Sydney Sirens launched as Super Netball's newest identity — but another Sydney Sirens already exists
Giants Netball is no more. On 19 August 2026, the Super Netball club relaunched as the Sydney Sirens — new name, new colours, new ownership — and immediately collided with an unexpected complication: a Sydney Sirens ice hockey team has been playing under that banner for 20 years.
The Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), known through its media brand SEN, took on the licence of the soon-to-be-defunct Giants and unveiled the Sirens identity ahead of the 2027 Super Netball season. SEG already owns one other Super Netball franchise, the Melbourne Mavericks, plus two WNBL basketball clubs and New Zealand radio network Mediaworks, which it purchased for about NZ$130m (The Guardian).
The rebrand was announced on the Giants Netball website under the headline "Sydney Sirens rise: new name, new colours, new era," dated 18 August 2026 (giantsnetball.com.au). Fox Sports confirmed the ownership change and reported netball mid-courter Amy Sligar as the club's first signing on a three-year deal, announced at the relaunch (Fox Sports). Sligar is a wing attack and centre — positions that drive the ball through the middle third and feed the shooters.
The complication is the name. The Sydney Sirens are a founding member of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL), which launched in 2007. They have won three championships. Their president, Dawn Watt, was the team's first coach and designed the original logo; a player suggested the name when the team was formed (The Guardian).
The ice hockey Sirens compete through the Australian summer — training starts in early October, games in early November. They have two decades of history behind them.
Contact between the two parties came late. SEG's owners first reached out to Watt on the evening of Tuesday 18 August — the night before the public announcement. A trademark application for "Sydney Sirens" had been filed with IP Australia about two weeks earlier (The Guardian).
The Guardian had already flagged the potential clash, reporting on 10 August that a naming dispute was brewing between the incoming netball club and the established ice hockey side (The Guardian).
For netball fans, the Sirens replace a Giants identity that has carried through the Super Netball era but will now fold under new ownership. Sligar's recommitment signals roster stability amid the name change. For the ice hockey Sirens, the stakes are different — protecting a name and brand built over two decades, across a sport with a fraction of netball's profile but a proud community following.
Two Sydney Sirens, two sports, one name. How that gets resolved is the story to watch.
