The Commonwealth Games-enforced alteration to this year's Super Netball fixtures is here to stay with competition officials keen to showcase the product during the sport's traditional window between April and August.
Saturday's season opener between the Melbourne Vixens and Collingwood comes nine weeks later in the year than round one did in 2017, more than 10 months after Sunshine Coast hoisted the inaugural trophy with a grand final win over the Giants.
Late start: The Super Netball season start was pushed back to avoid a clash with the Commonwealth Games.
Photo: AAP
Netball Australia announced last June that the season would be moved to avoid a clash with the Games on the Gold Coast and CEO Marne Fechner said late April would likely be the starting point for the world's premier league in future years.
"It's our aim for it to be the norm and try and keep that traditional winter window," Fechner said. "It lines up really nicely with the netballing community and one of our key focus areas is how we can engage Suncorp Super Netball with our netball community. The kids are all starting to start their Net Set Go programs, and competitions are starting.
"In a four year cycle we always have [every] two years, a Commonwealth Games year and a World Cup year, where we're thrown around a little bit and it was the same in previous years. This year gave us an opportunity to really consider, where do we want to live?
