The art of netball signing: Easter eggs, chaos and a little bit of sleuthing

In a congested sporting market where every professional league is fighting for your attention, social media teams at netball franchises have gone into overdrive these past two weeks.Fans looking for a dopamine hit could get their fix simply by following the Instagram accounts of the clubs in Australia's Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) and the Netball Super League (NSL) in the UK.Over the past couple of seasons, the bar has been set high during netball's signing windows, with clubs devising increasingly inventive ways to tease - and then reveal - which athlete will don their colours.The anticipation was palpable in the build-up to the 2027 SSN signing window, when new contract offers were finally made official, and many franchises milked the moment for what it was worth.The most intrigue during any signing period is generated by new player signings and defections to rival clubs. That interest ramped up another level over the past fortnight, with an exodus of New Zealand players predicted to join the Australian league.A record number of current and former Silver Ferns have been recruited for the 2027 SSN, while five top players have also inked deals in the United Kingdom, amid the ongoing uncertainty over next year's ANZ Premiership.RNZ netball reporter Bridget Tunnicliffe spent the fortnight trying to keep up with a dizzying merry-go-round of signings, defections and push notifications pinging across two time zones.The subtle teaseA common method deployed by many franchises is to tease the next signing and tell you exactly when they will drop the announcement, so fans know when they must constantly refresh their browsers.West Coast Fever hooked people in by posting short reels with a voicemail left by their next signing - except the voice was distorted.Queensland Firebirds clue that their next new signing was Te Paea Selby-Rickit.InstagramMelbourne Mavericks had their head coach drop a clue before each announcement, and sat back to watch their comments section explode, as fans tried to decipher what it meant.In one video, the coach simply said "meow" three times. Some followers concluded it had to be a certain player who liked cats - they were right.Queensland Firebirds took a more cryptic approach, with fans quickly working out from a pictoword-style clue that former Silver Fern Te Paea Selby-Rickit was about to re-sign.Adelaide Thunderbirds went with a series of tarot cards that were considerably more open to interpretation.Humour is also part of the arsenal. In the style of a sombre Netflix documentary, Leeds Rhinos 'media exec' stared at the camera, lamenting: "It's been a nightmare, everyone keeps saying you better do something creative... feeling that pressure."The point of it all is not simply to make a signing announcement look flashy and exciting. In an increasingly crowded social media landscape, every clue creates another piece of content, another reason for fans to interact with a club and, crucially, another opportunity for the club to stay in their feeds.Enter the social media sleuthsWest Coast Fever teased their next signing with a distorted voicemail message.InstagramPeak engagement comes when fans start trying to decode the Easter eggs as they are dropped.One fan used a voice pitch adjustment app to conclude that the distorted voice in the West Coast Fever clue was former Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio.Others cracked the case by listening to old reels of Ekenasio speaking on her own social media account."Even though it's sped up, that's gotta be Ekenasio's speech rhythm," they wrote. "She loves to emphasise her adjectives in her product promo reels."Some clubs will tease a new signing by sharing a mostly obscured image of the player. That can send fans down an unexpectedly specific rabbit hole, scanning athletes' social media posts and comparing, say, their nail polish with the manicured hands in the mystery photograph.A netball content creator sharing the finding of new 'follows'.InstagramThen there are the 'followers'.Fans monitor which players have suddenly started following athletes from rival teams and share their findings with the wider online netball community. A cluster of new follows can be enough to turn a hunch into a full-blown theory and that is perhaps the genius of the strategy - the clubs aren't doing all the work.Once fans become invested in solving the mystery, they create and distribute the speculation themselves.Engagement you never knew you neededAfter setting the bar so high, franchises now face a problem of their own making - fans expect them to put on a show.One netball content creator on Instagram implored NSL team Loughborough Lightning to up their game."This is just boring, they've dragged out their signing window for so long... just post after post of just re-signing. Can they please do something a little bit more interesting?"Adelaide Thunderbirds used tarot cards that were very open to interpretation.InstagramThe trick with a good Easter egg is getting the difficulty level right. Too easy and there is no satisfaction, too hard and everyone loses interest.New South Wales Swifts flagged a pending announcement by playing a clip from the movie Matilda, which a six-year-old could figure out in three seconds was Australian defender Matilda Garrett.Dragging out a signing too long also kills the vibe.On 15 August, the Swifts thanked Silver Fern Grace Nweke, saying she was departing the club after two seasons.Australian media had already reported that Nweke was heading across town to Sydney Sirens. Fans then waited 12 days for the Sirens to announce their marquee signing to absolutely no-one's surprise.Cross-franchise engagementSadly for New Zealand netball fans, the folks behind the social media accounts at the six ANZ Premiership franchises haven't had an opportunity to really flex their muscles this year.The Pulse set off a new trend of cross-franchise engagement in 2025, when Australian teams started recruiting NZ players.InstagramThe Pulse took an amusing approach last year, when it lost Silver Ferns Kelly Jackson and Maddy Gordon to Queensland Firebirds.When the Tactix then lost Te Paea Selby-Rickit to the same team, the Pulse posted "they got you too huh", accompanied by the image of a shadowy figure.Cross-franchise comments have become common - some are also not above throwing a bit of shade on rival teams.Sunshine Coast Lightning couldn't help themselves this year, when a contracting debacle at Melbourne Vixens saw long-time player Kate Eddy miss out on a 2027 deal due to a 'miscommunication'.In a clear reference to that fiasco, the Lightning patted themselves on the back in an Instagram post for being the first club in the SSN to say "yep, that's the list and mean it".The non-conformersOne netball fan depicting the dizzying merry-go-round of signings.InstagramNo clues, no countdowns, no elaborate videos, no heads up that they were dropping player announcements... some clubs bucked the labour-intensive trend of making a song and dance about every signing.Melbourne Vixens and Sunshine Coast Lightning had the audacity to announce each signing with a mere post on their platforms.Maybe the social media gurus have created a monster and netball fans will never again be satisfied with a simple "Welcome to the club".As @netballwithchan exclaimed: "SEND HELP! Trying to keep up with the Super Netball signing window has my head spinning." @circlebacknetball replied that they were going "cross-eyed and getting RSI" from all the scrolling.For exhausted netball fans sucked into the pull, the devices they've been tethered to for the past two weeks can finally be put down - at least until next year's signing window.