The Netball Super Cup will kick-start the life of the new, Netball Super League franchise, Nottingham Forest Netball, this Saturday afternoon, at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield.

The new-look tournament will see Forest partake alongside seven other sides, Chelsea Pitman’s side scheduled to play a minimum of three matches throughout the day.

Drawn into Group A, Forest will face Manchester Thunder (12:50), London Mavericks (14:30), and Birmingham Panthers, the other new franchise (15:50), with the top two sides in each of the two groups progressing to the semi-final stage; Group B sees Leeds Rhinos, Cardiff Dragons, Loughborough Lightning (there’ll be a rivalry there) and London Pulse in action.

Led by the experienced Pitman on the sidelines, she was active from 2010 until last year, and has claimed Gold at the 2011 World Netball Championships with her native Australia, and Gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, coincidentally in Australia (qualifies through her Yorkshire-born father), in what has been a stellar, on-court career.

Pitman has assembled an experienced, talented squad of players, who’ll be based in Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, as the excitement continues to build ahead of the new season.

Nottingham Forest Netball 2025 – Iona Christian (C, WA); Niamh Cooper (Captain; Northern Ireland; C, WD); Rhea Dixon (GA, GS, WA); Brie Grierson (GA, WA); Freya Henshall (GA, GS); Falidah Kalondi (Uganda; GK); Hannah Leighton (GD, GK); Natasha Pavelin (Vice Captain; GD, GK, WD); Jayda Pechova (GS, GK); Rolene Streutker (South Africa; GS)

The league season kicks in the week after the Super Cup tournament, on Sunday 16 March, Pitman taking her charges to the capital, and the Copper Box Arena, to face London Pulse (17:00), with their first-ever home game, at the Motorpoint, a week later, when they play host to Cardiff Dragons (Fri 21 March, 19:30).

Fixtures for Nottingham Forest can be found HERE

The first four outings of Nottingham Forest’s Netball Super League campaign see two home and two away; London Pulse (a), Cardiff Dragons (h), Manchester Thunder (a), Loughborough Lightning (h), the latter being on Saturday 5 April (15:00).

Pitman actually has two former Lightning stars in her squad, Rhea Dixon and Freya Henshall; less than sixteen miles up the road, the Lightning are certainly a side to be reckoned with, a bench-mark if you will for these upstarts from Nottingham.

Six-times Grand Final finalists in the past seven years, three-times winners, back-to-back champions, and holders (2021, 2023 and 2024), Lightning versus Forest will certainly be ‘that’ game in which to look out for on the calendar, and the 5 April can not come soon enough.

Before that however, there is the small matter of the Super Cup, and the opening games of the league season in which to contend with; meanwhile, Forest also have a NXTGen, and Pathway sides in action this season, their respective seasons having already begun in recent weeks.

The NXTGen side, with Rihanna Luke starring, defeated Leeds Rhinos, 62-56, for their first W of the season, on 1 March, whilst the Pathway sides, U17s and U19s, have already played a handful of games each.

Keep up-to-date with all the goings-on with Nottingham Forest Netball via their Facebook and X/Twitter or Online HERE

As a side-note, two individuals from the East Midlands have also been appointed among the umpires for the upcoming season, Derbyshire’s Kate Mann, and Lincoln’s Lizzie Saunby.

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @NFNetball Coach Chelsea Pitman prepares her team for the season ahead.