Netball Sanctions Explained

Most netball infringements are dealt with by a straightforward free pass or penalty pass. Foul play is different: on top of the restart, the umpires use a separate, escalating set of game management actions. The 2024 rules set out the principles — umpires apply the rules fairly, communicate clearly and stay calm and decisive, with player safety the paramount consideration — and any action must be proportionate to how serious the behaviour was.

What counts as foul play

The 2024 rules group foul play into three categories (Rule 19):

• Unfair play — delaying play, intentional infringing, repeated infringing, disputing a ruling, and intimidation. Penalised with a penalty pass that is advanced.
• Unsporting behaviour — retaliation, abusive language or gestures towards anyone in the playing enclosure, and other actions contrary to good sporting behaviour. Penalised with a penalty pass plus a warning or suspension — or ordering off in a serious case.
• Dangerous play — any unnecessarily forceful, careless, reckless or dangerous action that could affect another player's safety, including anything resulting in head or neck contact. Penalised with a penalty pass plus a suspension, or ordering off in a serious case. Intentional or highly reckless dangerous play must always be an ordering off.

Asking an umpire to repeat a call you didn't hear, or where a sanction is to be taken, isn't disputing a ruling — that's allowed.

The escalation ladder

Umpires normally work through these actions in order (Rule 18.8):

1. Proactive advice. For low-level incidents that don't threaten player safety, specific, succinct feedback to change the behaviour — often without stopping play. The umpire can also hold time and ask the on-court captain to speak to the player. If a player has to be spoken to more than once, it's treated as repeated infringing.
2. Advance and/or escalate the sanction. Move it up to half a third forward — into the goal circle, if the infringement was in the goal third — and/or turn a free pass into a penalty pass. A player with several advanced or escalated sanctions must be warned; so must the next infringer from a team that has built up several.
3. Warning. The player is told that suspension will follow if they carry on. A warning must be given for all unsporting behaviour. Only one warning per player per match.
4. Suspension. The player takes no part for two minutes of playing time, starting when play restarts, seated at the umpires' bench. No substitute: the position stays empty — unless it's the Centre, in which case another player must move to Centre. A suspension must be given for dangerous play (unless it's serious enough for ordering off). Only one suspension per player per match.
5. Ordering off. The player takes no further part in the match. The team plays a player short for four minutes of playing time, after which a substitute may come on at the next break in play.

After a suspension, either the suspended player or a substitute can return at the next break in play, in the original position. Suspended and ordered-off players may join their team during an interval, but go back to the umpires' bench when play restarts.

How a warning, suspension or ordering off is given

The umpire (Rule 18.10):

1. holds time and signals to the official bench with the relevant hand signal — arms crossed above the head for a warning, two fingers raised for a suspension, a sweep towards the team bench for ordering off;
2. uses the specific term: "warning", "suspension" or "ordering off";
3. tells the player what behaviour the action is for.

The action has to be applied in the same period of play as the infringement — or, if it happened during an interval, as soon as the next period starts.

Suspension or ordering off?

For dangerous play, the rules list factors the umpires consider when deciding between the two (Rule 19.12):

• Was the action intentional, reckless or avoidable?
• Did it have a low or high impact on player safety?
• Was it at low or high speed, on the ground or in the air?
• Was it low or high force?
• Did it happen while stationary or moving?

Umpire authority

A warning, suspension or ordering off counts as a joint decision of both umpires and binds the co-umpire (Rule 18.11). If the co-umpire sees serious foul play the controlling umpire missed — and no sanction has already been given — they can blow to hold time, describe what they saw and recommend an action; the controlling umpire makes the final decision and restarts play (Rule 18.12).

Team officials and bench players

The bench has its own rules (Rule 18.43–47). During play, team officials and bench players must stay at the team bench (bench players may leave it for a valid reason, such as warming up) — otherwise it's a free pass to the other team, called as "bench movement". And at any point in the match, they must not criticise the umpires or their decisions, use offensive or abusive language or gestures, make excessive noise, encourage foul play, or come onto the court except where player safety is in danger — a penalty pass, called as "bench behaviour".

The umpires can also warn a specific person or the whole bench. If that's ignored, they ask the event organiser to remove the person from the playing enclosure for the rest of the match — and in a serious case, they can do so without a warning first.

How this differs from a penalty pass

A penalty pass is the restart for a specific infringement such as contact or obstruction. Game management actions are an additional consequence for foul play, applied on top of the sanction for the infringement itself. For players and parents, the practical point is that a warning is a formal signal to change behaviour immediately — the next step is playing a player short.

Sources

All information on this page is given to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing (October 2026), after referring to the official sources below.

• World Netball: Rules of Netball, 2024 edition — Rule 18 (game management), Rule 19 (foul play) and "Umpire hand signals".