3 mins
New season, new rules
As you will have seen in both the Nations Cup in January and now in the Netball Super League, the 2024 Rules of Netball have been implemented and each week you have a ringside seat to see them in action. The domestic roll out for you all will start from 1 September, with all registered netball groups required to play to the 2020 Rules until then. We caught up with Head of Officiating Gary Burgess to hear about how the changes came about and what it’s like to umpire them.
The new rules came into force for elite netball on 1 January 2024. How did they come about?
All countries were asked to submit a list of suggested changes to the World Netball Rules Advisory Panel (RAP). In England we requested members to submit any changes they felt needed consideration. We then formed a panel of experts which included umpires, players and coaches at various levels to narrow down these suggestions which were then submitted to World Netball. RAP then repeated a similar process but with all of the submissions from around the world and after a lot of hard work the 2024 Rules were signed off by World Netball countries at the World Cup in Cape Town. Our panel were really pleased to see our substitution suggestion tweaked into the Tactical Changes rule.
You were one of the first umpires to implement these new rules at the Vitality Netball Nations Cup in January. What were your first impressions?
I’m really happy with where the Rules are right now and the resources and training World Netball provided have made things a lot easier for us. As with any change, things do take a bit of time to bed in and with umpiring, a majority of the calls we make at this level are near autonomous, as if we are on auto-pilot. Some of the ingrained instincts we have will need to be switched off or changed. Cautioning a player and holding time to do so has now gone. The same or similar behaviour is now to be advanced up to half a third but without the need to hold time, so you do have to consciously remember not to blow the whistle or use the caution hand signal!
KEY CHANGES
NEW LOOK RULES BOOK
To make it clearer to interpret and apply the rules, all infringements now have the sanction and terminology listed.
REMOVAL OF THE TOSS UP
Where simultaneous infringements occur, the team with the ball will retain possession or if the ball is loose, the team who last had possession will retain it.
UPDATES TO CONTACT AND GAME MANAGEMENT RULES
These have been changed to protect player safety.
INTRODUCTION OF A TACTICAL CHANGE
These can only happen after a goal is scored and removes the need for a player to feign injury to be substituted.
SCORING A GOAL
When a shot is being taken and the ball is in flight, if the whistle is blown to end the period of play, the goal will stand if successful.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES
Other changes have been implemented to speed up the game.
Rules awareness sessions
To ensure that the Netball Family is well prepared for the new season, we will be hosting a number of free online sessions across various platforms. These will begin in May and run through to October. Further details will be provided in due course.
There is already a whole host of information available on our Rules and Updates page on the England Netball website which can be found here.
Included on this page are a number of fantastic resources created by World Netball in association with NETFIT NZ both in the form of a fact-sheet but also some really helpful bite-sized videos which are well worth the time taking a look at.
During the countdown to the new season, we will also be featuring a rule of the week. Launching every Monday, we will release a video and a fact-sheet which will showcase one of the main 2024 updates. During the week we will take questions from the Netball Family, concluding on the Friday with these all answered and added to our 2024 Rules FAQ. The FAQ will then serve as a reference guide for all netballers going into the new season.
The FAQ is live and accepting questions and can be found here.