EPISODE ONE

The Making of a Team

A team is more than the people named on its roster. As Birmingham Panthers enter their second season with a new head coach and a changing group of players, the opening episode introduces the people responsible for shaping the club on and off the court.

From Executive Chair Alison Kay and Interim CEO Will Collinson to head coach Sonia Mkoloma, The Making of a Team explores the leadership, personalities and expectations behind the Panthers. It also follows the development of the team’s visual identity through the design of its dress, considering how a new club begins to define what it represents.

EPISODE TWO

Sisterhood

Behind every performance are the relationships that hold a team together. Sisterhood considers friendship, trust and mutual support within elite sport, revealing how connection is built between players whose lives and careers have brought them to Birmingham from across the world.

For some, being teammates also means sharing a home and spending much of their lives together away from training. The episode explores the closeness and occasional intensity of living and working alongside one another, as well as the importance of knowing that, once they step onto the court, their teammates will be there for them.

EPISODE THREE

Body and Mind

Elite sport places demands on the whole person. From training, injury and recovery to confidence, pressure and emotional resilience, Body and Mind examines what professional athletes ask of themselves and what is required when the body or mind does not respond as expected.

In a season in which results frequently went against the Panthers, resilience became more than a sporting cliché. The episode considers how players and staff process disappointment, maintain belief and continue to perform when progress is not immediately reflected on the scoreboard.

EPISODE FIVE

Dual Lives

For many women in elite sport, being an athlete is only one part of life. Although the Netball Super League is moving towards greater professionalisation, the financial and structural realities of the sport mean that many players continue to combine netball with work, study, family responsibilities and preparation for life beyond competition.

Dual Lives follows the different worlds the Panthers move between, examining the ambition, discipline and practical compromises required to sustain an elite sporting career.

EPISODE FOUR

Game Day

From training and team talks to travel, preparation and the final moments before taking the court, Game Day moves inside the rhythms of professional competition.

The episode follows the players and coaches through the routines, decisions, superstitions and emotions surrounding a match, capturing the experience from within the team rather than simply from the stands. It reveals how much happens before the opening whistle and how quickly preparation gives way to instinct once the game begins.

EPISODE SIX

What’s Next

Every season eventually reaches the point at which a team must look beyond it. As players and staff reflect on what has changed, What’s Next turns to contract conversations, selection decisions and the uncertainty that follows the final game.

With short-term contracts and limited security remaining a reality across netball, the episode considers what it means to build a life around a career that can change between seasons. It explores progress, ambition and the different futures taking shape both within and beyond the sport.

COMPANION FILMS

Behind the Design

The Birmingham Panthers dress becomes an entry point into the creative process behind modern performance design. Featuring emerging designers Zoe Bennett and Rohan Scott, Behind the Design traces the ideas, references, sketches, fabrics and decisions that transformed an initial brief into the identity worn by the team on court.

More than a film about a netball dress, it is a portrait of two young designers and an exploration of the space where sport, fashion and technical design meet.

Girl Talk

Girl Talk creates space for the conversations that happen around sport rather than within its formal settings. In the first film, former Panthers teammates Gabby Coffey and Sigi Burger talk about netball, life and the experiences surrounding their careers while getting their nails done together.

The setting carries its own connection to the sport: players have their nails checked by the umpire before taking the court, a ritual familiar to many women from their earliest experiences of playing netball at school.

Informal and personality-led, the format allows friendship and conversation to unfold naturally, revealing sides of the women that audiences rarely encounter through competition alone.