The Australian Netball Championships, formerly the Australian Netball League, is an Australian netball competition. Since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, it has served as a second-level competition, initially below the

ANZ Championship The ANZ Championship, also known as the Trans-Tasman Netball League, is a former netball league featuring teams from both Australia and New Zealand. Between 2008 and 2016, it was the top-level league in both countries. The competition was owned ...

and later below

Suncorp Super Netball The Super Netball League (known predominantly by its sponsored name Suncorp Group, Suncorp Super Netball (SSN)) is a professional netball league in Netball in Australia, Australia. It superseded the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship, which also inc ...

. It is organised by

Netball Australia Netball Australia is the main governing body for netball in Australia. It is affiliated to World Netball. It is responsible for organising and administering the Australia national netball team, Suncorp Super Netball, Australian National Netba ...

. The teams in the competition are effectively the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

s of Suncorp Super Netball teams and/or the representative teams of state netball leagues, such as the South Australia state netball league, the Victorian Netball League and the West Australian Netball League.

Victorian Fury Victorian Fury are an Australian netball team that represents Netball Victoria in the Australian Netball Championships. In 2008 they were both founding members and the inaugural champions of the league. They retained the title in 2009 and compl ...

were the inaugural ANL champions. Fury are also the competition's most successful team, having won eight premierships. The 2020 ANL season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the competition was subsequently re-branded as the Australian Netball Championships.

History

Australian Netball League

Foundation

The Australian Netball League was first played for during the 2008 season.

wanted to organise a second level national league to bridge the gap between states leagues, like the South Australia state netball league, the Victorian Netball League and the West Australian Netball League, and the new

. It was also designed to provide a national competition for the

states and territories of Australia The states and territories are the national subdivisions and second level of government of Australia. The states are partially sovereignty, sovereign, administrative divisions that are autonomous administrative division, self-governing polity, ...

, such the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, who did not have an ANZ Championship franchise.

Victorian Fury dominance

were the inaugural champions, defeating the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

56–41 in the first grand final. In 2009 Fury retained the title and in 2010 they completed a three in a row. In 2011 NNSW Waratahs became the first team other than Fury to win the ANL title. In the grand final they defeated Fury 55–46. Between 2013 and 2016 Fury completed a four in a row of ANL titles. In 2016 Fury won their seventh title and in 2019 they won their eighth.

Australian Netball Championships

In June 2020,

announced that the 2020 ANL season would be cancelled due to the

. In October 2020, it was announced that the ANL was to be rebranded as the Australian Netball Championships, featuring a new tournament style format with expanded team entry parameters.

teams and Netball Australia member organisations would all be invited to enter teams. In July 2021, Netball Australia announced details of the planned inaugural ANC tournament due to be played in September and hosted by Latrobe City Council and Collingwood Magpies in

Traralgon Traralgon ( , ) is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the ...

. However, in August 2021 this tournament was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teams

2023 teams

The teams in the competition are effectively the

s of

teams and/or the representative teams of state netball leagues, such as the South Australia state netball league, the Victorian Netball League and the West Australian Netball League.

Former teams

Grand Finals

;Notes * The 2020 and 2021 competitions were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

Winners

MVP

Sponsorship

References

{{Netball leagues ! 2008 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 2008