Diamonds brace for brave new world of netball after heartbreaking loss to England
AS the Diamonds struggle to come to terms with their heartbreaking loss to England, Australian coach Lisa Alexander says the result has put the “cat amongst the pigeons” in a new world order for netball.
Comm Games
Don't miss out on the headlines from Comm Games. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AS shattered as the Diamonds felt after the gut-wrenching last-second loss in the gold medal showdown with England, Australian coach Lisa Alexander says the result has put the “cat amongst the pigeons” in a new world order for netball.
Alexander offered no excuses for the defeat and gave full credit to England for their intense 60-minute effort that reaped the country’s first gold medal in netball.
Jamaica beating New Zealand in the bronze medal match was another hammer blow to the usual two-horse race for gold at the Commonwealth Games between Australia and the Silver Ferns.
She said the Diamonds were hurting after not producing their best against the English but the wider picture for the sport was exciting.
“We are pretty devastated as you could imagine … it’s a defining moment for our sport, definitely,’’ she said.
“If you look at the big picture it shows you how competitive the netball world is, it’s enormously competitive and it’s what people want to see.
“They want to see a contest that they think is unpredictable.
TALENT: Greatest Games moments from international athletes
INNOVATION: How the Comm Games changed for para-athletes
“We didn’t bring our A-game. We know that. Having said that, England were magnificent.
“They were hard at it from the get-go, particularly their shooters. Harten and Housby were outstanding and we found them very difficult to be able to stop.’’
Alexander felt that the Diamonds has seized the momentum at the start of the fourth term when goal attack Steph Wood caught fire.
“We were sitting on the bench thinking, ‘this is it, we’ve got this’,’’ she said.
“Unfortunately, we made a couple of really crucial errors. We have to be better than that.
“We knew England were going to throw everything at us. They had nothing to lose.’’
Post-match, Alexander told her players to hold their heads high because “they played their guts out and gave it everything’’.
Alexander already has an eye to the 2019 World Cup in England when the Diamonds will have no shortage of motivation.
“We know that it’s very tight at the top. England have been working towards 2019. They probably didn’t expect this one but they’ve got it now so they’ll be looking to win that title at Liverpool and we’ll be looking at taking it off them,’’ she said.
A majority of the England starting side play in Australia’s domestic Suncorp Super Netball competition and Alexander said the gold medallists had profited from their week-in, week-out exposure to Diamonds players.
“It shows what our world’s-best domestic league can do for athletes that come from other countries, use that preparation to assist them with their international preparation,’’ she said.
Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett was still processing the result but had perspective on the upset loss.
“It will take a few days to sink in. Sitting with the girls in the changerooms, it was obviously not the result we wanted,’’ she said.
“Look, you can’t sneeze at a silver medal. There’s plenty of countries that would be overjoyed and delighted but I guess for us it’s disappointing.
“We had a fantastic tournament, we have a fantastic group of girls and now we have even more motivation going forward.”
Originally published as Diamonds brace for brave new world of netball after heartbreaking loss to England