Understanding Centre Pass Stats: What CPA and CPD Actually Tell You

What are CPA and CPD?

Centre Pass Attack (CPA) and Centre Pass Defence (CPD) are two of the most important team-level metrics you can track in netball. Together they tell you how efficiently your team converts possession into scoring opportunities — and how well you disrupt your opponent when they have the ball.

CPA measures how often your team scores from its own centre pass. A high CPA means your attacking structure is working — you're moving the ball through centre court and converting possession into shots.

CPD measures how often your team prevents the opponent from scoring from their centre pass. A high CPD means your defensive pressure is disrupting their attacking patterns and forcing turnovers.

What does a good CPA look like?

Elite netball teams typically convert 65–75% of their own centre passes. At grassroots level, you might see anything from 45% to 80% depending on the age group and level of competition.

If your CPA is below 50%, it usually indicates a problem in one of three areas:

• Centre court structure — the transition from the centre circle through the midcourt isn't working
• Defensive pressure in midcourt — the opposition is winning intercepts and tips before you reach the circle
• Circle attack efficiency — you're getting to the circle but not converting to goals

Breaking down CPA by quarter

Tracking CPA per quarter tells you a lot about game management. Common patterns include:

• Declining CPA as the game progresses — often a fitness issue, or the opposition adjusting their defensive structure mid-game
• Low CPA in Q1 — nerves, slow start, or the opposition has studied your attacking patterns
• High CPA spike in Q3 — often correlates with positional changes made at half time

How CPD drives momentum

Centre pass defence doesn't just prevent opposition goals — it creates your own scoring opportunities. Every time you win a turnover from an opposition centre pass, you effectively swap a potential 1-goal deficit for a potential 1-goal advantage. That's a 2-goal swing.

Teams with consistently high CPD tend to build their leads quickly early in quarters and can break open close games in the third quarter when fitness advantages emerge.

Practical implications for training

Once you have CPA and CPD data over several games, patterns emerge that can directly inform training priorities:

• If CPA drops after Q2, add pressure-under-fatigue drills to training
• If CPD is low across the season, your midcourt defensive structure needs attention
• If CPA varies significantly between home and away games, look at how your team responds to different crowd and pressure environments

Tracking these stats with GameStats

GameStats tracks CPA and CPD automatically — you don't need to do any manual calculation. Each centre pass is recorded as a separate event, and the dashboard shows your rolling conversion rates by quarter and player combination in real time.

After the game, you can compare across your season to see how these metrics trend over time, which player combinations produce the best CPA, and how your CPD compares to your opponents' CPA.