For the first time in three years, Super Netball's pre-season tournament will go ahead, helping to build excitement and provide more adequate preparation for its eight competing teams.
First held in Brisbane in 2019, the Team Girls Cup hasn't eventuated till now due to complications surrounding travel and potential risks of exposure to COVID-19.
This time the tournament spans from Friday the 25th of February to Sunday 27th at Parkville Stadium in Melbourne and will run in a round-robin format, splitting teams into two pools and reducing matches to 10-minute quarters.
By the end of the weekend, netball fans should have a pretty good indication of the favourites for 2022, as well as some answers to these burning questions hanging over the teams.
Can the Swifts go back-to-back with a depleted bench?
With the expiration of one collective player's agreement in August and the beginning of a fresh one in September – that saw a significant pay increase for athletes, supported by netball's new broadcast deal with News Corp – player movement was at an all-time high during the off-season.
The NSW Swifts had just won their second Super Netball title in three seasons, demonstrating incredible resilience throughout a tough year on the road, their depth with ongoing squad rotation and their ability to peak at the right time, overthrowing the league's two frontrunners, the Giants and Fever, in the finals.
Unfortunately, it meant many of their players were hot property come the signing period, and although their starting seven have remained, their bench has been depleted.
Up and coming Diamonds shooter Sophie Garbin was always ready to make an impact for the Swifts if required, injected into goal attack or goal shooter whenever the side needed a change up to their go-to combination of Helen Housby and Samantha Wallace.
Lured with the promise of more court time, Garbin has now traded red and blue for black and white at the Collingwood Magpies, moving from New South Wales to Victoria to hopefully accelerate her career.
Midcourter Nat Haythornthwaite is another player that's bid the Swifts farewell after getting married and opting to move back home to her native England to play in the UK Super League.
Finally, NSW pathways talent Lauren Moore decided to make the cross-town switch to the Giants after spending the first six years of her playing career at the Swifts.
Moore played the majority of last season out of position in wing defence, stuck behind the strong duo of Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner and unable to break into the defensive circle.
With three of their game-day 10 gone, it'll be interesting to see how the Swifts start their 2022 campaign and whether their replacements in Teigan O'Shannassy, Allie Smith and Kelly Singleton will be able to provide the same impact off the bench.
How will Dan Ryan stamp his influence on the West Coast Fever?
West Coast Fever won more games than any other team in 2021, clinching seven games straight to start their campaign and only dropping three matches throughout the 14-round regular season to finish with the best for and against in the league (116.89 per cent).
However, the pressure of the 12-point sanction they were dealt for previous breaches of the salary cap seemed to take its toll as time went on, and although the side made the top four for the third time in four years, they were eliminated by the Giants in a tight preliminary final 64-61.
The story has become a familiar pattern for the Fever, who have made a habit of dominating the regular season and falling at the last hurdle – also coming agonisingly close to lifting the trophy in 2018 and 2020, where they had to settle for runners up after narrowly losing grand finals to the Lightning 62-59 and Vixens 66-64.
The club know they've got a solid team based on these results, and they've retained nine of their 10 senior contracted players from last year to ensure they're ready to have a crack again, including the all-important signature of Jamaican shooter and four-time Super Netball Player of the Year Jhaniele Fowler.
The biggest question hanging over their season this year, therefore revolves around their new head coach Dan Ryan, and the direction he wants to take the team now that previous figurehead Stacey Marinkovich has departed to focus full-time on the Australian Diamonds.
Ryan played it conservative during the signing period, retaining the majority of the players already at the club and expressing his desire "to value add to what we already have".
He's already won fans over with the late signing of English representative and midcourt veteran Chelsea Pitman on a training partner contract, after the former Adelaide Thunderbirds captain was dropped last year and thought her Super Netball career might be over.
But will Ryan take the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' approach to the Fever's game tactics and follow the same playing structure as Marinkovich?
Or will he start to put his own stamp on the team?
It's clear the side are onto a winning formular but need some fresh ideas if they hope to finally get their hands on that elusive Super Netball trophy.
Does Liz Watson's return guarantee the Vixens a finals berth?
Australian captain Liz Watson is no doubt the best wing attack in the world game.
After helping the Vixens win their first Super Netball premiership in 2020, the midcourter was devastated to learn she would be sitting on the sidelines in 2021 due to a foot injury sustained during the Diamonds' Constellation Cup tour.
Without her fast footwork and measured presence in the midcourt, the Vixens struggled to showcase the same consistency and punch up the middle of the court in attack, ultimately sliding down the ladder to finish last with the wooden spoon.
The timing of the retirements for two of their shooting veterans, Tegan Philip and Caitlin Thwaites, didn't help the situation, with so much change to their front line and a lot of new combinations being trialled in the year they'd hoped would be a successful title defence.
Vixens fans watching Watson in her return to the international court during the 2022 January Quad Series would have been extremely excited to see her get right back into the swing of things, holding onto hope that her domestic comeback will mean they're in the mix once again for a finals berth.
But can one player make that much of a difference?
The Team Girls Cup will be telling for what's to come for the Vixens.
