Then all the planning and hard work came tumbling down with the arrival of Covid-19 in Australia and across the world in February. The imports headed home to the United States and the season was put on hold until further notice.

What to do? Why not enter a team in the Maitland Netball Association competition and have some fun with good friends.

And so, under the umbrella of West Rutherford Telarah Netball Club, the Stangas were formed.

After six games they are unbeaten and sit on top of the table, one game clear of competition heavyweights Hills Solicitors and The George Tavern and up and comers NVY Comets.

"We had some American imports and they had to go back overseas and we had some injuries so we thought it would be best to pull the pin on this year and have a fresh start for next year," Stangas player Amy Carey said of the decision not to enter the team when Basketball NSW decided to resume the statewide competition in July.

"We thought with Covid still pretty rampant in Sydney we weren't super comfortable travelling around the state every weekend.

"We pulled out of the NSW comp for basketball but still wanted to play, so we decided to put in for netball.

"We just really have a great time with each other and love hanging out. We're just happy that we can still play together and hang out every weekend. We're just having fun with it."

The transition has been pretty smooth, but with a number of first time netballers there are still some problems with stopping.

"We've got some very experienced and very inexperienced netballers," Carey said.

"But being able to play basketball makes it quite easy to transition into netball.

"Hopefully everyone doesn't hate playing us too much as we play a bit different to normal netball teams.

"We are a bit more physical, not that we mean to be. It's just that in basketball you are used to being more physical against the people you are marking."

Stangas are the only unbeaten team after NVY Comets defeated The George 50-31 last Saturday.

The Comets are the first team to achieve wins over The George and Hills Solicitors in the same season since at least 2014.

Stangas took their record to six wins from six games when they overcame last year's grand finalist Club Maitland City 36-30 in the Wests derby last Saturday.

Hills Solicitors reasserted their status as a competition power with a 66-26 win against Customs House Hotel to sit third, equal on 21 points with The George (second) and Comets (fourth).

EMNC Rebels, who had a 51-26 win over the Bradford, and Club Maitland City are just three points outside the top four but both very much in the mix for finals.