Netball Super League: ‘Huge rivals’ Manchester Thunder and Loughborough Lightning set for Netball Super League final

Defending champions Loughborough Lightning and four-time winners Manchester Thunder meet in Saturday’s Netball Super League, with former Former England international Tamsin Greenway looking ahead to a ‘incredible’ matchup in front of a record 8,000 sell-out crowd in Birmingham.

Watch the final – and the third-place playoff between Severn Stars and London Pulse – for free live on skysports.com and Sky Sports App

What can we expect from the final?

It’s a huge match, a massive one for these two teams who have become huge rivals over the last few years.

It’s going to be a really big one. They’ve both won one and lost one to each other this season and it’s kind of the final everyone was expecting.

Manchester Thunder go in as favourites.

This was the same matchup last year in the semi-final where they lost out. They’ve recruited well since, they’ve got the best attacking record in the league, the best defensive record and only lost one game all season.

However, that one game they lost this year was against Loughborough Lightning… although you have to go back to March to find that.

Lightning are reigning champions. They’re consistently good and they always arrive at the big occasions.

They had the the tougher semi-final to come through. They they played London Pulse, who everyone kind of thought would sneak in – they’ve got a young, exciting group and they’d lost them twice in the rounds but Lightning got over the line when it mattered.

It’s going to be a really intriguing 60 minutes battle.

Who are the ones to watch?

What has been great is to see is the growth of some of the players across this year. The two teams are littered with international stars.

You look at the form of Beth Cobden, the Loughborough Lightning wing defence and the form of current England international Imogen Allison for Manchester, they were both named Player of the Match in their semi-finals.

They are crucial to how these teams get about and they’re up against the two best wing attacks in the league this year.

You’ve also got the experience of Nat Metcalf, the current England Roses wing attack for Manchester Thunder.

I think it comes down to who gets on top of each other out of those players.

Stars or Pulse from third-place playoff?

This is a really strange one because London Pulse were absolutely gutted about not making the final last week.

They went in to that semi-final with two wins over Loughborough, thought they get over the line again but they didn’t and were devastated. They’re a really young group, but full of of England players and superstars.

For Severn Stars this is their first ever Finals appearance, so it’s slightly different. They lost but their loss to Manchester Thunder was kind of expected.

I’ve seen this happen before where they get up for the big occasion and want to get that third spot.

Pulse have got to put all of that aside and go for it. On paper, London Pulse should come out on top, but I wouldn’t write off Severn Stars.