2025 London Pulse
London Pulse’s 2025 Netball Superleague team has been announced.
Australian mid court star Tyler Orr, England Futures attacker Sophie Kelly and highly-rated teenage talent Gracie Smith join a host of returning stars – headlined by defensive superstar Funmi Fadoju – in London Pulse’s 2025 Superleague squad.
Kicking off a day of squad announcements for the new look NSL, Pulse can confirm the 10 players selected for the squad with the three new arrivals joined by an established core of seven retained names.
Funmi Fadoju, Halimat Adio, Zara Everitt, Alicia Scholes and Olivia Tchine, have all played key roles in taking Pulse to the playoffs in each of the last three seasons and all five are back to lead the challenge in Pink and Black again.
“To have players that are representing the Roses, players that have come through and grown in our club to become international players and superstars – we are very proud of them all,” head coach and CEO Sam Bird said.
“We are very committed to their development, we are known as a club that supports our athletes in England programmes – we will give them what they need to thrive in an England environment.”
Darcie Everitt returns after a breakthrough debut season to continue her emergence and maintain the club’s traditions in nurturing it’s brightest prospects and Nichole Breedt (nee Taljaard), is back after a strong first season in the pink and black.
New for 2025 are a trio of recruits that bring plenty of excitement to all three areas of the court.
Tyler Orr makes the move from Super Netball in Australia. Following three seasons as a training partner with the Adelaide Thunderbirds she spent 2024 as the 11th player in their championship winning campaign.
The 24-year-old centre moves to the UK with the ambition of playing regular top level netball and fulfils Sam Bird’s major offseason objective of a world class mid court arrival.
“I have had my eye on Tyler for a while, she’s played for Australia at junior level and is a real hard worker,” Bird said.
“She has been used to feeding Romelda Aitken-George at her club and she was really what we were looking for in a centre with an attacking ability to feed a really tall shooter.
“On reflection from last season while we were strong defensively we just needed a bit more attacking power and lots of our statistics showed that.
“Once Tyler saw our squad, and our retained list, she was really excited to come and we are really looking forward to getting her over here.”
Also new for the 2025 season is former Surrey Storm and Team Bath attacker Sophie Kelly, who at the age of 20 has already got four seasons of experience in the NSL.
She joins Olivia Tchine and Nicole Breedt in the circle, with Bird identifying what Kelly will bring to the squad.
“Sophie has been selected for England Futures, she is a good long range shooter and completely different to Nichole which is what we want – we want different styles of players.
“I think she will really shine in our attack end, playing alongside Alicia and Nichole with that speed around a dominant shooter in Liv to sight and find.
“I’ve had lots of really good positive conversations with her, she is another player who is ready to push on to the next level.”
The final new face underlines the Pulse commitment to growing, developing and allowing young talent to thrive.
Gracie Smith has yet to make her NSL debut, and will be 16 when the 2025 competition starts but Bird believes the mid-court talent has what it take to thrive, while offering the club’s young stars a glimpse of the future and opportunity open to them.
“She is such an amazing young talent, a really rangy player, she’s got arms for days and a really good athletic ability that suits our DNA,” Bird added.
“A natural ball winner, strong through the court and when we were looking at a centre/wing defence to come in, we were looking around at some of the older players but Gracie will thrive in this environment
“She’s ready to step up and play, she is very coachable and she fits the mould of other young athletes we have taken on before – Zara, Funmi, Liv they all started young.
“There’s no pressure from us on her, she is free to shine and she is committed to us and she is someone we can work on and work with and she will be a challenge for players and will slow up opposition attack.”
Retaining key players, who have provided the bedrock of a title chasing squad, was the main priority in a signing window like no other.
While there was plenty of speculation, Bird and her trusted team stuck to the club’s values and ethos to come up with a squad to take on the first season of the sport’s exciting new era.
“Fiona and I were really keen to ignore all the white noise and stay true to what we were trying to do for the club,” she said.
“A smaller squad also made us think about how we want to load the 10 – more defenders? More midis? Or more shooters?
“It’s a very Pulse type squad – a mix of world class athletes right down to a couple of rookies who can set the league on fire.”
London Pulse will confirm its squad for the U23 feeder competition in due course – a player roster will be selected to compete, and that can feature up to four players over the age of 23.
Players from the NPL squad will be able to replace athletes in the 10-player NSL where injury, illness or otherwise dictates.
Pulse also wishes to thank the departing players from the 23/24 season and wish them the best of luck for the future, they will always be members of the Pulse family.