THE 2024 Netball Super League season is almost upon us, and to celebrate the build up to the season, Rookie Me Central will be previewing each of the 10 competing teams to predict how this year might unfold for them.

Next up are the London Pulse.

Last season brought absolute heartbreak for the Pulse, going down in the Grand Final to Loughborough Lightning after such a dominant season that saw them top the ladder for much of it.

But this is a very different London Pulse side that will be attempting to go one better in 2024 – a much younger and less experienced one.

Chelsea Pitman, Sacha McDonald, Ashleigh Dekker and Lindsay Keable all departed the club at the end of 2023, and took a lot of experience with them.

It means the likes of Jade Clarke, Zara Everitt and Halimat Adio have even more pressure on their shoulders this year, leading this relatively young Pulse side into whatever this season throws at them.

The Pulse also have an interesting positional breakdown within their squad this season that is sure to give viewers plenty of intrigue.

Instead of the usual 4-4-4 split across each third of the court, the Pulse squad is very defence heavy, with six defenders in the squad. Some of them can play wing defence, but there is still going to be quite the competition for a starting seven role and for court time.

Also, most of the Pulse’s additions this year are defenders, so Isabella Phillips, Darcie Everitt and Jeresia McEachrane are certainly going to have a baptism of fire to the Super League, trying to battle English Roses duo Funmi Fadoju and Halimat Adio and club captain Zara Everitt for court time.

Moving through to the midcourt, and there are only two full-time midcourters in the squad, which does not leave much room for Sam Bird to have much creativity if things are going wrong. She does have two shooter/wing attacks in Brie Grierson and Nichole Taljaard, but Clarke and Alicia Scholes are still going to be the main creative sources through the midcourt.

This just leaves the shooting end, and the Pulse’s 2023 starting shooters Berri Neil and Olivia Tchine are still at the club, likely to just continue where they left off last season in terms of building their connection and partnership.

They are going to have some competition from Grierson and Taljaard for court time, but with the way the team is split positionally they might develop the wing attack part of their game more in order to get more minutes.

London Pulse 2024 Squad

Alicia Scholes, Berri Neil, Zara Everitt, Olivia Tchine, Halimat Adio, Funmi Fadoju, Jade Clarke, Isabella Phillips, Darcie Everitt, Jeresia McEachrane, Nicholé Taljaard, Brie Grierson

Training Partners: Isla May, Jada Autumn and Chloe Essam