The Northern Football Netball League (NFNL) has announced that Divisions 1-3 of the Cleaning Melbourne senior netball competition will be rebranded as the League’s ‘premier’ divisions, with a promotion/relegation system to take place from the 2025 winter season.
As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance our top level of competition, we will be rebranding Cleaning Melbourne Divisions 1-3 to be considered our ‘premier’ divisions, reflecting their standard of play.
These divisions will include special features such as grandstand seating for grand finals and Team of the Year presentations, with other new activations also to be added.
As such, a promotion/relegation system will replace the grading process for these divisions, which like the current structure in the NFNL senior men’s competition, will be based on the final ladder standings from the previous year.
The 2025 senior winter netball competition will see the ‘premier’ divisions formed as follows:
Cleaning Melbourne Division 1 will feature:
– Sides who finished between first & sixth in Division 1 in 2024
– The 2024 Division 2 premiers
Cleaning Melbourne Division 2 will feature:
– The bottom placed side in Division 1 in 2024
– All other sides (excluding the bottom placed team) who played in Division 2 in 2024
– The 2024 Division 3 premiers
Cleaning Melbourne Division 3 will feature:
– The bottom placed side in Division 2 in 2024
– All other sides (excluding the bottom placed team) who played in Division 3 in 2024
– The 2024 Division 4 premiers
This system will be implemented between these three divisions to ensure a more competitive structure and allow teams to advance based on performance. This will create a more dynamic and engaging competitions, benefiting teams and players.
The format shifts the responsibility to clubs for creating teams that meet divisional standards, rather than the League continuing to create new divisions to accommodate the standard of teams that clubs bring to the competition.
This also allows for an extended home and away season for our premier divisions, as the regular season will begin from week 1 rather than week 5.
To further enhance our premier divisions, coaches will need a new minimum accreditation of development. Coaches will have one season to obtain this accreditation, and the NFNL have applied to host a development coach accreditation workshop in 2025 to support this initiative.
This change is made to encourage our coaches in premier divisions to continue their own development through the national coaching pathway, and in turn improve the standard of our game.
NFNL General Manager of Netball Operations Lauren Theodosis is looking forward to implementing a system that will significantly shift in how the League approaches its senior netball competition.
“By creating a structure that reflects the performance of our premier divisions, clubs will be empowered to elevate their teams and create a more competitive environment for our top players” she said.
“This structure is a key component of our long-term goal to raise the standard of netball across the NFNL and I am looking forward to seeing these changes from 2025.”
