The 2012 Netball Superleague season (known for sponsorship reasons as the FIAT Netball Superleague) was the seventh season of the Netball Superleague. The league was won by Northern Thunder. In the grand final Northern Thunder defeated Surrey Storm. 2012 saw the introduction of a new format, featuring three distinct phases, including a Showdown Weekend.
Teams Following the conclusion of the 2011 Netball Superleague season, England Netball decided to cut the number of teams from nine to eight and, as a result, Glasgow Wildcats lost their place in the league. In addition, Leeds Carnegie were re-branded as Yorkshire Jets.
2012 Superleague teams Home venue/base Country/Region Celtic DragonsSport Wales National CentreWales Hertfordshire MavericksUniversity of HertfordshireEast of England Loughborough LightningLoughborough UniversityEast Midlands Northern ThunderWright Robinson CollegeNorth West England Team BathUniversity of BathSouth West England/West of England Team NorthumbriaWest Gate Centre for Sport, NewcastleNorth East England Surrey StormUniversity of SurreyGreater London/South East England Yorkshire JetsHull / Leeds / SheffieldYorkshire
Regular season Phase 1 Phase 1 featured all eight teams playing a single round of matches in a league format. At the end of the seven rounds, the top four and bottom four split into two tiers. Northern Thunder were unbeaten in Phase 1 of the season.
Phase 2 Phase 2 was effectively a group stage, with the teams in each group playing each other home and away.
Eliminator The Eliminator was effectively a 4th/5th place play-off with the winner qualifying for the semi-finals.
Showdown Weekend Semi-final 1
Semi-final 2
3rd/4th Place Play Off
Grand Final
References