1. The basics — court, positions and objective
Netball looks simple from the sideline and is surprisingly strict up close. The whole game is built around where each player is allowed to be and the fact that you can't move with the ball. Get those two ideas across to a newcomer and most of the rest follows.
The court and equipment
A full court is 30.5m by 15.25m, divided across its length into three equal thirds. At each end is a shooting circle — a semicircle of 4.9m radius — with a goalpost 3.05m high topped by a 380mm ring with no backboard. You need a match ball (size 5 for adults), two contrasting sets of bibs, and a whistle. That's it — netball is refreshingly cheap to kit out.
The seven positions
Each team has seven players, and every position is restricted to certain thirds and circles:
- GS — Goal Shooter: attacking third and shooting circle. One of only two players who can score.
- GA — Goal Attack: the attacking third (and centre third) and the shooting circle. The other scorer.
- WA — Wing Attack: attacking and centre thirds, but not the shooting circle. Feeds the shooters.
- C — Centre: the only player allowed in all three thirds (but neither shooting circle). The engine of the team.
- WD — Wing Defence: defending and centre thirds, but not the circle.
- GD — Goal Defence: defending and centre thirds plus the shooting circle.
- GK — Goal Keeper: defending third and shooting circle. The last line of defence.
Step outside your zone and the umpire awards a free pass to the other team for being "offside" — it's the rule newcomers break most, and the one that makes netball feel so different from football or basketball.
How a game works
Play starts with a centre pass from the centre circle, alternating between teams after every goal regardless of who scored. The ball is moved by passing and catching only — there's no dribbling and no running with the ball. A player who catches it can pivot on one foot but must release the ball within three seconds. Work the ball up the court through the thirds, into the circle, and only a GS or GA standing inside that circle may shoot. Defenders must stay at least 0.9m (three feet) from the player with the ball before attempting to intercept or block a shot.
2. Scoring — the timed game explained
Here's the bit that trips up people coming from racket sports: netball is not a race to a number. There's no "first to 21". Instead, you play for a fixed time and whoever has scored more goals when the clock stops wins. That's why ClubLono runs netball in its timed scoring mode rather than a points cap.
What counts as a goal
Every successful shot is worth exactly one goal, and it only counts if it's taken by the GS or GA with both feet inside the shooting circle. There's no three-point line, no bonus for distance — a tap-in from under the post and a long-range effort from the edge of the circle are both worth one. That simplicity is part of netball's charm and makes scoring trivial to keep.
How the clock works
A full match is four quarters of 15 minutes — an hour of actual play — with breaks between quarters and ends swapped at each interval. Junior and social formats shorten this dramatically: many social nights run two halves of seven or ten minutes, or a single timed period, so several short games can rotate through one venue slot. Concretely: set the clock for, say, ten minutes, both teams attack and defend, every goal ticks the score up by one, and when the buzzer goes the higher score wins. If it's level, a friendly can simply be a draw, or you can play a short "next goal wins" decider if a result is needed.
In ClubLono you pick the game duration, the app runs the countdown and tallies the goals as you tap them in, and it works out the winner and updates the standings automatically — so you can umpire the game instead of refereeing a spreadsheet.
3. Rules people get wrong
Most disputes at a social netball night come down to the same handful of rules. Knowing them in advance saves you a lot of sideline arguments.
Footwork (the "stepping" rule)
You cannot take a step with the ball. When you catch it, the foot you land on is your landing foot; you may pivot on it or lift the other foot, but if your landing foot moves or you re-ground a lifted foot before releasing the ball, that's a footwork infringement. New players run on instinct and get pulled up constantly — it's the single most-broken rule in the game.
Offside
Going into a third or circle you're not allowed in is offside, even without the ball. A WA drifting into the shooting circle to "help", or a GK wandering up to the centre third, both give away a free pass. Learn your zones first; learn everything else later.
Contact and obstruction
Netball is a non-contact sport. You can't push, bump, trip or hold an opponent, and when defending the ball-holder you must be at least 0.9m away — defend any closer and that's obstruction, penalised with a penalty pass (or penalty shot in the circle), taken with the offender standing out of play beside the shooter.
Held ball and the three-second rule
You have three seconds to pass or shoot once you catch the ball. Hold it longer and the umpire awards a free pass to the other side. It keeps the game fast and stops anyone parking the ball.
Replaying the ball
You can't catch the ball, drop it deliberately and re-catch it, or bounce it to yourself to gain ground. One clean catch, then a pass or a shot.
5. League formats for a season
Once you have committed teams, a league turns a kickabout into a season people organise their week around. Here's how to structure one without it becoming a paperwork project.
Divisions
If you have more than about six teams, split them into divisions by ability so games stay competitive — a 40–10 thrashing helps nobody. Promote the top team (or two) and relegate the bottom at the end of the season. Most local leagues run a small set of divisions of six to ten teams each.
Fixtures and home/away
A round-robin where every team plays every other once is the simplest season; play it twice — home and away — and you get a fuller table and a fairer result. For a centralised league where everyone plays at the same venue, "home and away" just means each pairing meets twice across the season rather than implying travel. Publish the full fixture list up front so teams can sort availability weeks ahead.
Points and standings
The common system is three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss, though some leagues add bonus points (for example, one for keeping within a certain goal margin) to reward competitiveness. Rank the table on total points; when teams are level, the standard tie-breaker is goal difference (goals scored minus goals conceded), then goals scored, then the head-to-head result. Because every netball goal is worth one, goal difference is clean and easy to calculate.
6. How ClubLono runs netball
You can keep score on a whiteboard and a calculator, and people do. But the bookkeeping — running the clock, tallying goals across several short games, working out standings and goal difference — is exactly the kind of admin that eats a club night.
ClubLono is built around the way netball actually plays:
- Timed scoring built in. Pick the game length, the app runs the countdown, you tap in each goal, and it decides the winner — no separate stopwatch, no mental arithmetic at the buzzer.
- The right format out of the box. Netball defaults to pool play into a playoff for social nights and tournaments, so you get balanced pools and a clean knockout without designing a draw by hand.
- Automatic standings. Results feed a live table with points and goal difference calculated for you, so the league position is always up to date and never in dispute.
- Squad and positions on the roster. See who's available and which positions they cover before the session, so you can field even sevens.
ClubLono is free for a single club, with no time limit — the timed match clock, pool-into-playoff format and automatic standings all work on the free tier. Full season leagues — divisions, home-and-away fixtures and a managed table across a season — are part of the Premium tier (£19.99/month or £199.99/year, with a 14-day free trial), which also unlocks multi-club hosting, kiosk mode and cross-club stats, and drops the platform fee on paid sessions from 5% to 1%. Running a casual ladder or a one-day tournament needs none of that; you only reach for Premium when you're organising a proper season.
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4. Running a social session
For a club night, the goal is simple: maximum court time, balanced games, and nobody parked on the sideline. The format does most of that work for you.
The recommended format — pool play into a playoff
ClubLono's recommended format for netball is pool play into a playoff, and it's ideal for a social night or a one-day tournament. Split your players into three or four even teams, play a short round of timed games where each team meets the others (the pool stage), then use the standings to seed a quick knockout — top two into a final, the rest into placing games. Everyone gets a guaranteed run of games regardless of how they do, which is exactly what you want when newcomers are deciding whether to come back, and the night still finishes with a proper winner.
Sensible alternatives
Small-sided and variant formats
If you're short of numbers or want a faster game, netball has well-known variants. Fast5 is five a side with timed quarters and multi-point shooting zones — quick, high-scoring and great for short slots. High Five netball is the five-a-side junior version with rolling substitutions and players rotating positions, designed so everyone gets a turn everywhere. Walking netball slows the pace right down and is brilliant for returners and older players. Any of these works as a social format when a full seven-a-side isn't on.