A relieved Giants defender Sam Poolman will take the first steps towards getting back on court this week after Super Netball confirmed an August 1 start date with the league committed to completing a full 60-match season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
How the competition will look exactly and where games will be played are among finer details yet to be determined but the Newcastle 29-year-old was pleased to have a start date after what has been a challenging couple of months since Australia was put into lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis.
"The lack of motivation and drive and the unknown was quite scary, but to at least have a start date that it's going ahead and we're going to play a full season is really exciting because it could have gone any way," Poolman told the Newcastle Herald on Monday.
The 2020 Super Netball season was scheduled to start on May 2. All contracted players have taken pay cuts since April and have been on reduced hours of individualised club training per week.
Super Netball chief executive Chris Symington said players would "continue to be paid in line with the current agreement of 12 hours per week, with full pre-season training currently earmarked for late June where athletes will return to their normal 23 hours of training a week".
"[The Australian Netball Players Association] agreed with the league from their end and our end we needed another week, so that will be the topic of discussion this week ... getting an idea of financials," Poolman said.
"Obviously, we would love to get paid what we signed on for, but we're not going to put our sport in jeopardy either."
The Giants will return to some small group training this week at Netball Central at Sydney Olympic Park. While some have described Super Netball's decision to delay the season start until August as conservative, Poolman was happy for a slower return to training.
"I think it will help that we haven't rushed back to full training and full contact and full load of playing," she said.
"Even though everyone trained at home through COVID, it is different in terms of going back and doing a full training program at your club.
"We're still on Level 2 in terms of the AIS guidelines for sport, so we're still not meant to use body-on contact. We are going to do a three-week block, just ease in ... that will leave us about six weeks to go back to full time training and I'm sure as we go each week there will be more information on the season in terms of what the draw looks like. But I think it gives us more chance of a normal, in somewhat, season without disruptions."
