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Super League Opening Weekend 2025 – Coaches preview women's matches
There were memorable scenes at Crystal Palace Sports Centre in April when Malory Eagles ended their long wait for a top division national title dating back to 2009-2010.
Last season, the Londoners peaked to perfection with a squad that boasted attacking prowess, defensive fortitude, wholehearted commitment, leadership and strength in depth.
That elusive combination is hard to find and difficult to repeat – but it is one the Eagles, who also went on to beat Team SideOut Polonia in the National Cup final in straight sets to clinch the double – will be bidding to replicate once the action gets underway.
“After the practice that we had at the end of last season before the Cup Final, I said to Jefferson on the way home that I was a a bit worried for Polonia,” said Coach Carol Gordon (pictured below).
“The way they trained reminded me of the Malory of the early 90s where I was a bench player and every practice I was busting a gut to make sure that people knew if I got my opportunity I was on that court.
“People were proving that they were ready to go the next day and that you just had to look at them. I was proud and emotional because of their attitude and desire to get it done.
“But every season is completely different again, with lots of ins and outs. We aim for the same again this year, but it is going to be hard to match.
“It’s a big loss to lose Georgia McGovern (as Setter) but we have other options, different options, and as coaches watching the recent World Championships teams are trying different solutions, and you always have to be looking to tweak things.
“But we still have a strong core from last season which is important because they sat the standards for the new people coming in as we look to build a new system that we will adapt for those we have signed.”
Facing them first up at Opening Weekend will be another team of champions – NVL Division 1 winners Newcastle Knights, who lost only one league game in 2024-25.
Although beaten 3-0 by the Eagles in the National Cup, the North East club have added to their roster over the summer in readiness for taking on the Super League challenge.
They can also draw real inspiration from their men’s team, who reached Final 4 last season after a terrific season when they defied the odds.
Having two teams in the Super League will bring significant benefits when the club embark on the regular long trips down south for away games, as Head Coach Sam Shenton (pictured above) recognises.
“Last season we recruited to be in the position of favourites and we had to deliver, even though it was hard to maintain a high level of motivation,” he said.
The boys might be going down to Malory for a big game in the Super League, while the girls had to get themselves up for a game that didn’t carry with it the same sense of occasion.
“But now the teams will all be together for some of our double headers on a 70-seat coach and they can support each other, which adds to the experience for them - and I know the girls are buzzing.
“The lovely thing is that there is really no pressure for the girls playing the reigning champions in Malory first up, even though they will want to win, of course.
“It is a bit of a celebration for them, because there are some girls who are in the team who were playing Division 2 North when we were Team Sunderland. Playing in Super League is a little bit different.”
First on court on Women’s Sunday will be a Durham Palatinates side looking to right the wrongs of last season.
In the end, the team were very relieved at the back end of the season when Cambridge ARU had to abandon a game due to injury, handing the North East club the points that would ultimately ensure their safety.
For a time, it looked grim for a side more used to figuring at the top end of the table – they were consecutive Super League winners in 2021-22, 2023-23, and 2023-24 – and not what they had come to hope, nor expect.
But nowhere is it more true that at Durham to say that every season is different, and a raft of new American scholars brings with it fresh hope.
Head Coach Paul Welsh (pictured above, left, with last season's squad) could not fault the effort and application of his players last season, but believes better quality recruitment will reap its rewards this time.
“Two seasons ago when we were recruiting for last season we weren’t as involved, so a learning and reflection was to make sure that I, and Ross (Enfield) were heavily involved this year,” he said.
“We started recruiting at the beginning of last season for this year, and one of the players we’ve signed, Elizabeth Decker, showed an interest in joining two years ago when she had a year of study left.
“So the introductions of the girls were made months ago and they have been chatting online and organising living together. It has really helped them hit the ground running coming into this new season.
“We are confident we can get in the top four this year, we have to be. When you look at the talent coming through the door you have to be excited.
“Every coach wants to be there competing for titles, but I can’t see why we can’t do well when you compare this current set of players to other championship-winning sides.”
Lining up on the other side of the net at the weekend will be Darkstar Derbyshire, a team who showed a marked improvement in the second half of the season.
Their momentum enabled them to climb away from the bottom of the table, secure a play-off place and then win it against Division 1 London Giants.
The East Midlanders will certainly go into the new season with the feel-good factor high, and have kept the majority of last season’s top performers, as well as adding a handful of newcomers.
Former England international and Senior Women’s Head Coach Maria Bertelli (pictured above), who leads the team along with Audrey Cooper, is looking forward to getting things started after weeks of preparation.
“There is always a lot to do in the lead-up to a new season with integrating the new players, the S&C, the sports psych and the training, plus all the admin,” she said.
“When the games begin and you get on court, that’s the nice bit of it really – and we’re all looking forward to getting to that point.
“Having Loughborough as the new venue will be great and bring a different dynamic to it – and it’s nice and close for us too!
“There’s new things we want to do with the players we have got in terms of their development, because they are getting more capable, whether that be playing a bit faster or with a bit more variation.
“Some of it might be this season, some of it might be next season. You can only play a certain way if the players and technically and tactically ready to do it, but we are looking to evolve and move things on.”
Watch Palatinates v Darkstar here.
Last season’s runners-up and silver medallists, Essex Rebels, have made the Final 4 in each of the last two seasons and will be quietly confident of doing so again after another busy summer of recruitment.
While losing some of their top performers from last year, the Colchester-based club have been busy snapping up new talent from North America – and are confident some of their Brits can step up too.
Head Coach Alex Chinery (pictured above) – also an England Talent Pathway coach – is delighted that his efforts to develop more homegrown players is starting to bear fruit.
He hopes that the Rebels and other clubs can start to develop more players of the requisite standard to compete on the MAAREE Women’s Super League stage.
“We’re in an incredibly fortunate situation where so many young English players want to come to play here at Essex,” said Chinery. “They view it as a place where they can come and they can develop in a great environment.
“I am turning people away rather than chasing people, which is a great place to be.
“This year we have chosen to reload a little bit with our younger Brits. They are project players, but they are really good people and work really hard.
“They might not see loads of the Super League this season, but for them it’s about learning how to be and act at this level, how to train, how to balance study and playing.
“As much as we wany young athletes to play, having that first year where they don’t have to play, and can make mistakes in training with no pressure on so they can learn how to be an athlete at the top level, is massive.
“When you see (English players) Tara King and Lilla Whittaker step on court this season, you’re going to see the reason why young athletes want to come to play here.
“It’s something that’s massively important to me... we have to develop the next great group of English athletes and I would like to see more teams giving young English players an opportunity in the future.”
Essex recorded a straight sets win when they were also paired against Leeds Gorse at Opening Weekend last October at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering.
But the Yorkshire club did gain some sort of revenge in the National Cup where they recorded a four-set quarter-final victory.
Many of the players involved in that success, however, are now no longer with the club, meaning it will be a much-changed team that will take to the court on Sunday.
A strong reliance on youth means there could be some hard lessons to learn for the Gorse players during 2025-26 – not least during their opening fixture – but Head Coach Steve McKeown (pictured above) believes it is the way to go to ensure a strong future for the club.
He said: “We could have taken the easier route, if we had the resource, to import players, and I know a number of programmes will do that, which is not a criticism because they will have a rarionale and philosophy for what they do.
“But we like the idea that he have got five or six young players here who have really big potential – and that they have got UK passports.
“We’re witnessing players from different nations excelling playing in this country, but we want to give homegrown talent, who can hopefully go on to represent the country at Senior national level – even though there are no guarantees that will happen – that chance.
“Maybe they might be sat on the bench in other programmes, but we want to get them on court and see what they can do. They are going to learn about the intensity of the game, about resilience and learn how to compete.
“I would like to thiink there are going to be times where we are going to have momentum in matches and extremely competitive, but realistically there are going to be times where we are going to be under the cosh and it’s about how those guys can cope with that.
“They will have to learn to stay on court and fight and help each other. They will have to learn how to stop momentum and create problems for the other teams. They will have to take some of the leadership responsibility themselves.”
Preceding that closing match of the weekend will be an eagerly-anticipated London derby between two sides who made Final 4 last season and who will be looking to emulate their top four finishes again over the coming months.
Team SideOut Polonia beat Lionhearts Vinarius in April’s Final 4 Bronze Medal match, but that third place finish was something of a disappointment for a squad who had believed they could go all the way.
Things looked good in their semi-final against Essex when they led 2-0, but then things began to go wrong and the match unravelled into a 3-2 defeat.
Long-serving Head Coach Mark Kontopoulos (pictured above with his squad at Final 4) is hoping to learn lessons from that as he looks for the winning formula going into 2025-26.
“Being 2-0 up in the semi-final and losing was rough and didn’t reflect how we did in the season,” he said. “But I have always said that we either win or we learn – and I like to think we have learned.
“I know the players that are still with us from last season are very motivated by what happened and we reflected and have taken some lessons - and the coaching staff have done the same.
“Normally we like to take the summer off completely from anything indoor-related, but we didn’t do that this year.
“We have looked at changing how we have trained both on the physical and mental side, as well as changing some of the tactical emphasis of what we are doing - and hopefully it will pay off.
“One issue for anyone who watched the last two or three games of last season will have seen that we were unable to put the ball away during crunch time, but we are working on it, and the early signs have been very good.”
Lionhearts Vinarius begin their new campaign with a new Head Coach, Italian Lulama Musti De Gennaro, who is hoping to keep the best of what was instilled into the squad by previous incumbent Davide Tiberti, while also putting her own stamp on things.
The team has retained one of the most talented players in the league in Maria Sviridova and added other experienced campaigners to go with a strong core of proven performers (such as Elena Visilean, pictured above) from last year.
But the team will no longer have the surprise factor from 24-25, when the club made light of previously having been in the relegation play-off spot to thrive.
A top four finish is again the aim for Vinarius, but competition is likely to be hot in an eight-team league, down from 10.
“My coaching style is all about the team – we have to work as a team, we have to think as a team,” said De Gennaro. “It doesn’t matter about the level and experience that they have as long as they are very clear about the direction and expectations.
“Everyone will have their own experiences of playing styles from different parts of the world, their own backgrounds. The aim is for everyone to bring that to the table at the right time when needed.
“If everyone is pulling in the same direction and putting forward what they have, then we will be fine.
“Although the style and thinking I have is similar to Davide, we are two different coaches, so my approach is always going to be slightly different.
“I’ll be trying to bring as much of my knowledge from being a professional player into what I am trying to do with the girls. We hope to match of better last season.”
Watch Polonia v Lionhearts here.
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