As the Suva Netball Association continues its round-robin competition, the Super Round was introduced into it to simulate higher-level competition at a district level.
The association’s secretary, Volasiga Justice, explained the round’s format and its unique qualities.
“For us (Suva Netball), because of our size, we have 108 teams so we cannot do one-hour games for all these matches in a day, so we try our best to start somewhere, so we’ve started with our Super grade,” Justice explained.
The Super grade in the Suva Netball Association is made up of the top eight teams that won in the knockout round of the Open Women’s grade.
He added the Super grade now had elite players from the district and national levels and since it would give way to robust competition, the Super Shot format was introduced, as he explained how it was played.
“If you see the court, there’s a bigger semi-circle and there’s a smaller one,” he said, referring to the goal circle inside the goal third of the court.
“If they take shots from the bigger circle, that’s two points. That’s something we’re introducing this year.”
He said this move was done to support them in building up the confidence to do long range shots, since a successfully placed one would give them two points.
The Super Shot only comes into effect in the last five minutes of every quarter and players in the court were alerted of its activation at the wailing of a siren.
“The point is that we want to give them (players) the chance to take long shots. Australia is doing it, New Zealand has started with it this year and Suva too.”
He added giving the players a chance to showcase their best through the Super Shot would allow interested parties overseas from Australia, New Zealand and England for instance to scout players.
Meanwhile, the wider Suva Netball round-robin will have its eighth round of competition this week.
