As good as England had been at this World Cup they did not stand a chance against Australia who rediscovered their winning cultureFor four long years the Australian Diamonds have been haunted by an absence. After securing the Netball World Cup trophy consecutively in 2007, 2011 and 2015, a one-goal loss to the old enemy New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup was painful. That it happened just one year after a devastatingly similar one-goal loss to England at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and swept their trophy cabinet bare, made it all the worse.A four-goal win over Jamaica in the gold medal match at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year appeared to steady the ship and put the team...
The goal shooter never gave up but Australia showed once again why they are the world’s best teamEllie Cardwell has one of the most expressive faces in netball. You can tell when England’s goal shooter is up, because her grin has the wattage of a battleship’s searchlight and at the start of this World Cup final she seemed to encapsulate her team’s confidence and joie de jouer. She sunk a shot from halfway back in the circle, and gestured to the crowd to make some noise. A lightning three-pass move left her in empty space under the net – the goal went in and she stuck two thumbs high in the air.So much had happened in English netball in the...
A thrilling season of skill, innovation and extra-time finals showed netball’s local growth but also built a platform for the game to become truly global“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin was, of course, talking about the evolution of species when he penned these words, but as the Super Netball 2023 season drew to a close over the weekend, the sentiment stood out as particularly relevant.In yet another season where politics, chaos and calamity have dominated the conversations around the Super Netball, casual viewers could be forgiven for not fully appreciating the incredible season that has played out on the court. The 2023 season...
Without its own unique location or a grassroots connection, the Super Netball expansion club faced challenges from the outsetAs the sun set on the ANZ Championship in 2016, the most salient question centred around where three new teams would come from to form a standalone Australian competition. Five Australian teams participated in the trans-Tasman league, all of which had history dating back to the start of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy in 1997 and were owned by their respective state netball associations.Things moved quickly and with little time to build the kind of following those existing teams had, Netball Australia made it clear the new teams should have the ability to bring in their own fanbases. This resulted in the granting...
Eleven of the 12 Commonwealth champions make the cut with coach Stacey Marinkovich confident despite absence of star shooter Gretel Bueta“Better the gold medallist you know” appears to be the motto adopted by Australian Diamonds’ coach Stacey Marinkovich after she named a surprise-free, 19-player squad for the World Cup.Despite calls from some quarters to add and adjust, Marinkovich and selectors Anne Sargeant and Michelle Wilkins resisted the temptation to tinker and named 11 of the 12 players from last year’s triumphant Commonwealth Games campaign – minus the pregnant Gretel Bueta – and added seven existing squad members. Continue reading...