Round 8 results:
Loughborough Lightning 65-53 Manchester Thunder
London Mavericks 72-61 Cardiff Dragons (AET)
Nottingham Forest 69-59 London Pulse
Birmingham Panthers 71-69 Leeds Rhinos (AET)
AET: After Extra Time
My highlights:
- Lightning jump up to second after they do the double over Thunder in a repeat of the 2024 Grand Final.
- Mavericks were pushed all the way to extra time by Dragons, but showed maturity to get themselves the three points.
- Pulse suffer their first defeat of the season against Forest, who put in an exceptional team performance. If I could name all of them in my team of the week, I would!
- In a controversial match that ended in a draw after extra time, the home side Panthers shot the golden goal to come out victorious.
Natasha’s team of round 8:
GK: Alice Harvey (Loughborough Lightning)
GD: Tash Pavelin (Nottingham Forest)
WD: Hannah Leighton (Nottingham Forest)
C: Iona Christian (Nottingham Forest)
WA: Jess Shaw (Birmingham Panthers)
GA: Emma Thacker (London Mavericks)
GS: Rolene Streutker (Nottingham Forest)
Round 9 fixtures:
Friday 9th May, 19:30: Birmingham Panthers vs Cardiff Dragons
Predicted winner: Cardiff Dragons
Players to watch: Betsy Creak & Alex Johnson
Saturday 10th May, 18:00: Loughborough Lightning vs Leeds Rhinos
Predicted winner: Loughborough Lightning
Players to watch: Shadine van der Merwe & Joyce Mvula
Sunday 11th May, 16:00: London Mavericks vs London Pulse
Predicted winner: London Pulse
Players to watch: Suzie Liverseige and Zara Everitt
Sunday 4th May, 18:00: Nottingham Forest vs Manchester Thunder
Predicted winner: Manchester Thunder
Players to watch: Jayda Pechova and Elmere van der Berg
Natasha’s insights:
The controversial extra time in the final match of Round 8 showed us how far we have to go to become professional. From what I saw, Rhinos scored a super shot, which was wrongly awarded as one goal, before scoring again, winning the match 60-59. However, then the game went into extra time. Like the players and viewers alike, I was confused. This is a way to utilise the third (reserve) umpire and allow the umpires to hold time to watch a replay of events to make the correct decision. As an umpire myself, I admit that we all make mistakes, because we are human, but this is an opportunity for the Netball Super League to reflect and make improvements to professionalise the game. There should be a review into the Panthers v Rhinos game.
You can catch the second half of the NSL on Youtube, Sky Sports and BBC Sport.
Additionally, if you want to hear more from me, you can head over to @tash_talker1 on Instagram to find my viewpoints and predictions!
