By Ian Harkin
It has been a very different year in sport. Netball has certainly been adversely affected by COVID-19, with some competitions cancelled, some postponed, and all compromised in some way. But thanks to the tireless efforts of those involved, both the Suncorp Super Netball and ANZ Premiership seasons were able to be completed, along with a small amount of international netball. And we saw great players performing at their best in trying conditions.
So, we are back again with our annual poll to find the world’s best netballer. Once again, we have gathered the thoughts of ten judges; five writers from Netball Scoop (Jaimie Keay, Andrew Kennedy, Katrina Nissen, Jenny Sinclair and myself), and five other judges from the world of media and coaching (Lisa Alexander, Erin Delahunty, Liz Ellis, Tamsin Greenway and Bridget Tunnicliffe).
Each person was asked to list their top five netballers in the world based on form throughout 2020, and rank them from one to five. In total, 17 players got a mention, with four of them getting at least one top nod from the judges. Incredibly, when the votes were tallied up, the top three players were separated by just two votes. Any one of these three athletes would have been a very worthy winner, but to find out who took the crown, read on.
