Lightning's Ella Clark dreaming of Grand FInal at O2 Arena

It's often said that all roads lead to Rome but for Loughborough Lightning's Ella Clark, the only place she wants to be come July is the O2 Arena.

The iconic venue is set to host the Netball Super League Grand Final for the first time in history, and Clark is determined to ensure Lightning are playing their part and not watching from the sidelines.

For Clark, there is no stage as prestigious as the O2 Arena and she is dreaming of making history as Lightning look to complete a record hat-trick of title triumphs.

“We’ve always had a big hunger and want to win,” said Clark. “Some people have been here since they were bottom of the table and have seen Loughborough grow and the culture and mindset change; once you’ve won, you always want to win more.

“Now we’ve got the added motivation of being the first team to ‘threepeat’.

“It’ll be the first time that the Grand Final will be played at the O2 so it’d be quite the feat to be the first team to win there.

“I'm originally from London and the O2 is the pinnacle of arenas in England. You’ve got Wembley for football but it is the O2 for anything else.”

One of the other sports often featured at the O2 is basketball, the sport where Clark initially made her mark.

And this weekend will see one of her former teams, Leicester Riders, playing in the Super League Basketball finals at the venue.

Goal attack Clark hails from a sporting family, with her brother Daniel a former Great Britain international basketball player and her father Mark previously head coach of the Great Britain women's basketball team.

And it was basketball Clark initially chose to focus on as she made the difficult decision to step away from netball after earning a full scholarship to California State University, Long Beach.

She added: “I tried to play both as long as possible, so I played both from about 11 until I went to university in America.

“Obviously, they don't play netball, so I had to make a decision between doing both and staying in England or having a full scholarship abroad.

“I chose the latter and I spent four years in Long Beach in California. Collegiate sport in America is massive and living in California was lovely. I genuinely don’t think I wore a coat for four years and I was 15 minutes from the beach but it was intense.

“There were good parts and hard parts but I've made lifelong friends and I wouldn't change anything about the experience.”

But netball was never far from Clark's mind and having initially represented London Mavericks, then known as Hertfordshire Mavericks, before heading stateside.

She returned to the netball court with Lightning eight years later, where she has won two NSL titles as a player in 2021 and 2024.

Clark can also boast another Super League title as a coach, having joined Vic Burgess’ coaching staff for the 2023 season as she recovered from an ACL injury sustained in the 2022 final.

Clark represented Great Britain in basketball before earning her first senior cap for the Roses in 2017, and the attacker believes her life experiences have helped her excel at both sports.

“I started with basketball really young because I’ve from a basketball family but then my mum used to work at a school that had a netball hub attached so she dropped me there first so she could do extra work when I was about 11 or 12,” she explained.

“When I was playing both sports, it was fine aside from little differences in footwork but when I came back to netball after a six-year hiatus, that was a bigger adjustment.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to put Super League coach on my CV because not many people can say that they’ve done that.

“It also helped me evolve as a player and I’m really grateful to Vic and staff for giving me the opportunity to learn from them and how it works in the background with things players don’t necessarily see day-to-day.”

Watch Lightning and the stars of NSL 2025 live in action - purchase your club tickets today. For the ultimate showdown, secure your seat at the 2025 Grand Final at The O2, London!

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Picture credit: Ben Lumley