In the perfect scenario, this is how the Hazel Glen netball team’s season could have gone.

As the final game of the Section 11 netball regular season rolls around, the Hazel Glen team are cruising along into the semi-finals after a dominant year. Up against the undefeated ladder-leaders in the first final, a team they’d just fallen short of two months ago, things feel different this time. Using the momentum from the back end of the year, Hazel Glen win, and are rewarded by a berth straight to the grand final.

Now relaxing and enjoying the moment together as a team, they get the week off before the big dance. But that’s not how the story went.

Founded in 1922, the Northern Football Netball League (NFNL) is the major home of netball in the north-east Melbourne area, hosting many elite talents that stem into the semi-professional environment. This winter season, the competition held four grading games, 10 regular season games, followed by three finals rounds across 13 sections.

The grading process, where a decision is made over which section each team will compete in based on their quality, consists of four games that give teams the opportunity to showcase their talents. Clubs will initially have nominated their teams into a section best suited to their ability, and then the grading process refines those choices.

The NFNL’s current system means that teams who win four grading games will automatically start at the top of the ladder and those who lose all four, start at the bottom.

After losing all four grading games, Hazel Glen’s second side started the season out at the bottom end of the ladder. This left them, and many sides in a similar position, with no choice but to try and convincingly win all their games in the regular fixture in the hope of making it into the top four.

Hazel Glen coach Zoe Draper watched her side almost miss the chance to play in the NFNL finals series due to the league’s grading system.

“Our team would have finished second on the ladder if we’d reset the ladder after grading,” she tells upstart.

The team ended the season fourth on the ladder, with eight wins from 14 games and a percentage of 150.79. After each game, they slowly crept up the table, but were stuck just one win behind the former fourth seed. If the ladder had reset, they would have finished second after losing just two games. Player confidence was at a low until sneaking into the finals.

“It can get into a lot of players’ heads and then they lose confidence,” Draper says.

When ranking the teams after grading, NFNL Administration and Netball Manager Delwyn Berry says the wins, goals scored, and votes recorded in each game are taken into consideration post-grading, reflecting how the league’s football competition is run.

“When you’re being two sports in one organisation, it has been easy to have the same rules across both … knowing that it works in football,” she tells upstart.

The reason for Berry to take grading games seriously was so sides would be evened out when allocating teams and players. But she recognises that it can be “tough on clubs”.

“A side might have lost their first four grading [games], but you’d hope to think that when that grading period finished, that they’re going into a section that they should be able to win,” she says.

However, many clubs don’t seem to realise what exactly is at stake during and after the grading games. Berry gets feedback from clubs after every game to see how they are going and if any changes were made to their line ups.

Berry takes this into consideration at the end of season review on how clubs think they performed within the league.

“We don’t get it right every time,” she says.

“I can’t say that it’ll be 100 percent, but we’ll try to be as close as we can.”

The result of the grading ladder means that sides can be pushed against tough opposition, helping the players improve and build stronger team cohesion. Many coaches and players believe a revision should be completed about the season gone, including the grading system prior to the summer season so the NFNL can possibly reset the ladder after grading.

Hazel Glen were just one team that were affected by this, but their community and familial attitude helped them feel pride about what they achieved through the season. They hope no other team falls short of finals due to the grading system.

Photo: Dennis DJ Simmons Playground Netball Court by Ed Lyons is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons license. This photo has not been modified.