On a wet and windy Sunday arvo I attended my first ever Super Netball game day by taking in the Collingwood Magpies match and their fan experience at Margaret Court Arena. 

I was absolutely blown away by the impressive and overwhelming fan engagement on offer here for young fans with highlights including:

• GIF booth with netball themed props for fans
• Hair braiding, face painting as well as both temporary tattoos and nail stations where young fans, boys inclusive, could get game day ready.
• Skills drills with netball shooting activations
• Plush on court seating with incredible close up views of the team as well as goodie bags containing Magpies merch like tee’s, flags, posters and bam bams.
• Kids on court for player autographs post match
• Useful giveaways such as posters with player autograph sections
• A make your own trading card stand where fans can get creative.
• A merch stand with a rack of sizes to try on gear before fans buy items to ensure it fits.
• Parachute prize drops from the roof where gifts would rain down on fans towards the end of the match.
• Quality screen content like the ‘Floss Cam’ and ‘Clapper Cam’ along with interval
sponsor activations such as the ‘Super Sprint’ across the court and memory games, the latter of which they roped me in to perform and for which I was terrible at! 
• On court post match autograph session for kids 

Sandra Spring, Erin Dooley and the Magpies staff deserve a big pat on the back here as they have really gone above and beyond to ensure families get a seamless, action packed, value for money experience.

You can have all the fancy and fun fan engagement stuff you like but when I hear a comment from a young girl to her mum behind me in the stands saying ‘Thank you for taking us today mum, this was amazing, I got Ash’s (Player Ash Brazill) autograph’ then you know that you’re doing things right. 10/10- Well done! I highly recommend getting along to a Super Netball match to see how they cater for young fans.