Plans for the return of the world's top netball league have received a major boost with the Suncorp Super Netball League and the Australian Netball Players’ Association (ANPA) agreeing to the next phase of payments for 2020.
With full pre-season training set to resume this coming Monday, the new agreement will see players normally paid below $61,007 (including super) receive JobKeeper payments, and players above this threshold receive 70% of their salary, from 22 June until 30 September.
Then, once the Government’s JobKeeper initiative ends on 30 September, all players will be paid 70% of their salary through to the end of the agreement on 30 November.
Overall, players will receive at least 80% of their equivalent full salary during the extended 14-month contract period through to November 30, while many will receive their full salary or above.
From this Monday 22 June, all teams will return to a maximum of 23 hours per week of training, as league officials continue to finalise the 2020 season structure and schedule.
Suncorp Super Netball CEO Chris Symington said the league is pleased to have locked away the final phase of player payments for 2020.
“From the beginning of this pandemic, we have had open and honest discussions with our eight clubs, the playing group and the ANPA. We thoroughly appreciate how collaborative this cohort has been throughout these negotiations and it’s a credit to the sport that we’ve landed where we have,” he said.
“A further review of this agreement will be completed after Round 7, taking into account any reforecasting of revenue and expenses, to assess if any modifications need to be made to the current agreement. But until then, it’s exciting that all eight teams will be back to full training on Monday and that we’re less than seven weeks out from the first centre pass of 2020.”
Australian Netball Players’ Association CEO Kathryn Harby-Williams is pleased to have secured this final agreement.
“Whilst it has been an extremely challenging period for the playing group, they are extremely excited that a season start date is on the horizon,” she said.
“Locking in August 1 allowed us to focus on finalising the pay deal which, as always, was tackled by the ANPA Board, delegates and players with the utmost consideration and respect to the sport and its stakeholders. I’d particularly like to acknowledge the higher paid players who have sacrificed the most but without complaint. Let the games begin!”
Other key features of the agreement include, players being paid two additional months of health insurance allowance for October and November, and all international players paid the same rate as Australian players despite not qualifying for JobKeeper.
