Next Thursday marks the opening round of the 2012 WRSL, which is the most popular regional state league competition in Victoria.

Netball Victoria competitions co-ordinator Alex Poulton was pleased with the response from south-west netballers.

“We usually only take eight teams in each division, in the open and 17 and under. However, this year we’ve taken nine teams in open,” she said.

“We had such a big interest in it and thought that we could do it, so why not?”

The 17 and under grade has attracted a capacity eight teams, making Western Regional State League the largest of the regional state league competitions.

“It’s such a big region and there’s a lot of opportunities down there,” Poulton said.

“Our message about what regional state league is about has finally filtered through and people want to take advantage of the elite competition and have their players exposed to it.”

Netball Victoria will again run its Premiers Challenge, which sees the triumphant teams from each of the four regional state league competitions play off in Melbourne.

Last year, Hampden took out the inaugural Premiers Challenge final, which was played as a curtain-raiser to a Melbourne Vixens game.

The 2012 decider will again be played before a Vixens home game.

Like last year, the 17 and under Western Regional State League will have three weeks of finals, while the open division finals have been reduced to two weeks.

There will be two knockout semi-finals, with the winners to play off in the grand final in late March.

New teams in this year’s competition are South West District Football Netball League, which has entered sides in both grades, and Camperdown Night Netball Association and Port Fairy Netball Association, which are both in the open division.