Former England coach Tracey Neville is excited to be creating the blue-print for Super Netball’s new Melbourne side, which will enter the competition in 2024.
Neville will switch to the yet-to-be-named outfit from the Adelaide Thunderbirds, where she worked as an assistant at this year's title-winning team.
Owned by media group Sports Entertainment Network, the side will replace Collingwood who quit the eight-team competition at the end of the 2023 season and will be based in Melbourne’s south-east.
The sister of English soccer greats Gary and Phil Neville, Tracey coached the England national netball side between 2015 and 2019 after earning 81 caps as a player.
She led the England Roses to a historic gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, relegating Australia to silver.
The 46-year-old becomes the second international coach to lead a Super Netball side after Kiwi Noelene Taurua, who took the Sunshine Coast Lightning to two titles before moving into the Silver Ferns coaching role.
Neville said her Super season alongside head coach and good friend Tania Obst reinforced her desire to again lead a team.
"Coaching with the Adelaide Thunderbirds, I knew where I wanted to pursue my coaching career and Australia is definitely the place I want to be," Neville said on Wednesday.
"And when does an opportunity come where you get to write the blueprint for a new franchise.
"It's an opportunity for players, staff and even myself to create a legacy, create history for a club that's just on the start of its journey and that's so exciting."
The new team is yet to sign any players with Neville at the Netball World Cup in South Africa with her eyes and ears wide open.
England shooter Eleanor Cardwell would be a certain target should she opt to leave Adelaide, although Neville didn't want to speculate on players or other coaching staff.
The Super Netball signing window is due to open after the World Cup final on August 7, with Neville expecting a "dogfight".
The CPA (Collective Player Agreement) between the governing body and players is yet to be agreed, which has delayed player signings.
The English Super League teams already have their rosters finalised which means she can't call on some of her former national players.
"The difficulty for me is that everyone's been having a little bit of a crack at the players before me - I'm probably about two or three months too late so I'm on this escalator trying to run at 20 miles an hour trying to keep up with everybody else," Neville said.
"Now that I'm announced we can start the recruitment process on Monday and it does help that there is a delay in the CPA because that ultimately means that no players are actually signed.
"Hopefully that will give us a little bit of relief in approaching players and selling our product to them."
