New transfers, new rules, new season! | Time Out EP1 (2026-27)

So we're going to start with 30 seconds, make it easy for Kalam. Sorry, what time did you say we're going to start? I'll do 30 seconds, make it nice, easy edit. Great. Hello, and welcome back. The off season is all but done for the Super League. And we're now just under two weeks away from opening weekend. And we're delighted to be back and we'll break down somebody off season news, couple of the rules, changes as we approach the opening weekend. Michael Hansom is delighted to be joined by someone who maybe a little bit worse aware on this Sunday evening after playing 10 sets of MVL volleyball this weekend. Jess Smith, Jess, great to have you back. How is the body feeling? I'm okay right now, but I'm sure that if you asked me the same question tomorrow, the answer would be very different. So it had, you know, I'm not sore yet. I think I'm still running high on the adrenaline because 10 sets of volleyball in two days is a fair amount. It always helps when those fifth sets turn into wins. And we know how important they'll be this year. But before we get cracking, how was summer because we haven't really spoken in three or four months? I know it feels like it's been forever, right? What was the last time I saw you probably at cult finals in person? I'm sure I'm sure. Yeah. Did were you at the spark tournament or all nations very briefly? Yes. Yes. I think we saw each other for about five minutes there. So it's been a fun summer. I was lucky enough to play a fair few extra summer tournaments that I had in previous years. So I really enjoyed it. How was your summer? Busy. I mean, we're both, we're out going to into the weeds. We're both on new jobs. Well, obviously mine started in April, but we've started a buck season. It's always a little bit manic. And we weren't meant to record this early in this week and then work issues on Tuesday night for me. So the joy of settling back into a lovely season of bucks, but no, it's been fun. But really now, this is where the true fun begins. We get to break down some of the transfers all around the super league. And there's definitely been some big ones we want to touch upon today. Yes, definitely. Some exciting stuff across the division. So we're going to start with the dynamic men's super league. We will mention all these teams, but we will do a full season review that will come out next week. Just ahead of opening weekend, obviously the big tweak for opening weekend and probably the best place to start. Yes, double header for a team. So a lot of the season in one weekend, it's going to be great to have everyone in the venue. Definitely will help with atmosphere, but it's a big test of these teams to be ready for opening weekend. Because two of your 14 league games are all on one over 48 hours. Yeah, exactly. And you know, there's probably going to be some teams across that weekend that play 10 sets as well. So we'll see how they fare. I think depth of bench is going to play a lot into that opening weekend space, but you're right. The fitness levels for the first match of the season, first two matches of the season will be a tough one. But super exciting to have all of those matches under one roof and we'll be a great place to go and watch them by one person. Well, should we start with just pending champions, London giants, obviously a big move over early in the summer. The announcement of the mehow stove will not be back on the sideline for giant season. Just briefly before we talk about what's replacing. Yes, obviously a big credit to him stepping in in that role two years and a lot of success with his experience. And he will be tough use to fill. Yeah, definitely. I mean, stove was a good coach, you know, having a player coach at sometimes is an advantage. And sometimes it's a disadvantage, depending on what's happening and how emotions are going. But, you know, always great for an interview from our perspective as well. Yeah, definitely. But London giants have gone big and they've announced a new head coach slash technical director, Ali Reza, Tulu, Keon. Obviously a lot of experience with Iran, yes. So someone that's been on the sidelines in and around VNL games as well. So a super exciting addition. Yes, definitely. It's, it's a good testament to what giants are looking to do in the longer term, you know, trying to turn their club into a true professional club. So I'd be excited to see what changes he brings and how that impacts the style of play that they've had over the last couple of years. And style of play were one of the biggest servers and one of the biggest hit is in the super league last season. Now over on his roster, our tennis sold a cough, yes, has gone to the champions. Yes, I know. And I mean, they weren't, you know, really shy in that opposite department last season anyway. Obviously they got a poverinco who is a towering height amongst a group of giants literally. Sorry, I had to make the pun again. It's already the season hasn't been started and we're already going in. But adding sold a cough in to that roster is going to be a big thing for them. We'll see how he impacts, you know, the playing time for poverinco, but two, two good options means that there's no loss of anything if they do, you know, a double substitution. Yeah, and also, as we saw both of them have spells outside last year. So it would be interesting to see how they line up opening day, a couple of Malibu players have gone across the Giants as well. But as you said, keeping poverinco, the like the youngster, Cadin McCoy as well. I think Jess will be a big one who obviously had a really good cup final filling in through injury. So exciting for the Giants. Yes, definitely. And next we'll talk about the team that came in second, the new Castle Knights. So a decent amount of roster change, Jess, for the Knights, obviously, a couple of big pieces coming back, the likes of Ollie, Tuck, Neil, Ray and setting. But is there anything in particular that you've seen on the night side that sparks your interest in their new signings? A little bit of an interesting one to me is seeing that Max McCalski has made his way from lead scores over to Newcastle Knights for the season. So curious to see where he's going to fit into that lineup, but, you know, we saw some really good play out of him last season. He was great in defense and made things work when he was playing through the outside as well. So curious to see how he fills into that Newcastle lineup this year. Yeah, it's definitely one that he'll have to fight for game time. It seems on paper. Knights might be maybe the deepest squad in the league, at least initially, what we're looking at and what we know, as of time of recording, obviously, a lot of Americans come in and have kept people like Isaac Gibbs, James Ledbury as well. So a super experienced group and then just that little bit of quality, perhaps over the line, but those young English tanks with seems Sam Shenton, be one of those coaches that nurtures that more with the women than the men's side. But it's definitely coming through now with that super league experience and the break through the night's had last season. Definitely. Next up, the Mallory Eagles, Jess, and there's a couple of eye popping news signings from what we would call a rivalry. They are now definitely friends as we see not one, but two former Essex rebels join the Eagles. Yeah, we had talked about Mallory, I'm just going to briefly touch on somebody that left Mallory. So Dylan Cohen has left Mallory to head over to Giants, which I know that you and I had exchanged a couple of messages about that saying what are Mallory going to do through the middle. Well, I guess the answer is bring in Thomas Jefferson from Essex. Why not? You talk about a towering middle that has great wingspan, he's quick and he's got a really solid block. So I'm sure that Mallory are very pleased to have brought him on board. Yeah, and another English player to add to that stable food, but it's not just TJ. Is it? It is. Tom should have been the longtime Mallory killer along with a couple of his teammates now making the move back to London, having graduated from Essex. And the probably the logical landing spot, the one that we kind of heard rumors of even at the back end of last scene as it was possible. Yes, but having Tom's experience and the I think the thing for Mallory is they won't need to necessarily overuse him as we saw a little bit. They had to last season the rebels and that's where Tom really shines. Yeah, definitely being able to come in off the bench or or make an impact for a short period of time or, you know, playing one set and swapping around, especially because they've now got him along with Ben Kwame, who, you know, they have a similar jumping style. So they've got two very explosive players that can fit in amongst each other and change things up a bit, or they can have them both on the board at the same time and have have two players that are, you know, up down and everywhere. Yeah, and there's still seems to be a lot of unknowns around the rest of the Mallory roster. So we'll kind of see how that unfolds, but hopefully by the time we did a preview episode, definitely got to, by the time we did a preview episode, if not, we'll be, we'll be a bit struggling for our opening weekend prep. But we'll see what else is going for Mallory know they've got a few Americans in through the email system as well, but which of that core group is returning. We will wait and see next up the team that finished in fourth last year, just Smith, the university of not. obviously started their box campaign on Wednesday with a strong victory over Durham. Not necessarily roster, we know a lot about right now in terms of announcements, but a couple of eye catching returners, Joel's and San T, and Finley Bollivan, who I know were both impressed with at the Super League Live last year. Yeah, yeah. I think seeing both of them back on the court this year will be it's a good starting base. And like he said, we don't know a lot about the roster just yet. So I'm interested to see who else they've got coming in because I don't think we've seen much of anything. As far as transfers go internally, I've seen I've got one, two on my list. Thank you. Yeah, there's a couple more tucked away. And I think the announcement of Connor Crawford, who I believe is a 6-6 opposite. It's going to come in and captain the team out of a D3 school cow Lufre and on the west coast. But the one that caught my eye, I'm not sure it's on the official transfer list yet, but it's on their Bollivan, his Lewis Bunton, who makes a lot of sense to fit with the beach programme at Nottingham, but we saw him get a little bit of time in Super League last year as well. Could potentially place him outside, but maybe an option in that lib position replacing Oli Quick. Yeah, yes, who has made his way off elsewhere. Yeah, so we very interested to see how Nottingham shape up, but that's strong victory to start bucks. And I'll be hoping to hit top former. Maybe go one or two steps further than last year. I've been cracked that top four. One team that didn't crack the top four, I read down if recently, at least for the Essex Rebels, obviously, a little bit of stability now in with head coach, you and Fraser stepping into a first full season of off season prep. Again, interesting for Essex is how they make that jump. They've lost a lot of players though, Jess, it is another big period of change for the Rebels. Yeah, but we've seen them, you know, a couple of seasons ago, come in with some players on one of your masters that have made some impacts. So I'm sure that we'll see them with some exciting new faces out on the court. But yeah, trying to replace Tom Chattamon and of course, Thomas Jefferson, it's going to be tough. Yeah, obviously TJ had last year, kind of out, but there's a couple of big names also gone from last year that will touch upon very briefly. I sound for out Stephanie going to be one to watch on the return list. And yet again, if in doubt, you're an English team, look at Menlo College. I'll see we've seen a lot of players from Menlo come through Dylan, Dylan Cohen, Jaden Scott, the Kane Brothers last year. Well, this time it's the Rebels who have managed to add a Menlo College graduate Matthias Dufrey. We'll be part of the Rebels lineup. So a super interesting one to watch. There, as we know, those Menlo College players have had success in the Super League on both the men's and the women's side. Next up, and the last team remaining in the Super League before we touch on our two new signings, Richmond Jess. Again, a team that publicly there's not a lot out there right now, but we know the big news is it's a signing, but it's also a kind of one back from last year, but isn't is Elias Watts. Obviously made the mid season move to Giants. It's now back on the Richmond roster and had a big impact in spells last year, especially early on for Richmond. So that we'd like it to have him back for the season. Yes, definitely. And I think another one to probably note as well as they have taken a playoff of Uni of Nuts this season as well. They've got Rob Morgan has made his way over. That was the one I was going to come on to, nicely predicted. So a Rob Morgan heading back to London from the University of Nottingham, Jess, and we've seen Rob undersize, but he's as tools available, especially as a hit and now, also known for the order absolute outrageous monster block. But the tools he's able to provide hitting will definitely help verify this Richmond attack. Definitely. It's something I think the need is, especially losing sold a car as well, you know, they need more outlet options, not just one outlet option. So I think their style of play might be a bit different this year as well. Yeah, for sure, and we know a couple of other departures as well, Jolani Conte, obviously gone out to the US who had a big impact in that last end of the season. But time to talk about our two new teams, Jess, I'll see two new additions to the dynamic men's super league this season, the Newcastle staffs and Essex Blaze both taking promotion. And I'm going to put you immediately on the spot, which one jumps out to you, Jess, having made big moves in this transfer window. It's got to be Blaze. I feel like there's been just, you know, reading through the transfer list, there's way more happening for them right now. That's not to say that Newcastle staffs aren't making signings. I just feel like Blaze has the higher volume. And they've got a couple of good ones as well. They've taken some out of Essex. They've got, of course, the big one from giants moving across, which we'll talk about in just a second. They've taken a player off of Richmond as well. So, you know, players coming in from a couple of different places, and that'll be very interesting to see. Yeah, it'll be very interesting. Obviously, we saw, you saw Blaze a couple of times in person last year at the back end of the season as they came through. What was a very turbulent day once I have every team beating each other at the back end of that season. But as you said, what they've done this year for a team that obviously was in super league two years ago, have beefed up on super league experience. Sam Sherwin and Nathan Hall both making the move back to Chelmsford having graduated at the University of Essex and now staying with the Essex, just the Blaze, but the big one, Jess. Someone announced early in September that possibly went under the radar a little bit. But you talk about needing experience. Well, how about go get Dorian points? Of course, yes. And I'm so glad that you called them Dorian points as well, because it was going to be the first thing that came out of my mouth is you need a player that has experience and can make something out of nothing at times, literally pulling rabbits out of hats. Dorian point is one of those players that he will be steady away for you and has a relatively low error rate. And of course, bringing the super league experience back to this team. So I'm very excited to see what they get up to this season. Yeah, there's a couple more we think are in the pipeline as well, but we're not here to break news. We'll let the team kind of announce a couple more moves they've got, but we'll definitely touch upon them in the season preview that's coming out about 10 days time before opening weekend. But last, but by definitely no means least new castle staffs, the team that may have caught some teams at the super league are not based in Newcastle in the Northeast. That is Newcastle upon line this stoke. A couple of teams may, their backroom staff may know what I'm referring to. I won't quite call them out. We'll let them all out themselves on fixtures. But Jess is seems like they've made a lot of moves over the summer. They were very early announcing some of these moves, or at least confirming their signings. Maybe no necessarily standouts, but it looks like they've kind of been able to recruit pieces from around the Midlands, which is definitely going to give them an interesting dynamic of kind of building a new team culture. Yes, definitely taking some players from Donning and Rockets, Birmingham, Coventry, all coming in. So they have made a fair few signings here. And like you said early on in the transfer time. So they're all kind of bunched up together on the on the transfer list if you guys go on the website and look at that. I don't know a lot of these players. I'm sure that we've seen some of them, you know, in like the Shield Final. I think we've seen a couple of these players anyway. So yeah, curious to see how they've gone about this because it's a different approach to what we've seen from Essex Blaze. Obviously, they're in a different position from a geographic perspective. So there's not exactly a lot of super league teams around there to grab players from. So yeah, building up players and looking to develop as they go along will be an interesting approach. Yeah, for sure. And obviously a couple of big names to part of staffs as well. Cameron Reeves has gone to Mallory Eagles who was with the staffs last year. And I think just trying to find it's something Cox. I want to say it's James Cox. It is James Cox has gone from staffs to the University of Nottingham to start his university career. So a couple of younger players out for staffs. But as I said, they've gone with a lot of players to mesh together. And hopefully they've had a couple of months preseason take Keats. We saw for Birmingham City in the D3 playoffs. Oh, it's mentally white. So it'll be very interesting to see how they mesh and there may be some moves again. We still don't quite know. Yes, definitely. Right. Before we break down the Marley Women's Super League, yes. A big change out of volleyball England over the summer along with a lot of the nations is the advancement around test rules. Obviously no rules will come in till after LA, but some new test rules got thrown out this season. And volleyball England decided to jump the moon. adopt the majority of them. Before we break down the ones that did come in, as a lib, how are we feeling about the ball still being called out of bounds on the ceiling? Because that was the option to add for this season that the ceiling would become in bounds. I think in some respects, I appreciate that the rule has not changed because it can be very difficult to play and it's, yeah, it's tough because depending on the venue, the ceiling aspect might be different. But on the other hand, it would be nice because there's so many venues with quite low ceilings. I don't know, we've talked a couple of times about particular venues where you know, teams might have a specific way they go about things to try and get their opponents to hit the ceiling because they're used to training in it. So yeah, it's an interesting one. I have refereed a couple of matches already and I was surprised by the number of players that assumed that this rule tests had been adopted. Yeah, let's just say maybe information wasn't going from three things, which we were both on. And a big thank you to Nick Hepford, Richard Burb, Richard McCrew, for delivering those and allowing us a euro referee, but allowing me to hop on as well and make sure I know what I'm talking about because that always helps. But we will break down these rules now. Jess and we'll start with the easy one and the one that doesn't necessarily change a lot. And that is the use of the whistle. So basically, if something is super obvious, we might not hear a whistle. In other words, if you serve the ball and it hits the back wall, referee won't blow whistle to a wall at the point. Yes. And this is one that I really like, especially as a referee because the number of times that you blow your whistle in a match is a lot. So if we can cut that down, when it's very obvious, you know, you serving in the ball, doesn't cross the plane of the net. Obviously, somebody has smashed the ball directly into the floor, nobody was there. If the ball's gone well out, strikes a wall or something like that. I've seen a referee not blow the whistle when somebody basically grabbed the net, which I think considering the the obviousness of that particular net touch fair play. But yeah, I really really like this one. Are we talking Nathan Fullerton type net touch from last year? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Oh, speaking of which, one second, I need to get into the right mental state for this section. Okay. Uh-oh. What are we cooking here? Well, Jess sorts out. Uh, let me bring out Ron Rule, which is the whistle. And the next one we will talk about, hopefully, ah, we have a referee building. Exactly. First thing for referee to do, check your rosters. And this one, um, only need one libero. Oh, you can choose to have only one libero on your roste now. If you've got 12, 13 or 14 players, was it before it used to be, um, plus two? Now it's plus one. Obviously, if a lib gets injured, you can replace them at any point in the game. Um, so basically it means you can basically feel 13 and one and then your backup lib can hit and serve if you want them to. Yes, exactly. It brings up a lot of flexibility for teams. Um, like you said, they can hit and serve. So you have a defensive specialist option. So you can effectively have two liberos on the court at the same time because you've got one in the regular top and one as a designated lib arrow. You did mention that if you have an injured player, you can redesign a lib arrow. Uh, just a note to say if a lib arrows injured in another player has to be redesignated, your injured lib arrow cannot re-enter the game. So don't want people to think that that's a way to go about trying things. That would be funny. People come up with weird things, okay? It happens. It happens. But yeah, um, it's, it's a good one though, because it gives teams a bit more flexibility. So, um, what also allows them to have flexibility is, I can load the right one up on my graphics, and extra two substitutions. So six, two, eight, obviously the same subs rules apply once you're out and come back in, you can't go back out effectively and vice versa. Outside of obviously a major injury, things like that. But deeper benches, um, I'm sure Paul Walsh and Durham would have loved this last year with all the options they had. Yes. But again, increased coaching opportunities, more double sub type things, Jess, um, which I think everyone's happy about. Yes, definitely. So, so now this season, if you do the double substitution and then swap it back, that would have been four of your six substitutions last year. So you now have an additional four. Effectively, you can do the double substitution, reverse it and swap every other player on your team and still be fine, which is a massive change since last year. And it does mean that teams with deeper benches have a better chance of resting players, which I think will be impactful for opening weekend in particular when everybody's playing a double header. Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be super interesting to see how creative teams get to be tend to be willing to use some subs early as well because you've got that chance. So we'll see how coaches go around that one. Um, the next one before we really get into the two juicy ones, just more of a procedural change, uh, the serve warm up. Um, so the MVL warm up protocols are slightly changed, but basically, uh, each team is now going to serve independently. Um, I'm going to touch upon this from a different angle with you, Jess. And that's from a lip point of view. You now don't get to pass the other team anymore. How's that been for you for the first couple of games? And do you think that's actually going to have much effect early in matches? I think maybe the first couple of matches of the season might make an impact on the Liberos. It depends on what the non-serving team is doing during the serving teams warm up. Right? Uh, if you're having a team talk, yes, it might impact you more because you're not watching the servers to see, you know, who's the float server? Who's a topspin server? Do they have a tendency to, you know, show the direction that they're going to strike the ball because of the way that they twist their body, things like that, that you would normally pick up in the warm up. Um, but you're playing that you're in a league. So you're playing the same teams twice, which gives you more opportunity to watch other teams. And as well, obviously, everybody's still live streaming now. So you do have opportunity to watch teams other than opening weekend. Yeah, I think it would just be that initial first time you see a server. You've probably not get one opportunity to pass them all. We'll see if that matters. But now on to kind of, sorry, before you move on, just to make things clear for folks, because this is something that has come up as some confusion where it says that team A is this first of the teams to serve. This means the team that's on core A, which is the side that is to the left of the scoring table if you are sat in the score seat. So if you're on that side of the net for your side, you will be the first team to have the serving warm up. Um, yeah, and just trying to get people used to it and actually coming off the court quickly, trying to minimize the any wasted time that's happening. But from a safety standpoint, this is an excellent change. Yeah, and we've seen it kind of go smoothly and obviously a bit a little bit of adjustment, but we don't think it'll have too much effect on the impact. Um, now the position of the receiving team, obviously a new rule that came in last year and it definitely some teams were more creative than others with it. And I think we were maybe a bit critical of teams for not being a little bit more opportunistic with this last year and maybe trying to get some of their better passes, more chances to receive. But the position of the receiving team is now basically any mo, any the first action of a serving sequence, whether that is a step, whether that is the drop or raise of the serving arm for the ball toss, anything like that is now the moment you can move it. We didn't see it much in MVL, um, across super league, but basically it's tried to outlaw the fake serve to get a team out of rotation deliberately. That's what it's done. But again, now it leaves more time, yes, for the receiving team to potentially move on any type of jump serve, any type of outside of really just a standing serve. Um, so do you think we will see some more creativity in the passing units this year to try and hide some weaker passes or get your better passes more opportunity to potentially by moving them out of into a different position? I do very much hope that we will see more movement in the serve receive units for teams. Uh, we saw a couple of teams that a few points in the season last year really struggle on serve receive. This is a great opportunity for them to make an improvement. I think we'll see more movement within the men's side because there tends to be more high toss, topspin servers. Uh, so they've got more time to move around. But I think that players on in all both of the super league divisions can take advantage of this. Um, and again, just a point of reminder, somebody bouncing the ball on the floor in their preparation for a service is not the first motion of service. Yeah, I had a couple of people trying to take that. Now the one that is definitely going to take a little bit of adjustment for everyone. This is players. Um, definitely officials is the push carry throw and kind of going through that. So, um, we'll go on to tips and characteristics in a minute. Yes. But basically trying to make every action of volley action rather than a throw is probably the easiest way to describe it right again to technical. Mmm, yes, however, you don't a two handed volley attack is very restricted now. So if you are going to push the ball over, if you're going to volley the ball over the net, it has to be an extra, it has to be a perfect clean set. Any indication of a double touch where the ball does cross the plane of the net will be called as a double touch. And yeah, Michael, to your point, just trying to do away with some of the cheekier movement of the ball, when it comes to, to, I guess, power tips, we will call them. And this is the rule, the characteristic of the hit. So, as Jess said, any internal pass as normal will, as it did last year, be play on. But effectively, from what we kind of learn, and Jess, you can probably touch upon this from a reference side, we're now basically trying to outlaw the two handed kind of throw tips that have definitely come in at the high levels. More on the men's side than the women's side, but also it's the direction of that tip. It's, basically, it has to be a tip rather than a manipulation of the ball in the hand. Yeah, so the rule wording, which I know we've said already, the rule wording hasn't changed. And I don't think that the rule wording is going to change much from what it is now, because even now, if you read the rule, it does say that a tip is meant to be a short contact. And the idea here is that the players aren't supposed to be changing the direction of the ball. So, if you're coming at the ball and I don't know, it's passing across your face and you push it into the same direction that it's passing you. And it's a very short brief contact with the ball. That's totally fine. It's more about those, those power tips in particular when people are trying to like use the block and push the ball away so that Roma is grabbing and throwing it off to the side, off the hands of the blockers. It's those types of tips that won't no longer be allowed. And this does make things slightly more difficult for setters attempting to do like a setter dump on the second ball. So, interesting one. Yeah, and we'll definitely see a little bit of learning for everyone. I think the one thing I kind of took out the briefing was realistically, it's not an official guidance, but it's looking at how straight and extended the arm is in a way. If you're now starting to kind of bring that elbow back, now we're talking about that kind of catch-through scenario rather than if your arm is straight, it's very much, it's harder to kind of catch and throw with a straight arm and bring it back. And that's kind of maybe the thing I'll try to be attempting to look out from the commentary box. Obviously, we've got a pretty good view of the behind-the-neck loft before opening weekend, but by no means that's a hard and fast rule, but that's maybe a nice little guide for those people looking at home. Yeah, it's a difficult one though, because again, the same as the double touch rule always has been. It's a little bit subjective. There are very clear points of guidance from volleyball England as well as FIVB. So, I know that there will be an attempt for all referees to apply the rules in the same way, but you will still have some level of variation between different referees. So, yeah, just hope everybody's prepared for that this season. Good luck referees. It's not that bad, it's not that bad. I haven't, well, I haven't found it too bad, so yeah. Until you've got a shot and coach yelling at you and there's plenty of those in the Super League club. Yeah, you just give them a card and move on with your life, it's fine. Maybe that was one we should bring back on a period of seed first person to get carded again opening weekend. That went down like a treat last year, didn't it? Yeah, I think we should do that. That would be good. We'll have to do that on our season breakdown, Paul. Right. Brahms rules back to the Super League and we're going to flip over from the dynamic men's Super League over on to the other side, the Mari women's Super League. And we're going reverse order, yes, why not? So we talked about the champions first. We will let the champions wrap up the episode. So we'll talk about our two newly promoted teams, two teams that to put it nicely absolutely obliterated the competition in Division 1 last year on either side of the draw. Two teams with Super League experience with the men, one returning to the Super League, one into the Super League. I believe for the first time on the women's side, the London Giants and the University of Nottingham Jess. So we'll talk about Notting first, feels like a bit of a direction change through the University. Potentially a few less post-grad students come in this year, but they've made a couple of big internal pickups, a couple of young players. But I think the one that both caught mine and your eye is Hadja Elawani moving from the relegated dark star Darbsha onto the University of Nottingham and Freddie Fairburn to roster. Yes, definitely. I think that's going to be a huge change. Obviously for Darbsha, that's going to have an impact now that they're in Division 1. I'm not going to complain because we are also in the same Division 1. But from a uni of nots perspective, it gives them obviously an incredible outside player. She's hugely skilled. And I'm sure that she will find her way on court at some point this season. So because I don't know exactly what the rest of the roster looks like. So I'm not sure if she's going to be the outright always starting outside or if she's going to be one of a fairly deep bench. Yeah, we know there's a couple of players back. Someone that you saw last year, Jess Sydney Jones, will be back as captain in the setting position. Isabel Brown through the middle. But also again, Nottingham picking up a couple of the developing youngsters, Sophia Chaggi, who played a little bit in the Super League for Wessex a couple of years ago on the Nottingham roster. And Eliza Jarman is another big one to come in. Obviously through the South set up as well with a lot of national team experience. So some up and coming young Brits, Jess, that should see some court time. Yes, definitely. You know, again, circling back to that point, you mentioned about Sam Shenton developing some of the younger players. It looks like we're starting to a bit of that with with the union of nots as well. Some some players that are more local, which would be exciting. Indeed. And the team they will play to start the season off the London Giants. Very quiet window on the women's side, Jess. We don't know a lot of the roster, if very many at all. I definitely can't name seven players right now. However, if in doubt, go big and go big indeed. And Giants have done that. They have bought in Grace Lazard. Yeah. We start with that one. Oh, so I mean Grace played for Polonia last year, didn't play a load of matches really. But did make an impact when she was on the court. So interesting to see her back into the Super League here with London Giants. I do think they made a fair few signings last season before the season began because their aim was always to try and get promoted anyway. So I don't think we'll see a lot, a lot more signings out of them before the season begins. But yeah, if you need to make a signing, like you said, go big, get Grace and and watch her go. Yeah, it looks like quite a few of the Giants. Potentially based on a couple of social media posts might be back. Natalie Ramirez had a big season last year over in division one. And obviously we didn't see them. A lot against Super League opposition, but they did be London Lion Hearts, Venerious in the Cup before falling to Durham. But that was what everyone did last season. Paul to Durham. But that as an opening game will definitely be interesting. Next up, talking of London team, two more London teams and we'll start with Lion Hearts, Venerious. We'll start with the coaching confirmation. Yes, as was at the end of last season, David A. Tiberte back on the sideline. And I think we both know what that might mean. Yes. And that means this team is going to be very good defensively. Yes, definitely. Love his coaching style. I'm not biased as a libera. But we saw them perform quite well a couple of seasons ago. We saw them really pick things up towards the end of the season last year and of course making their way through that playoff to stay into the Super League as well. Really excited to see what comes up, what comes out of the squad this year. And they've made a couple of good signings as well. Well, we've definitely made some good signings and they've done what Mallory have done a little bit and rated the Essex Rebels. Obviously, Madoka Worldum will return having obviously missed the majority of the first half of last season out injured to back to fight with Camille Determine in the lib position. That could be one talking to the new rules. We Madoka, we've seen swing our all nations to and had some fun there. So that could be one that they could do something like that and use her in a DS role potentially. That is one. She's got a good serve as well. So, um, but the big one, the arguably the setter of two seasons ago for the Essex Rebels in the Super League Chelsea Simmons back into the UK, back to London and she's going to be representing Lionheart's Venerious. Yeah, that's going to be huge because that's a big change for them, you know, setting style wise. That's gonna be huge and I'm very yeah I'm excited about that one. It gets me great for them. Yeah and obviously a sore Chelsea I can't think when was it final four she was there. I think it was. I definitely saw it crystal palace last year. I did a little um interview from the crowd and it must have been your own commentary if I was off so yeah I must have been palace um but yeah it was it was a crystal palace. Yeah. A couple of other names we expect to see back four uh lion hearts cursor through the middle um and it looks like uh masher screwdriver and ulyah tokarenko will both be shooting up four lion hearts and they immediately have to jump back into one of their old coaches and mark on top of us and team side out polonia um again a team that starting to announce they roster but it's a little bit on the quiet side at the moment but we know uh mavedavit merv achina both back um we know karlamulli is back yes but there's a little bit of unknown about what this side out roster is gonna look like. Yeah it'll be an interesting one I mean they've they've made a couple of signings from some London squads so they've got one from Richmond and and one from London Onyx it looks like um assuming that I put the rum or right list on my sheet so we'll see how they get on the season I think the shock of not making final four last year is going to be a fire for mark on top list so I'm very interested to see how they reorganize themselves into a team that can make top four because we know that they'll be back at some point. Yeah for sure not London market is super competitive this year with four sides residing in the capital and the fourth of both sides we've yet to mention the team that bell short at final four weekend of a medal a team used to winning silverware um but last year coming up empty handed despite a trip to the cup final and that is the Mallory Eagles just um again we know certain americans are coming in through the UEL system but there's been a lot of rumours going around about what of the core roster is back and which ones may be moving on um we know jade and scott is back we know abby kettley is a name to come in from the University of Nottingham but maybe the welcome returning edition is someone that we didn't see a lot of last year but for a very good reason uh steff kroy formally steff voice uh is going to be back for Mallory um now a month that's so exciting it really is but yeah it's good to see her back uh it'll be good to see her back this season so she was always an impactful player for them and um i don't know who's happier and this is just pure speculation um steff or anti carol because anti carol will definitely being being anti carol knowing how how good that will be and that will definitely lift some spirits but we said Mallory have added a couple of internationals through uel however one big move yes and arguably the best setter in the super league is back georgia magovern back to Mallory having come in at christmas two years ago and completely helped oversee the team to a sweep she is back and that is a massive addition yes super huge i mean we saw georgia magovern at all nations over the summer which was exciting to see um and i think the rumors started about then that she was going to come back to Mallory and yeah exciting to see that those are true and we'll see her back on the court this year i mean georgia told me at soon soul nation she was coming back and um but i think where it's interesting is abby kettley's addition because that's another setter and those of you that may have seen the i don't know officially the name of it so apologies if i'm getting this wrong but effectively the four nations tournament i don't know if it was called four nations over the summer but we saw abby kettley and georgia on the same team um and a couple of times carol gold and tried out the lineup of abby setting in georgia playing opposite and allowing to hit we know she's super tricky um we've seen Mallory run a two six system in the past um it's who's success we've also seen Mallory have a lot of success with setters becoming opposites whether that was klare kelem last year who's moved abroad um and it's going to really butcher i'm really going to get told off of this who was it two years ago that's really bad that i don't know and i'm then my head i think it's patisse but i don't think that's actually right is it it was telena patisse there you go yes because they had okay because georgia came in and then telena moved to opposite and i had a very strong end to that season was part of the reason they went on so to be very ingenious see what Mallory do and they could well be a contender to mix up one five two six couple of setters on court once again and that always provides trickiness on the offense yes definitely it'll be very exciting as well because because they play on the national team together from a national team perspective it'll be great because there'll be so used to one another next up the team that were newly promoted 12 months ago we speculated could they stand the super league not only did they do that they made it all the way to the final four and on the last data season outplayed the Eagles for a bronze medal in the new castle nights now looking to maybe go one step further with sam shenton jess a very good mix of returning and new coming in but they kind of feel like they've just gone with the doma approach from last year and added a lot of depth and they're going to have a lot of options this season oh that's exciting i mean they had they had a decent bench last year they had some really great players that we saw develop over the course of the season and obviously like you said they finished really strong so again sam shenton's one of those coaches that I really appreciate watching and I like I like a style a lot so I'm sure that we'll see some really good volleyball coming out of that program this year yeah three Canadians in a multitude of positions to the roster uh Addison with Kowski through the middle our market on the outside Sydney Gill um looks like she potentially will earn that starting setter role um but they've had a couple of strong starts in a box as well and it'll be interesting to see how sam finds playing time for all those teams but a very good mix for the nights and they are going to be dangerous um and another team looking to be dangerous with a english coach at the helm are the Essex Rebels just Alex Chenery and the Rebels back four more and um it looks like again a couple of key additions into big spots but the big one keeping Hayley Gilfill and who was arguably and realistically both on our teams of the season last year wasn't initially due back to the Rebels but uh has decided to stay another year and that's a big person to keep hold of yeah definitely i mean you talked about impactful players um Rebels have always seemed to gotten themselves one or two players on their team roster that can just fire up the rest of the team and keep things moving and and Gilfill and it's definitely one of those so i'm sure they'll appreciate that extra bit of fervor out on the court yeah a couple of other key British retainers border rebels uh Tara King back who again was a strong performer for the England national team over the summer like calf tolly back having missed really much the entire season last year for injury and of um lila wittica and cape from the thunder who will definitely have opportunities to battle for a starting outside position um but once again Alex Chenery bought in a couple of big americans as well it'll be Claire Sherry who will be there starting set of this year and captain and it'll be interesting to see how the Rebels can maybe just go one step further and they get their hands on some silverware and on opening day yes they will take on the defending champions a team that outside of two sets to start the season were almost perfect the Durham pelotonets however one small issue it is a complete rebuild for poor Welsh this summer pretty much the entire roster has gone um sundry concern yuck uh defini seen art and uh Natasha Frost are the three big returning players but none of which saw a lot of core action in the super league last season yes um so it's all changed for the pelotonets and how do you think that's going to affect um their kind of mentality going into the season and jelling early on i think the jelling aspect is the bit that this is the toughest and this is where we saw them not start out their best at opening weekend last season the interesting thing is with the change of the opening weekend structure this year with it being a double header i'm curious as to what will happen in their two matches and how that will play out into the rest of the season to go on um we did see them come together you know fairly quickly through the season obviously they play box as well which gives them some extra court time together. But it's a very competitive program, and Yeah, I'm sure that between Paul and Ross, we'll see them come together quite quickly. But again, like you said, it's the opening weekend piece, especially with it being two matches that's going to be the really interesting one. Yeah, I think the advantage for Durham and a couple of these sides are obviously their universities and Bucks has already started. So Durham swept Nottingham at 3-0 on when's they having beaten Dark Star Darbyshire, which is not Dark Star Darbyshire, Darbyshire University or Darby University on Opening Day 3-1. That was a side where Hadja Elawani did play for Darby this year. So Darby upgrading on the Bucks side, but they will come in with three or four competitor games under their belt and hopefully that will help that transition. But we're going to see exactly how Durham Roster looks, but it does look like initially. It's going to be a little bit thinner from last season and it'll be a challenge for Durham, but we know they can step up to the mark and compete for titles. I think that wraps around us up, Jess. We aim for 45 minutes, we've been going 50. But is there anything else before we very quickly look at opening weekend that jumps to your mind from the transfer market, either incoming or departures that we've not touched upon yet? Let me just hold you. No, I think we've covered off all of the ones that I had stuck little asterisks by to talk about over the course of today's call. So yeah, it's going to be a very interesting season. Love looking at all the transfers and seeing what's happened. Curious to see if there's going to be more transfers on the women's side, just because there's been so many more men's transfers so far. Or if they just haven't been announced yet. Yeah, obviously we know some things got delayed a little bit over the summer, so we won't go too much into detail, but we definitely know keeping our own volley zone as well as always quite handy to see who's sneaking in registrations. But we're looking forward to it. But, Jess, as we said, we won't have a lot of time to talk about it next time because we're going to do season previews. They will be two separate episodes as we did last year, one for the dynamic men's super league, one for the Maori wins super league. So we won't have a lot of time to talk about opening weekend, 16 games. The feature on Saturday from a broadcast side was going to be on the Maori women's side on Sunday, the dynamic men, so we'll quickly run through the fixtures starting on Saturday for the women. Nottingham London Giants will open us up at 11 a.m. followed by Mallory Newcastle at one Essex Durham at three and Lionheart's Fanarious versus Team Salat Polonia at five. And then on the Sunday, Giants Essex at 10 a.m. Night Venerious at Midday, Durham Mallory, a big game, potentially at 2 p.m. And then at four side out, Nottingham. Which one of those raises your fancy the most, Jess, because it is a absolute stacked slate on opening weekend? Really tough to say. I'm going to go, I'm very curious about Giants and how they open the season. Just with, you know, being one of the two newcomers. Because I didn't, I don't think I watched anything that they did last year. So, yeah. I think all around though, very curious about the newcomers in general. I do know you need to have nots, because I played against them last year. I know they've got a fair few different players this year, but, and obviously we know, we know Freddie, because we see the boys. I mean, I am very, after the back of what happened last year, I'm very interested in London. London Derby between Veneris and side out again on opening weekend. Obviously that one went to a two and a half hours, 217 digs or whatever it was. We had players leaving mid game to go get trains. I can't believe I forgot about that. Yeah, but obviously a lot of heavyweight matchups. As for dynamic men's side opening day, Malawi Eagles will start their season off against Newcastle staffs at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Essex Webberles University of Nottingham at 1 p.m., Richmond Giants at 3 p.m., in an all-Alondon Derby, and then Newcastle Knights will take on the Essex Blaze five o'clock on Saturday, and then Sunday. 10 a.m. Nottingham Mallory in a rematch of the bronze medal game from last year's staffs versus Blaze at midday. 4 p.m. Essex Blaze Richmond Docklands. But yes, 2 p.m., London Giants and Newcastle Knights a rematch of a last year's gold medal game, and the last day of the season to the side, who would get that number one seed into the final four? 2 p.m. Sunday, that is one everyone should have circled on their cards. Yes, that is going to be a massive match. Very curious about that. I mean, Giants have obviously a strong roster. Newcastle retained a fair few really good players. They've made some good signings. That will be a spicy one to start us off. But yeah, again, on the men's side as well, I'm very curious to watch the newcomers. Like we mentioned before, I did get to watch Blaze a couple of times last season. I think I caught the last half of a set of Newcastle staffs once, but yeah, it'll be interesting to see what these teams bring to the fold. Yeah, I think Blaze probably not the bingo card to get Newcastle first gave the season. But I think that Blaze Richman game to wrap up the weekend could be very interesting indeed. Obviously, we talked about the experience, Blaze, about it. But I think that's about it. I think I can't say people are going to get a board of voices if not we're in trouble. We're the only one episode in. But as we said, we're coming up on the timeout podcast. We will preview both the Marry Women's Super League and Dynamic Men's Super League in full before opening weekend. We appreciate everyone listening. Don't forget like and subscribe, I believe. But the first time we might be going out on Apple podcast as well to make it a little bit more accessible. But from Jess Smith and myself, Michael Hansomice, thank you very much for listening. And we'll be with you in about 10 days time to preview the start of the Super League season.