Archive March 7, 2025

Nottingham Forest Netball head coach Chelsea Pitman says she wants her side to “create our own legacy” when they take to the court for the first time.

Forest, backed by the Premier League football club, are one of eight teams competing in the revamped Netball Super League (NSL), with a new one-day competition – the Netball Super Cup – acting as the curtain-raiser on Saturday, 8 March.

It marks the start of a new chapter for domestic netball in the UK in the first campaign as the division moves towards professionalisation.

Forest, along with Birmingham Panthers, are one of two new franchises admitted to the league while new rules have been introduced with the aim of improving its entertainment value.

The Super Cup will provide the first opportunity to see the refreshed teams and the super shot – where shooters can score two points from a dedicated area on the edge of the shooting circle – in action at Sheffield’s Utilita Arena.

When Forest were admitted to the league in May last year along with Birmingham – after Team Bath, Strathclyde Sirens, Surrey Storm and Severn Stars were dropped – they said they had “major plans to develop a multi-sport model for the football club”.

Having played in both the NSL and Australia’s Super Netball League – where she was part of a similar transition towards professionalisation – former England Roses player Pitman, who retired last year, knows first-hand the challenges facing the league and her new team.

“When I had my first interview with Forest, I was pretty open about where I want the league and netball to go in the UK”, she said.

“I want to be able to bring and adapt things that I learned over in Australia playing for so many years, to be implemented here in NSL”.

The move towards multi-sport franchises is not an uncommon one – fellow Super League side Leeds Rhinos have links to the rugby league team – but what has not been seen in netball before is a team operating under the same banner as a Premier League club.

The netball team are, however, able to take advantage of the facilities and already professional structures in place behind the scenes at Forest.

“I think it’s been really great that they welcomed us with open arms and it’s really cool going to the City Ground and just the history of the football club”, Pitman said.

“But we’re paving our own way and our own legacy and building the foundations for what the netball side of Forest is”.

Forest defender Tash Pavelin said it feels like the team have slotted into a “really professional environment that’s already had all the groundwork in place”.

“We really feel like they’re invested in us”, she said.

“It just feels like a much more professional set-up and much more like a job than it has done in the past, which is really cool to see”.

It also puts netball in front of an audience where it has not necessarily been seen before, with photographs on social media showing players enjoying a joint Christmas party with the football team.

Pitman also made a half-time appearance to talk about the netball team on the pitch at the City Ground during a Premier League match.

“We’re nowhere near where football is with the resources they have, but if I can learn something, be able to change and adapt and bring it into our environment, that’s a win”, said Pitman.

While the revamped NSL means steps are being made to ensure that netball could be a viable career path for aspiring players now, the reality is that salary caps mean many players are still juggling jobs or studies with their netball careers.

Manchester Thunder head coach Karen Greig said the league is “nowhere near professional yet”, adding that eight of her 10 players also have full-time jobs.

At Forest, some are able to commit fully to their netball career – they are often the ones who also play for England – while others also work or study.

Captain Naimh Cooper, who commutes to Bristol where she works part-time as a doctor, said she feels “lucky to have the flexibility” – but would not turn down the opportunity to become a full-time netballer.

“To be part of a fully professional league is something I wouldn’t be able to turn down”, she said.

“We’re on that journey to professionalisation and if that offer was to be made it’s something I would consider”.

England player Pavelin, who has put her accounting career on hold to pursue netball full-time, said: “I’ve got something to fall back on when you have to retire from netball at a youngish age – it’s something that I can go back to in the future”.

Pavelin had a job alongside playing for Team Bath last year, who were not granted a place in the revamped NSL, but one of Pitman’s stipulations for Forest’s players is that they live in Nottingham – so she opted to move.

“Being able to tell my parents I could do it full-time, with the time that they’ve sacrificed driving me back and forth, sometimes two hours to training when I was younger, is nice”, said Pavelin.

Chelsea defender Levi Colwill says manager Enzo Maresca is “light years above everyone else” in the way that he thinks about football.

The England centre-back, 22, has played 25 times for the Blues this season in Maresca’s first season in charge.

They are in the hunt for the Champions League places, sitting fifth in the Premier League table.

Colwill spoke to BBC Football Focus about a range of topics – and you can watch the interview in full on BBC One at 12: 00 BST on Saturday.

Italian Maresca, 45, was Manchester City assistant boss before winning promotion to the Premier League with Leicester last season.

He swapped the King Power Stadium for Stamford Bridge in the summer.

“I think with Maresca, the way he thinks about football is light years above everyone else”, said Colwill.

“Of course, I have been blessed with loads of different managers that have been amazing.

” He is pushing me to understand football in a different way. That’s why I’m very blessed to play football under him and learn as much as possible. “

Colwill has been at Chelsea since under-nine level.

” I came through with the likes of Jamal Musiala, Tina Livramento, Myles Peart-Lewis, Lewis Bate. My age group was amazing. You can see the difference between Chelsea academy players and others, “he said.

” The treatment you get at Chelsea, they turn you into animals.

“These players coming up now are different. I don’t know what’s been done there.

” Shim]Shim Mheuka] just made his debut for us.

“Ty]Tyrique George], he’s just electric and you’ve got Josh]Acheampong] who’s going to be one of the best defenders”.

The centre-back revealed the extra meaning his goal in the recent 4-0 win over hometown club Southampton had for him.

“I don’t think many people understand as a kid that’s all I dreamed about scoring against Southampton for Chelsea”, he said.

“Growing up I wasn’t the biggest fan of Southampton. All my mates were Southampton fans and they’d be getting on to me.

” Before I joined Chelsea I was in Southampton’s academy and they were pushing me in the development a bit.

Colwill’s first experience of first-team football was for then Championship side Huddersfield on loan in 2021-22.

The Terriers finished third and lost the play-off final 1-0 to Nottingham Forest – with Colwill scoring an own goal.

“They formed me into the man I am today”, he said. “I picked up the values of life being in the changing room with different players.

” I was 18, I was still a young boy. Being in the first-team changing room with amazing players.

“We were driving together and I think that’s what made me believe in having such a strong changing room. I thought we were amazing.

” I loved every part of it from scoring in the Champ to losing in the play-off final, but I wouldn’t change anything because that’s how I make my journey. “

The following season he went to Brighton as they finished sixth in the Premier League, their best-ever finish.

” Brighton was top, “he said.

” De Zerbi came in, we didn’t get on at the start, but now he’s like a father figure to me.

Colwill played for England at various youth levels before making his senior debut in 2023 and has won four caps so far.

“It’s a dream to be in there and hopefully I’ll be picked”, he said of Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad.

“To go and play for my country again, you can never take that feeling away.

” Every time you play for them something grows in you that you want to play again. “

Colwill was part of the England team who won the Under-21 European Championship in 2023..

” A few of the boys have been in the first-team squad with me, we know what it takes to try and win trophies, “he said.

Colwill is an associate director with seventh-tier Sholing FC, a team based in a suburb of Southampton.

He was a mascot in the 2014 FA Vase final when Sholing beat West Auckland Town at Wembley.

Three of his uncles have played for Sholing and his brother JJ currently does too.

” It’s another opportunity for young kids who maybe have been released from an academy who can believe in themselves and start playing football, “said Colwill of his project.

” I think it’ll be an amazing opportunity for them to maybe break into the first team.