Stacey Marinkovich to bring up 50 games in charge of Diamonds in clash against Silver Ferns
She’s helped Australia regain the Commonwealth Games gold and World Cup inside her first 50 games. Is Stacey Marinkovich one of the most successful Diamonds coaches of all time?
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A Christchurch car park hardly seems like the launching pad for one of the most successful coaching careers in the modern era.
And when Stacey Marinkovich was preparing for her first Test series in managed quarantine in New Zealand, just months after her appointment as Diamonds coach had been criticised by some of the country’s highest-profile former players, she probably couldn’t imagine the success that was to come.
Marinkovich will bring up her 50th game in charge of the world’s No. 1 team when the Diamonds take on the Silver Ferns in Auckland next Wednesday in the second Test of the Constellation Cup.
The opening match of the series – still the biggest rivalry in the sport despite the Ferns’ drop to no. 3 in the world rankings during the week – will be played in Wellington on Sunday.
While she lost her first series in charge, only increasing speculation over whether a coach who had not worn the Diamonds dress herself could handle the task of guiding Australia back to win the sport’s benchmark events, everything Marinkovich has touched since has turned to gold.
Australia holds the Commonwealth Games gold medal and World Cup trophy – and every gong in between in the sport – while Marinkovich’s contract was last year extended until the end of 2027 following the next World Cup in Sydney.
“You don’t count the games, but to hit 50 and to be doing it with some high performance staff that have been there from the beginning as well, it’s nice to notch up that number … and it’s good to see where the program’s progressed,” Marinkovich said.
“To actually reflect back on that moment that we started training in a car park in New Zealand, to go full circle back to New Zealand to have the 50th game and the program up in full swing and to see how the girls have grown and evolved, it’s exciting and fun to be a part of.”
Former West Coast mentor Marinkovich was appointed to take over the Diamonds role from Lisa Alexander while still coaching the Fever.
Named in the midst of the Covid crisis in mid 2020, Marinkovich would have to wait until early 2021 to coach the team after that year’s Constellation Cup was postponed due to trans-Tasman border closures.
Even when it did happen, in early 2021, the Diamonds had to undertake 14 days of hotel quarantine before taking on the Silver Ferns in Christchurch and were only allowed out of their digs for training sessions in a car park to prepare for the tournament.
They eventually lost that series 3-1, the experience an eye-opening one for all in the group, including the new coach, who was without star shooters Steph Wood (injury) and Gretel Bueta (pregnant) and had then-captain Caitlin Bassett, who was playing on one leg.
“It’s something that I’ve always respected from the outside the Australian-New Zealand rivalry, knowing how close it is and how much it actually meant – to have that as your first dipping your toe into the water, it felt like I more or less did a bomb dive straight into it,” Marinkovich said.
“To have prepared the way that we did, I think really just made the group really galvanise and made sure that we were really purposeful in anything that we ever did.
“There’s no doubt that we wanted to win that series but given the complications around it, we were still really methodical to go, okay, we walk away from this experience and what do we need to know either about our program, our strategy, our players, so we still remain really targeted at around things.
“It’s something that the Diamonds are really priding themselves on as a group, is that every time we come together, it’s an experience. Well, that was one hell of a one.”
Marinkovich though was also taking a long view.
Among the debutants on that tour were Cara Koenen – the MVP in Australia’s only win on that tour and last on Kiwi soil – and Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin, who two years later would sub in for Koenen and the now retired Steph Wood (Fretwell) to win the World Cup, while under what was a controversial rotating captaincy policy, Bassett led for one Test before Liz Watson – now regarded as one of Australia’s great leaders – took over for the next three.
That didn’t lessen the pressure on the new mentor though, whose initial appointment was questioned by many, including the now Netball Australia chair Liz Ellis, who pointed to the expectations that fans, former players and the netball community would have for the woman who took over a team that was already world No. 1 despite losing the Commonwealth Games and World Cup finals by a single goal in Alexander’s final 18 months in charge.
“The KPIs from the public, from netball fans and ex-players like me are going to be that she has to come up with the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and then the gold medal at the World Cup the following year,” Ellis said at the time.
“At the end of the day, the expectation is that the Diamonds are to win gold. That is what Stacey Marinkovich’s KPIs will be and that’s what she will set out to do.”
Marinkovich conceded the chatter at the time had stung – but she was determined to be her own woman.
“There’s a part where they were doing their job in terms of creating a bit of chat, and then there’s also a part that, they were people looking outside-in and didn’t know me as a person and hadn’t been around the way in which I brought a program together,” she said.
“So it was about putting my head down and making sure that we were doing the work.
“You earn respect. And hopefully, with the results I’ve had, the people that have been so passionate about this program are really now proud to see that the Diamonds are in full flight.
“The thing is, we still want more. We want to be able to push to another level.”
One of Marinkovich’s greatest strengths is seeing her athletes as people first and players second, something that has earnt her the trust and affection of a group that has been challenged on and off the court like few other Diamonds outfits over the past few years.
“I think on the court, she gives everyone such a strong belief,” defender Courtney Bruce said.
“She is clear on what your role is. She’s clear on what you bring as an individual to the environment. She’s always going to challenge us to be better, but she makes it really clear, so you know when you go out there what you have to do and if you’re out there, she’s backing you in 100 per cent.”
Bruce said every player would have an anecdote of Marinkovich “lifting you back up and helping you understand that sometimes your perception is not the reality”.
“Everyone in this group would want to do it for her because at some point during their time, whether it’s been a long time with her (or) a short time with her, they’ve felt her wrap her arms around you and lift you up and take your journey with her,” Bruce said.
Marinkovich said people in high performance were often their own worst critics and allowing her athletes to feel safe being vulnerable brought out their best.
“If you can make the environment one where people belong and they feel comfortable, then they can also show their vulnerabilities,” she said.
“If you’ve got that place where they feel safe and they feel like people have got their backs, they’re more willing to be able to play their role regardless of what it is, whether it’s just being in the squad, whether it’s in a 15, whether it’s 12, whether it’s a starting line, an impact player … and they’ll do anything they can because of the collective.”
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