Karen Greig has revealed the steps Manchester Thunder have taken to ensure there is a solid foundation to come back to when the Vitality Netball Superleague resumes.
At the end of March the franchise announced their decision to take up the government's option of support during the coronavirus pandemic and added they will be topping up the remaining 20 per cent of players and coaches' wages.
"This will ensure the business can continue to keep its on and off court team together and, once the restrictions on social distancing are lifted, resume our work," CEO Debbie Hallas said.
Greig, speaking to Sky Sports on Off The Court, explained more about the decision and why it was taken.
"As a franchise we are a bit of a standalone franchise, so we don't have the connections of a university, a rugby club or anything like that," the former England international said. "So, for us our income streams are heavily reliant on sponsorship and ticket sales."
"While we haven't got that coming in at the moment, it was really important for the club to be able to still support us and make sure that we've got a good solid foundation to come back to one the league starts again."
The Thunder's statement also highlighted the outward impact for fans in terms of not seeing their players across their social media channels.
Other clubs have followed - Surrey Storm, Saracens Mavericks and Celtic Dragons - and Greig shares what it means for her regarding contact time with her players from a coaching perspective.
"It's difficult really because you obviously still want to be in touch with the players to see how they are and how they are coping with it both mentally and physically," she said.
"But, unless the players pick up the phone and just want to have a general chat, we're not able to work along [coaching] lines.
"We've prepared them as best as we can and we've just got to trust that whilst they're at home, that they'll be doing as much training as possible."
At this moment in time, the Vitality Netball Superleague board are continuing to assess scenarios regarding the resumption of the season and there is a meeting scheduled for mid-April between the board and the franchises.
Former England head coach Tracey Neville has explained what she feels needs to happen with Sky Sports and Greig is in agreement with her friend and former colleague that a full season is needed.
"I'd love to play out the league. Ultimately, we've put in a long, hard pre-season. The girls and the staff behind the scenes have worked tremendously hard, I think there has to be a way in which we can finish this league off and get it played out," she said.
"What that looks like in terms of connecting alongside the international calendar, I'm not too sure?
"In my dream world, that is what I would want but obviously it's all in the hands of the Superleague and the contingency meetings that are happening at the moment."
With Thunder's position as it is, with regards to being them more of a standalone franchise, Greig explained how a shortened Superleague season could potentially impact them.
"It would be huge. You look at the sponsorship that we've brought in already this season, and I'm not 100 per cent sure of what those contracts look like, but we could end up losing that money from sponsorship," she said.
"We're obviously losing a lot of money from ticket sales. So, for us it would be massive.
"We were lucky enough to get a backer to input some money into us over the off-season. That's been huge for us, without that backing we could have been in a very different situation.
"While it would be the end of the world necessarily [to not play it out], it would have a massive impact in terms of what we were able to do moving forwards in terms of supporting the players. Not only, at Superleague level but throughout pathway as well."
Watch the full episode of Off The Court on the Sky Sports YouTube channel as Caroline Barker and Tamsin Greenway are joined by a wealth of guests to look at netball's key topics each week.