What Is a Short Pass in Netball?

Short pass is one of the least commonly called rules in netball, and one of the most misunderstood — there's no fixed distance written into the rulebook.

The rule in plain English

A pass between two players must leave enough space on court for a defender to genuinely attempt to deflect or intercept it as it travels from the passer's hands to the receiver's (Rule 12.1). There's no fixed distance — the umpire judges whether there was genuinely enough space for an opponent to get to the ball. World Netball's 2024 short pass FAQ adds two clarifications: the space has to be enough for any opposing player, not necessarily the closest one; and a set-up where attackers screen one defender isn't a short pass if there's still room for another opponent to deflect or intercept. Most often this comes up when two players stand very close together and hand the ball between themselves.

Two related situations are also treated as a short pass:

• Two teammates grab the ball at almost the same time. The player who got it first must keep it; if the second player ends up with the ball, it's a short pass (Rule 12.2).
• Passing the ball onto the goalpost and catching it yourself. There must be enough space for an opponent to intercept between your hands, the post and your hands again — this matters particularly at a throw-in under the post.

A simple example

Two attacking players stand less than a metre apart, with a defender several metres away, and repeatedly pass the ball directly between themselves to run down the clock or shuffle position. Because the defender never had a realistic chance to contest those passes, this can be called short pass.

Why it's rarely called

In normal play, players rarely pass to someone close enough that an opponent couldn't get between them, so this call is uncommon. The 2024 rules changed the wording from whether an opponent could intercept "by a hand" to whether there's enough space for an opponent to deflect or intercept — which lets umpires consider whether a genuine attempt was possible.

What the umpire is looking for

The umpire is judging whether there was genuinely enough space on court for a defender to deflect or intercept the pass, not measuring distance with any precision — the question is whether a defender in a normal position could realistically have contested it, given where both players and any nearby defenders were standing.

Restart

Short pass is restarted with a free pass to the non-offending team, taken from where the second player received the ball.

Common misunderstandings

• "There's a minimum distance in metres." There isn't — this is a judgement call based on fairness of contest, not a measured distance like the 0.9m obstruction rule.
• "It wasn't deliberate." Intent doesn't matter — the question is whether there was enough space for an opponent to deflect or intercept.

Player tips

• Focus on playing to genuinely beat your defender rather than deliberately shuffling the ball at very close range to run down time.
• If you and a teammate are both very tightly marked in the same small area, look to reset with a longer pass rather than exchanging short ones repeatedly.

Umpire tips

• Judge the space between passer and receiver, not just how close the nearest defender happened to be.

Related rules

Short pass sits alongside over a third as one of the less common ball-control rules, both aimed at keeping the ball genuinely contestable rather than artificially protected.