The NATIONAL PICKLEBALL LEAGUE is the premier professional pickleball league in Australia. Comprising of the best 108 players in the country across 18 teams in 3 states. Teams face off across 5 rounds of competition in their state conference. The top 8 teams across the country will then fight it out for the glory of becoming the National Pickleball League Champions.
The competition, a national team-based singles & doubles pickleball tournament, officially known as the “National Pickleball League”.
National Pickleball League Pty Ltd (NPL) circulates these Rules for the purpose of providing fair and reasonable rules for the orderly and uniform conduct of The National Pickleball League Season 2.
These rules must be read and applied in conjunction with the Global Pickleball Federation 2024 Official Rulebook (GPFOR) as well as any relevant National Pickleball League (NPL Policy) or Pickleball Australia Policy (PAA Policy).
When a rule of the GPFOR, PAA Policy or NPL Policy is inconsistent with a rule of the NPL Season 2 Rules, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.
Any ambiguity or uncertainty in connection with these rules & policies shall be resolved at the sole discretion of the NPL, acting reasonably and in the interest of the competition. NPL reserves the rights to interpret these regulations, when necessary, in order to resolve particular or unusual circumstances. In addition, it may be necessary to determine the most appropriate procedures to be utilised in special or unusual circumstances.
These regulations take effect from July 23, 2024, and may be varied from time to time by NPL. Any new or revised policy, rule, procedure, or regulation will be published on the NPL website (www.nplpickleball.com.au) and/or notified to (a) tournament organisers and officials by email, and (b) players as part of the tournament information provided.
All persons participating in any way in NPL Season 2 (including players, officials, staff, coaches, representatives, agents, medical staff, relatives and associates of a player, a player’s entourage and spectators) must refrain from making comments, including to representatives of the media or through social media, that attack, disparage or criticise players, organisers, officials or staff of the NPL. Any failure or refusal to do so may be treated as a disciplinary matter, the NPL reserves the right to terminate any and all relationships with the player.
The chain of command for decisions and escalation is:
At each venue the referees are responsible for managing the application of these rules. The tournament director and league director will provide clarification as to the application of these rules and reserve the right overrule these decisions for benefit of the competition.
Where instances arise that lead to dispute, or a question that is not adequately covered players may escalate using the defined chain of command. The League Director will act to uphold the intent of the rules and make judgement that best preserves the integrity of the sport, and the competition. Decisions made by the League Director will be binding.
6 Player
Matches will be played within the state conference for the round portion of the competition. With the finals featuring the top ranked teams from each conference.
A 5 round season will culminate in the finals weekend. All 5 rounds will be played within a teams home state. The rounds will be scheduled to be played over 3 months. The finals will be held over 3 days at The Jar in South Melbourne, Victoria.
NPLeague is NPL’s trademarked teams format. This showcases the best players in Australia across all of pickleball’s formats – Singles, Doubles & Mixed.
Each match is a minimum of 4 sets with a 5th set DillBreaker if required.
*For instances where DUPR rating is clearly inaccurate, the NPL will make a determination as to whom is the listed No.1 player. Teams may make submissions to the league for review of this order
The 3 third placed teams from each state conference play off in a round robin format.
The top 2 playoff teams will be put in a lottery for the finals position. i.e whether they play team 5 or 6. Playoffs will begin at 12pm on Friday 22nd November 2024
In the event of injury, resulting in the inability to continue participating. Teams will be able to use a reserve/alternate player for the remainder of the round.
The minimum break will be 30 minutes. In the event that a match exceeds the allocated 3 hours, match 2 will be delayed to allow the full 30 minute break.
The reserve/alternate list consists of all players registered for the NPL S2 draft but not selected.
In the event a player is unavailable, the team will be able to select a player from the reserves list.
