Liz Watson says Diamonds fired to avenge first loss to Silver Ferns in a year in Constellation Cup finale
MIDCOURTER Liz Watson says the Diamonds have “fire in the belly” to avenge their shock loss to the Silver Ferns with a game and series victory in the final match of the Constellation Cup.
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AUSTRALIAN midcourter Liz Watson says the Diamonds have “fire in the belly” to avenge their shock 11-goal loss to the Silver Ferns with a game and series victory in the final match of the Constellation Cup on Thursday.
Watson revealed the Diamonds watched and dissected Sunday’s loss within 24 hours of the game in Wellington and are ready to turn the result in Thursday’s series finale in Hamilton.
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The Diamonds lost to New Zealand for the first time in over a year on Sunday to force the Constellation Cup to the final game.
But the odds are still against the Silver Ferns claiming the series silverware, with the New Zealanders needing to beat Australia by a whopping 14 goals to achieve the feat.
Player of the Match against England in the Quad series last month, Watson, a member of the Diamonds leadership group, said she was disappointed with the result but maintains everything in the match is “fixable”
“We made a lot of mistakes but things are fixable,” she said.
“We aren’t panicking. We have to work harder, look at the mistakes and sort them out.
“It’s not about changing our game plan. It’s about sticking to it.”
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Watson said the 55-44 loss to New Zealand - their first in 10 games spread over the last year - has hurt.
“We got hit hard at the start and were in chase mode and panicked a bit,” she said.
“We went into help mode where we all tired to fix things individually instead of working together to do it.
“We have plenty of fire in the belly. We wanted to win 4-0.
“We won’t to finish the year with a win to show that game wasn’t us.”
Thursday’s match is also the final netball international of the year.
The next outing for the Diamonds will be the Quad series in the UK in January.