What game management actions can I take, and how do suspensions and orderings off work?
Rule- South Africa
- Netball South Africa
- World Netball Rules 2024
- Senior
- 2026
- Umpires
World Netball Rule 18. On top of the sanction for the infringement, you can use:
- Proactive advice: short, specific feedback, without holding time. You can also hold time and ask the on-court captain to speak to the player. Having to speak to a player more than once counts as repeated infringing.
- Advance and/or escalate: move the sanction up to half a third (into the goal circle if it happened in the goal third) and/or turn a free pass into a penalty pass. Multiple advanced sanctions for one player, or cumulative ones for a team, mean the next infringer must be warned.
- Warning: only one per player per match. A warning is compulsory for any unsporting behaviour.
- Suspension: the player sits out 2 minutes of playing time, starting when play restarts, at the umpires' bench under the reserve umpire. No substitute (if it's the Centre, someone moves to Centre). Only one suspension per player per match. They (or a substitute) return to the same position at the next break in play.
- Ordering off: the player takes no further part. The team plays short for 4 minutes of playing time, then a substitute may come on at the next break in play.
Order of use: normally in that sequence, but go straight to a higher level for serious offences. You must suspend for dangerous play, and must order off for intentional or highly reckless dangerous play.
How to give a warning, suspension or ordering off: hold time, give the hand signal to the official bench, use the word ("warning", "suspension" or "ordering off") and tell the player why. It must be applied in the same period of play as the infringement, and counts as a joint decision of both umpires.
Added 22 Oct 2026