Hang onto your bibs, ladies: netball is changing forever.
For much of our population, childhood and teen years were shaped by the faded yellow bibs and taped fingernails of the Aussie netball courts. It took a while to learn the rules, sure – STEPPING! THAT WAS STEPPING! – but once you did know? You never forgot. To this day I find it hard to lift my feet if someone throws a ball in my direction.
Well, prepare for your whole world to be rocked my little WDs, because the rules? They are a’changing.
BEHOLD, THE KEY RULE CHANGE:
The Centre no longer has to have both feet wholly within the centre circle prior to the whistle being blown for a centre pass.
The new rule is to be adopted by all associated competitions and events from the first of January, 2016, and will reportedly make the game faster and quieter.
But wait! There’s more!
Many more, as the whole bloody rulebook seems to be getting rewritten.
“The new rules, released by the International Netball Federation (INF), will include the elimination of whistles following goals and obvious ball out of court, amendments to injury time and changes to the out of play rule.”
If you play netball and don’t want to be kicked of the court for not following the rules, you can scope out the full story, here
(But just in case you were wondering, long nails and butterfly clips are still not allowed.)
LONG LIVE THE FROZEN ORANGE QUARTERS.
Top Comments
Oh the nail checks before each game. haha. As a reformed biter it was never an issue for me. :)
Who eats frozen orange quarters? I've only ever seen them fresh!
New rules seem reasonable, the only complaint I would have is the no whistle for obvious out of bounds. Things shouldn't change depending on what is 'obvious' to one person.