PORTRAIT OF A TEAM
Portrait of a Team is an original documentary series from Hengistbury exploring what it means to belong to a team in women’s sport. Moving beyond results and league tables, each season follows one team over time, documenting the people, relationships and realities behind the performance.
The first season follows Birmingham Panthers through their second year in the Netball Super League. Across six episodes, the series captures a team navigating change, demanding schedules and a difficult season, asking what progress looks like when it cannot be measured by the scoreboard alone.
Filmed in 2026, the series captures a season in English netball in the year of England Netball’s centenary. A hundred years after the formation of the All England Women’s Net Ball Association, it offers a record of what life inside one of the country’s leading netball teams looked like as the domestic game moves towards full professionalisation. In a year when netball was also the most-attended sport at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the series documents the domestic realities behind a sport attracting growing attention.
BIRMINGHAM PANTHERS
Birmingham Panthers are a professional netball club representing Birmingham and the wider West Midlands in the Netball Super League (NSL). Established in 2024, the Panthers entered the competition in 2025 as one of two new franchises introduced for the league’s relaunch and move towards a more professional model.
In 2025, Knighthead Capital Management acquired a majority stake in the club, bringing the Panthers into its growing portfolio of Birmingham sporting interests alongside Birmingham City Football Club and Birmingham Phoenix. The investment connected the newly established netball franchise to Knighthead’s broader ambitions for sport, infrastructure and regeneration across the city.
The 2026 season was the Panthers’ second in the NSL and their first under head coach Sonia Mkoloma. The first season of Portrait of a Team explores the realities of elite sport from within the Birmingham Panthers team, as they compete in the only women-led sport.
HENGISTBURY
Hengistbury is an independent editorial company dedicated to women in sport. Through original film, photography, interviews and written features, it documents the athletes, ideas and cultural forces shaping sport today.
Influenced by fashion, art and cinema as much as traditional sports media, Hengistbury looks beyond competition to present athletes as whole people and explore the identities, ambitions and lives surrounding performance. Its recent coverage has spanned the Tour de France Femmes, the Solheim Cup and ATHLOS, alongside original studio formats and long-form documentary production.
Portrait of a Team is Hengistbury’s original documentary franchise. Following one team across a season, it explores the people, relationships and realities behind the results. The first six-part series follows Birmingham Panthers through their second season in the Netball Super League.
THE NETBALL SUPER LEAGUE
The Netball Super League (NSL) is the highest level of domestic netball in the UK. Established in 2005 and operated by England Netball, the competition entered a new era in 2025 with a major relaunch intended to support the sport’s transition towards a fully professional and commercially sustainable future.
Eight teams from England and Wales compete in the league, bringing together leading British and international players in ten-player senior squads. Each team plays the others at home and away across a 14-round regular season, before the top four progress to the play-offs and Grand Final. The season runs from late winter into early summer; in 2026, league competition began in February and concluded with the Grand Final in June.
The NSL remains an elite competition in the process of professionalisation rather than a fully professional league. Its 2025 relaunch introduced increased minimum payments, a salary-cap and banding structure, and significantly higher average player salaries. However, many athletes continue to balance netball with employment, education and other responsibilities away from the court.
The signing window and player eligibility in the NSL
The NSL registration window usually runs from the day after the Grand Final until 31 August. Clubs can renew existing players’ contracts during the season, but approaches about recruiting a player registered with another NSL team for the following season can only happen during the window.
Clubs begin the season with ten registered players, including a maximum of two overseas players. Those two players cannot occupy the same positional group (shooting, mid-court or defence) on court simultaneously.
Players holding a UK passport, settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or indefinite leave to remain are classified as domestic. A player raised abroad who holds a UK passport can therefore join without taking up an overseas place, regardless of which country they represent internationally.
NETBALL
Netball is a fast, seven-a-side court sport built around movement, precision and rapid decision-making. The game developed from early forms of basketball during the late nineteenth century and has grown into one of the world’s most widely played women’s team sports, with approximately 13 million active players across 120 countries.
A netball court is divided into thirds, with each player assigned one of seven specialist positions that determines where they may move. The ball is advanced entirely by passing: players cannot dribble or run with it and must pass or shoot within three seconds. Only the Goal Shooter and Goal Attack can score, and every shot must be taken from inside the shooting circle. A standard match lasts 60 minutes, divided into four 15-minute quarters.
Netball has a particularly significant place in women’s sporting life in the UK. According to England Netball, approximately 3.05 million adults and children participate each year, with more than 819,000 playing weekly. It is the most popular team sport for women in England and the country’s third most popular team sport overall.
