Netball revels in game-changing moment as fans pack O2 for thrilling final
Netball had its big stage moment seven years late with a record crowd for the 2025 Netball Super League Grand Final. After Commonwealth Games glory on the Gold Coast in 2018, the sport experienced lift-off on Sunday with 9,326 fans inside the O2 Arena in London to see London Pulse defeat Loughborough Lightning 53-45.
It was fitting that the new era of the Netball Super League, dubbed NSL 2.0, had a first-time winner as the youngest team in the league beat the defending champions for victory.
The figure of almost 10,000 fans makes it the largest ever NSL event and the biggest crowd at a netball match in the UK since 2002.
'There has been a lot of talk around the professionalisation of the league, we felt it this year but we really felt it here,' said losing finalist and Commonwealth gold medallist Jodie Gibson.
'This was the first time where I have felt there was a true change in this league. There was so much talk before the game about playing at the O2, but until I actually stepped in the venue I didn't truly believe that it would feel like that.
'There was an opportunity for netball to catapult off the success of 2018, I think they missed that. But netball is definitely back, it has arrived, and I look forward to seeing what's next.'
The record crowd also meant that the gamble for the Netball Super League to move to a bigger Grand Final venue and push forward with professionalisation paid off.
The season began with the league cut to eight teams as four of the old guard were removed. In their place, Nottingham Forest Netball, a side associated with the football club, and Birmingham Panthers, who are now part owned by Tom Brady's investment group, joined the league.
Other changes had seen all matches broadcast on Sky Sports and the BBC for the first time, team sizes cut to 10 and an increase in player pay, although the league is not yet close to full professionalism.
The arrival of the Super Shot, where teams can shoot from the edge of the circle and earn two points in the final five minutes of each quarter, meant that the Grand Final on Sunday was always close even if Pulse held the advantage from the first 10 minutes onwards.
The London side have perfectly combined the old with the new – several of their key players have come through the pathway with one of them, Funmi Fadoju, winning Player of the Match.
The 'new' came in the form of Gracie Smith, who at just 16 is the youngest-ever player in the NSL and whose raw style disrupted Lightning as they aimed to become the first side to win three titles in a row.
Pulse captain Zara Everitt, who is also working as a trainee lawyer, said: 'It is great that we have done it this year in the first year of NSL 2.0.
'We are really well positioned commercially as a team to pull in loads of fans and sponsors. We are really blessed to come from the capital and have such a passionate fanbase. It is a great start, and I can't wait to do it again next year.'
Head coach Sam Bird has been with the team for five years and has built a side that she had no doubt would win in their second Grand Final appearance.
Bird has also helped propel Pulse to be one of the best-supported teams in the league and they had the lion's share of a partisan crowd.
'It was absolutely amazing to be playing here,' she said. 'It was so loud. When you are getting chants of 'defence' it felt like a home crowd.
'This is what we want, we want this more and more. It was a very special occasion for everybody.'
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