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Magpies netballers play Super catch-up

3 minute read

Victoria's two teams are playing catch-up with their Super Netball rivals after their season preparations were hamstrung by coronavirus restrictions.

Collingwood official Jane Woodlands-Thompson admits they are playing catch-up on some Super Netball rivals but hopes the resilience the Magpies have shown so far translates into a winning season.

The Magpies have put their cross-town rivalry aside to bunker down for two weeks in quarantine in Brisbane with the Melbourne Vixens before the opening round of Super Netball, starting on August 1.

They are only allowed out of their hotel to go to the training court and the gym.

The competition and all teams have been shifted to Queensland due to rising COVID-19 rates in Victoria and NSW.

While pre-season preparations have been almost normal for teams such as the West Coast Fever and Queensland's two outfits, the two Victorian clubs have struggled with lockdowns and uncertainty.

Last week the Fever played a warm-up match in Perth against a WA All-Stars selection in front of a crowd, while the Victorian players waited by the phone to hear when they would relocate and to where.

But Woodlands-Thompson, who is the general manager of women's sport at Collingwood, said she hoped the Magpies would quickly make up lost ground.

"It's certainly not the normal way we would prepare for a season," she told AAP.

"The lack of match play, with the Vic regulations, in lockdown ... is going to be tough.

"The proof will be in the pudding once the season starts to see how much that's going to sting us, not having as match-play as we'd like and not as much as the other teams.

"The resilience and determination to have gone through what they've gone through might make up for some of that, we just don't know."

The Super Netball season draw will be announced this week with the Magpies and Vixens likely to square off in Brisbane in round one, a day before their quarantine ends.

Teams are set to play mid-week games in a competition first in a bid to reduce costs and ensure players can return home as soon as possible.

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