Netball news 2023: Matilda Garrett stars as Australian Diamonds defeat South Africa 62-43
Earlier this year, Matilda Garrett wasn’t sure she would make the Thunderbirds’ starting side. Now she’s a Diamonds debutant and World Cup project player.
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Earlier this year, Matilda Garrett wasn’t sure she would make the Adelaide Thunderbirds’ starting side.
Less than 12 months on, Garrett has not only played a leading hand in helping the T-Birds to a maiden Super Netball premiership, she’s made her Diamonds debut and showed she’s a player coach Stacey Marinkovich will want to keep in her plans for the next World Cup in 2027.
Garrett came off the bench in the third quarter of Australia’s 62-43 win against South Africa in the opening match of their three-game series in Cairns, finishing with two gains from two intercepts in a strong showing.
Injected at goal defence alongside Sarah Klau, the 186cm Garrett made the most of her strong footwork and big armspan to nullify the Proteas’ shooters.
“She got some good touches to ball and that’s what you expect from defenders when they go out there,” Marinkovich said.
“I think to be able to embrace that moment … hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to work since we’ve been here but did a good job at camp and that’s why she’s on this tour.
“And I think as we have said, you earn the dress, she stepped out there and you take your chances and she left a mark on the court.”
With Courtney Bruce, who did not play at all on Wednesday night, turning 30 at the end of the year and Klau and Jo Weston 30 next year, Marinkovich has to look to the future and it will include Garrett.
Her two gains came in the minutes after she took the court and she grew from there, with Marinkovich pleased with her efforts.
But the coach said she did not look simply at the age of players to determine how long they should continue.
“To be honest, I probably don’t factor in on age – it’s probably how they’re going physically and I guess the girls are in really good shape,” Marinkovich said.
“But I think it is good to have a really good balance. I think we do need to keep working on what’s new, we need to look at the different variety – particularly when the opposition has seen us for quite some time.
“You want a really competitive environment. That’s where I think the Diamonds have got its success from, is that everyone is pushing for spots and putting up their hands.
“The more these guys come in and challenge positions, they can certainly earn (places) and be in those starting sevens and at the same time those that have been there have to keep making changes and … keep evolving their game so that it still is impactful in years to come.”
Australia earned an eight-goal lead in the opening quarter after capitalising on a run of Proteas’ turnovers and it looked like it would be a long night for the visitors.
But they were able to reduce the margin to six goals over the next two quarters – and five in the final term despite coach Norma Plummer making bulk changes to her team.
Plummer, a former Australian coach, is adamant the series will be a great learning period for her team and was happy with their efforts after the match.
“There’s a lot of resilience there,” Plummer said of her side.
“We went down by eight, we went down by two, by four and then five. So overall, it’s (a 19-goal margin), not 55 like it used to be.
“And this is a totally different team to what we had at World Cup, so I’m pretty pleased. I just want to keep building.”
Marinkovich too wants to get better despite the big win.
“There’s certainly areas for improvement but given that I’ve got three new players into the group, we haven’t actually been able to train given that we just had to get here, I thought the injection of the freshness, the skill sets that came – it was a bit clunky at times – but I think there’s some good stuff to take from it,” she said.
“We got a lot of ball, I don’t think we maximised the opportunities.
“So long court, just the control of our ball, we could lift our shooting percentage a little bit, there’s little bits I think we can target.
“We got a lot of ball but we didn’t actually put that directly to the scoreboard.”
THREE-QUARTER TIME: Diamonds in control, make changes
Coach Stacey Marinkovich has made changes ahead of the last quarter with Liz Watson, Donnell Wallam and Cara Koenen coming into the game.
Wallam has received a massive cheer from the Cairns crowd, which includes plenty of young First Nations fans – many of whom were involved in a Net Set Go demonstration at halftime.
The Diamonds take a 14-goal lead into the final term but Marinkovich wants to see plenty from her tall shooting duo, with Watson set to give them plenty of ball.
While Garrett came on in the third quarter to make her Diamonds debut, the South Africans made changes in their shooting circle, with Rolene Streutker making her debut and Lefebre Rademan coming on as Ine-Mari Venter and Nichole Taljaard came off.
They have done well through the middle stages of the match to stay with the Diamonds, losing the two terms by a combined margin of six goals after conceding eight in the opening term.
Garrett makes Diamonds debut
Matilda Garrett is on court and becomes Diamond number 191 as she makes her debut in the famous gold dress.
Coach Stacey Marinkovich has resisted the temptation to make bulk changes to the team, with Garrett the only switch at this stage, joining Sarah Klau in the defensive circle.
A versatile player, Garrett can play across all three defensive positions but makes her debut at goal attack in what will be a memorable night for the Victorian product.
HALF-TIME — Diamonds lead by 10 as changes loom
The Proteas continue to turn over plenty of ball but they’ve stayed with Australia much better this period, trailing by just two this quarter.
It gives Australia a 10-goal buffer at halftime, a strong lead, although coach Stacey Marinkovich is likely to be tough on her team after they turned the ball over 11 times in the half.
The question now is how many changes she will make ahead of the third quarter.
It’s likely Liz Watson and Courtney Bruce will be injected and we could see Wallam and Garrett, on debut, injected into the game.
While the Diamonds lead handily, they were sloppy in the second term and will want to tighten up the poor passes in the midcourt that have handed South Africa enough ball to stay in the match.
Australia will want to get back to its trademark short, sharp ball movement to put the first match in the series to bed.
QUARTER-TIME — Sophie show as Diamonds dominate
It’s the “Sophie” show for the Diamonds in Cairns, with the shooting combination of Sophie Garbin and Sophie Dwyer leading Australia to a 17-9 lead at the first break in Cairns.
Dwyer has had to bide her time on the bench for much of her international career but is making the most of her first start, finishing with five-of-six shooting and – more importantly – showing she has the confidence to turn and shoot from almost any position in the circle.
The Diamonds started slowly, turning over two of their first three possessions as travel and new combinations looked set to take a toll.
But it was a momentary lapse, with the sides going goal for goal in the opening stages before the Diamonds broke the game open with seven consecutive goals to break the game open.
The Diamonds made seven gains in the first quarter and made the most of the turnover ball, converting most of it.
Garbin has started flawlessly at goal shooter, sinking all 12 of her attempts as she dominates her battle with Proteas keeper Phumza Maweni.
Plummer hails South African talent
Former Diamonds coach Norma Plummer is putting no pressure on her Proteas side heading into their series against the world champions.
“All we have to do is get out there and give it a good shot,” Plummer said.
The Proteas are undergoing some generational change ahead of the next world championships and have several young players in Australia – many of whom were involved in their home World Cup campaign in Cape Town earlier this year.
Despite arriving in Australia without great depth in their shooting ranks – experienced Proteas goaler and former Adelaide Thunderbirds player Lenize Potgieter is still rehabbing a knee injury that restricted her World Cup campaign to just one game, while rising star Elmere van der Berg hasn’t travelled with the team due to an ankle injury – Plummer is not worried.
“I love coaching these girls, the resilience is fantastic,” she said. “They want to learn.
“All South Africa’s got to do is give them a full-time national netball league and some development programs and then look out, I think they’ve got the talent, it just needs to be worked.”
Diamonds make mass changes for South Africa Test
Amy Parmenter has been brought straight into the starting side for tonight’s clash against South Africa after joining the squad in Cairns ahead of the three-match series.
Parmenter comes into the Diamonds line-up at wing defence, with Sophie Dwyer earning the first start of her international career at goal attack alongside Sophie Garbin at shooter.
Senior players, captain Liz Watson and goalkeeper Courtney Bruce have been rested from the starting side, with Paige Hadley starting at wing attack and Jamie-Lee Price at centre joining Parmenter in the midcourt.
Sunday Aryang, who played the recent Constellation Cup exclusively at wing defence as coach Stacey Marinkovich opted for a tall line-up, will start at goal defence, with Sarah Klau at keeper.
It means Matilda Garrett faces a nervous wait on the bench before making her debut.
Donnell Wallam, the third fresh player to join the squad for the South Africa series, will also start on the bench alongside Cara Koenen, Garrett, Watson and Bruce.
Marinkovich has long said Diamonds dresses must be earned and while Garrett put in an outstanding effort at the recent training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport to be named in the squad, she will not just be handed a start.
No excuses: Can Diamonds bounce back from NZ pain?
The Diamonds are determined not to use their brutal travel schedule following the Constellation Cup as any kind of excuse heading into their first home series against South Africa in almost 20 years.
Just over 12 hours after their final clash against the Kiwis – a bruising physical encounter worthy of the top two teams in the world slugging it out in a series decider – the Diamonds were on a plane out of Auckland heading back to Australia.
Given their eventual destination – Cairns – has no daylight savings, an adjustment to Queensland time for their travel day, means they were up before midnight and their plane departed at 3am before a two-leg 3790km journey over the next almost nine hours.
But arriving in Cairns, captain Liz Watson told The Cairns Post the team was just excited to be in the far north.
“The Diamonds have never had a Test match here which is very exciting,” Watson said.
“We’ve had a few matches here before (in Super Netball during the 2020 hub season in Queensland) so we know that the community really gets around us.”
With recovery much more of a pressing point than training, the Diamonds did not have a training session ahead of the match, instead taking part in a “bonding session” with the three new members of the squad that have come in for this series.
Kate Moloney, Kiera Austin and Jo Weston have been rested from the South Africa series – the country’s first in Australia since 2005 – with midcourter Amy Parmenter, goaler Donnell Wallam and defender Matilda Garrett coming into the side to provide fresh legs.
Parmenter and Wallam, who was a travelling reserve for both last year’s Commonwealth Games and this year’s World Cup, made their Diamonds’ debuts last year – Parmenter in the Constellation Cup against New Zealand and Wallam, against England, while Garrett is in line to make her debut tonight if called on by coach Stacey Marinkovich.
The Diamonds take on South Africa’s Proteas at the Cairns Convention Centre at 7.30pm AEDT.
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