In May 2016,
Netball Australia and
Netball New Zealand announced that the
ANZ Championship would be discontinued after the
2016 season. In
Australia, its replacement league – initially known as simply the
National Netball League before an official name was decided upon – included the five former Australian ANZ Championship teams (
Adelaide Thunderbirds,
Melbourne Vixens,
New South Wales Swifts,
Queensland Firebirds and
West Coast Fever) plus three brand new franchises:
Collingwood Magpies,
Giants Netball and
Sunshine Coast Lightning. With a team coached by
Noeline Taurua, captained by
Geva Mentor and also featuring
Caitlin Bassett,
Karla Pretorius and
Stephanie Wood,
Sunshine Coast Lightning finished the
2017 season as inaugural champions after defeating
Giants Netball 65–48 in the grand final. In
2018 they retained the title after defeating
West Coast Fever 62–59 in the grand final. In
2019,
Briony Akle guided
New South Wales Swifts to their first Super Netball title. Despite losing their new captain,
Maddy Proud, to injury early in the season, Swifts finished the regular season in second place. In the major semi-final, they lost to
Sunshine Coast Lightning. However, they then defeated
Melbourne Vixens in the preliminary final. In the grand final they faced Lightning again but this time defeated them 64–47 to emerge as champions. In
2020, with a team coached again by
Simone McKinnis and co-captained by
Kate Moloney and
Liz Watson,
Melbourne Vixens finished the season as both minor premiers and overall champions. In the grand final they defeated
West Coast Fever 66–64. In
2021, with a team coached by
Briony Akle and co-captained by
Maddy Proud and
Paige Hadley,
New South Wales Swifts won their second Super Netball title. In the grand final they defeated
Giants Netball 63–59. In
2022, head coach
Dan Ryan and captain
Courtney Bruce led
West Coast Fever to their first
premiership. In the grand final they defeated
Melbourne Vixens 70–59. In May 2023, news reports disclosed that the Collingwood Magpies were in financial distress, and later that month the Collingwood Football Club announced it would withdraw its netball team at the conclusion of the
2023 season. On 21 July 2023, the league announced that the
Sports Entertainment Network (SEN), led by chief executive
Craig Hutchison, was awarded the license for a team to be based in
south-east Melbourne. As part of the licensing agreement, Netball Australia will operate the team for the rest of 2023 before transitioning to SEN for 2024 and beyond.
ABC News reported that the SEN bid was preferred by broadcasters
Fox Netball over the alternate bid put forward by
Netball Victoria, which suggested a regional team 'floating' between
Geelong,
Bendigo or
Ballarat. == Clubs ==