Secret formula for a 10 player team roster?

Lee-annes NetballCoach, Australia

i have just acquired another player to put my team numbers up to 10.  if you want to go down the lets have equal time on court then say goodbye to development of team and plays, as you hardly ever get get continuity of players.  that is unless you have real depth in your team and they can all play everywhere.

i have a team of 10.  6 have never or hardly played all.  they are my U11 team.  the 4 that can play are good and are spread out across the positions thankfullly.  what i did a few years ago when i had 10, was to forgo fairness on court for the ability to actually teach these girls how to play in a particular area of the court.  so i split them up to defence, centre court, and shooting.  i had 3 each in the goal areas, and 4 in the centre court.  and i rotated them only in those positions.  this meant that at each end of the court one player ALWAYS got half a game, and the other two had a quarter off.  whilst in the centre court everyone got a quarter off.

i made this decision about halfway through our season where we werent playing very well.  after i did this, we won every game after except the grand final.

this is what im about to do to my new team.  split them into court areas and some will just have to accept they wont get as much court time.

Janet Coach, Australia

There is no doubt that 10 is too many but fairness can be achieved by rostering one off per game and rotating 4 playing half a game each week.  Depending on your player mix you can rotate defence or attack or mid court players to maintain some continuity in each area but sometimes you may have to vary this.  You can include your "off" player in activities e.g. statistics, talk them through what is happening in the game and ask them for comments on what they see etc to try and keep them interested.  I'm not a fan of lots of rotations during a game because it is just too disruptive to the flow and for putting training goals into practice, so keep it to a minimum if you can. Keep match position & training attendance records just in case you get some complaints about fairness (usually from parents who take their children's vague whingeing to be gospel).

Netball CoachCoach

I coach U9s so all girls are still expected to play each position equally thoughout the season....I have come up with a formula that seems to work.  Each player will play 2 positions in the game...They will spend 2 quarters in one position and a third in another.  Each week 2 girls will sit off for 2 quarters, the rest for 1.  I started at GS and worked through to C naming 8 girls across those position either in the first or second half of the game (so 2 quarters in 1 position).  The girls that are sitting off twice sit off in the first and last quarter and play either GD or WD in the 2nd and 3rd quarter.  Then you basically fill in the blanks so that the original eight girls sit off for 1 quarter and play WD or GD in their remaining quarter.  Everything worked out equally by seasons end (if all girls play all games).

Netball CoachCoach

10 is too many?! Try TWENTY THREE! In the past I've found good team rosters online.
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Stacey FlavellCoach, Australia

Hi Clare, do you have these websites for these good rosters.

Lisa SpinksCoach, Australia

Thanks Ladies, I am also not a fan of 10 .

Holly DeanCoach, Australia

Thanks everyone my players have never played at all it's their introduction to the game which is why they need to play all positions. I am hoping by half way through the season I will have developed some known positions for them and we can play a little more competitively.