Last season's A grade finalists Collegians Mystified, Panthers and Bulldogs Verdelho will be joined by Scots All Saints College, Superstars United, Nova Sky, Bulldogs Hurricanes and Panthers Allsorts in the top division.

It's a step which had to be taken due to the low numbers of A grade teams applying to play in 2021.

All teams will have an opportunity to play for a title thanks to competition split midway through the season, just like the Bathurst season two years ago.

BNA president Tina Muller is confident the top tier will provide plenty of competitive netball.

"We didn't get as many A grade nominations as we'd hoped for so we've combined A and A reserve grade again, but I think it will be a good competition," she said.

"There's definitely going to be a divide though, so that's why we'll split around midway through the season. The bottom teams will still have a fair run at making finals.

"We've also done that with our colts division this year - which is our top junior competition - for the same reason."

Muller said the future still looks promising for the sport across all grades and there's plenty of juniors ready to make a start in the game.

"I think all players will get something out of it. It's obviously not ideal. We'd love to have a full competition of A grade teams but in saying that we're hopeful some of the lower teams can push the top sides and surprise everyone," she said.

"We lost a few numbers last year due to COVID and we're not quite back to the numbers that we had in 2019 so we're hoping to build that back up.

"We had a come and try day this year which had great numbers and we had all those players find teams. We're still pushing to get players involved but it's great to see all our junior teams quite full."

It will be an intra-club derby to get the season underway as Panthers and Panthers Allsorts play at 1.15pm on court one.

Collegians start their title defence against Nova Sky at 2.45pm on the same court.

The A grade opening round will finish at 3.45pm with Bulldogs Verdelho playing Superstars United on court one and Bulldogs Hurricanes playing Scots All Saints College on court two.

Collegians Mystified will be gunning for their fourth successive first grade title this season.

Last year's A reserve champions Scots All Saints College and runners-up Panthers Allsorts will be hoping to make a strong impression in the top grade.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: