s massive and it just keeps growing.
“You never know, maybe in six of seven years some of our oldest might reach the elite level, and hopefully they’ll be able to stay right here in Liverpool.” Said Abbie.
For that to happen however, she’s aware there needs to be more investment in the infrastructure that underpins elite sport.
She said: “They’d need someone to invest, like Manchester Thunder are sponsored by one of the universities and Nottingham Forest have backing from the football club, so we need that same massive investment from someone who’s very interested in netball but also cares about Liverpool as well.
“On top of that though, the standard and availability of netball venues needs to improve to enable more training sessions, fixtures and workshop related events, because we don’t really have a major sport’s village that can accommodate us, so there’s definitely huge barriers preventing growth.”
Expanding on this, Hannah highlighted current developments to address some of those barriers.
She added: “There is ongoing work to have Wavertree become a netball centre of excellence which boasts three netball courts inside, four outside and the potential for another two to three indoors.”
This venue already hosts the Liverpool Netball League, has run Merseyside midweek tournaments, in addition to an international club level tournament with teams from South Africa, Merseyside and Cumbria competing, and Hannah hopes the use can keep expanding, potentially becoming an adequate venue for NSL matches.
The timing couldn’t be any better. The Netball Super League’s recent rebrand has modernised the competition and boosted its visibility, following in the footsteps of netball power house Australia.
Reflecting on this, Abbie admitted that she loves seeing these changes, but revealed that there are still areas where Australia lead the way, particularly when it comes to inclusivity.
She pointed out that Australia have embraced B netball, providing opportunities for boys to play and grow within the sport, something Abbie believes would massively enhance the profile of Netball in Liverpool, alongside the continued rise of elite competition.
She said: “I’d like some mixed teams going on because then it doubles your fan base, doubles your people that play and doubles your people who can fight for it to be invested in.
“I know for Australia It’s about triple the amount of men who play than they do in England and you look at how brilliantly they represent netball globally, I just think it’d be nice to kind of represent that in Liverpool too.”
