Pulse beat Lightning to win first Netball Super League title

With a dazzling 53-45 victory in the Grand Final at London O2 Arena, London Pulse won their first Netball Super League title and denied Loughborough Lightning a record-breaking three-peat.

Sam Bird’s side, who won the first Netball Super Cup in March and finished the regular season top of the table, will now complete a magnificent treble with Victory.

The majority of the 10,000 fans inside the venue erupted into wild celebrations after the final whistle, with the Pulse players embracing before falling to the ground.

Funmi Fadoju, the match’s player of the match, put together a strong defensive defense that earned them their victory, ending with eight deflections, three interceptions, and eight gains.

The foundation laid by Fadoju allowed Pulse to be aggressive and pushed Lightning back up the court, preventing them from making strange errors and limiting them to their season-lowest score.

Pulse never gave up on the lead after leading within the first five minutes, surviving on the pressure from a patient Lightning, and always looking for a second gear.

We were aware of our setups perfectly well, and we knew we had to collaborate.

There are no words that can adequately describe it. We did it because I was confident in our ability.

Sam Bird, the coach for Pulse, said to Sky Sports, “I’m so happy for the club, the girls, our sponsors, and our supporters. What a wonderful day! Such a challenging game. It resembled chess, exactly. I’m just so happy we made it across the line because of the challenging strategy we used.

The clouds have melted, and there is now a new champion team in town after five years of Manchester and Loughborough duopoly winning the NSL championship. Similar to this year, Pulse also topped the 2023 regular-season standings, but on that occasion Loughborough defeated the Copper Box in the Grand Final.

Most feeds: 465 feeds for Bethan Dyke (Cardiff Dragons).

Most outstanding shots: Rolene Streutker (Nottingham Forest) – 157.