Sydney 2027: Diamonds eye Netball World Cup defence in key planning camp

After several controversies — and triumphs — during a gruelling 18 months, it was expected Australia’s netballers would be given an extended break. Instead, they’ve returned driven to kickstart a World Cup push.

Australian netball coach Stacey Marinkovich has dismissed “questions” around her side’s early season camp, calling it the reset the Diamonds needed to “launch forward” after a gruelling 2024 campaign.

For the first time in several years, the Diamonds do not have a major competition in January, with both the Australian and New Zealand netball teams heading into camp instead to start the new year.

After a huge past 18 months, which has included a World Cup victory, the poisonous and divisive pay battle and a tough international season that included a Constellation Cup loss to the Kiwis, there was debate about whether the Diamonds should abandon plans for a camp in favour of a break.

Stacey Marinkovich has defended the merits of a January training camp. Picture: Netball Australia/ Lauren Morgan

Coach Stacey Marinkovich conceded there was debate about the merits of the camp to kick off the next international netball cycle, which will culminate with a World Cup on home soil in 2027.

But by connecting with the players’ Super Netball clubs to ensure their pre-season conditioning block would continue and that there was genuine purpose behind the gathering, the team was “reaping the rewards”.

“When we came out of Con Cup, there were questions around January,” Marinkovich said of the camp.

“The group needed a break and it had been a massive 18 months with so much on and off the court.

“But I think the girls had their four weeks where they were able to switch off and travel and they did the things that gave them sort of some clear head space.

“Then I think when they’ve actually come in, they’re really enthused to be around each other and set where they want to go.”

Diamonds captain Liz Watson says the Diamonds can’t take their culture for granted. Picture: Lauren Morgan, Netball Australia

Captain Liz Watson said the current Diamonds group had a well established culture, partly set in that camp in Noosa – an extended get-together following Marinkovich’s appointment after Covid forced the abandonment of the Constellation Cup in 2020.

However, Watson admitted it was important to ensure culture was continually worked on and has been the major benefit of this week’s gathering in Canberra.

“It’s always important to make sure we keep going back to that and refining that, and it’s not just taken for granted,” she said.

“I think that’s why having camps is really important, so do not just throw under the rug, ‘Oh, all the girls are connected, they’ll be okay’ but actually still putting the time and effort into that.

“And that’s not just training. It’s obviously everything that we do off the court as well.

“It is setting up for what’s to come, because after this year it’s two huge years for us, which is really exciting.”

The Diamonds celebrate winning Vitality Netball Nations Cup Final against England.

Having built such a strong foundation, Marinkovich said it would be easy for the Diamonds to assume that would carry over to the next campaign, with the squad adding another layer.

“I think you do need a reset moment to go, ‘Okay, this is the group. These are the choices we’re making. This is the commitment that’s required, and this is what it actually looks like’,” she said.

But it would be a mistake to think the Diamonds’ get-together is a talkfest.

“You go into a new cycle and you can have a lot of words around the program … a lot of descriptions as to how you want to play, and you can have the words around the strategy and the connection and the relationships, but it’s about the action that comes from it,” Marinkovich said.

“It’s a call to action. We don’t want to be a team of cliches and things that you can’t genuinely see and then have people actually refer to.

“That’s a really tough, hard running team, or, that team’s got a real presence out on court. You want to have the descriptors, because people can see what you’re doing, as opposed to the fluffy stuff, which doesn’t stand up.

“I think that’s what we’ve really reset, is that we needed to just get back and strip it back a little bit to then get the next launch forward.”

Originally published as Sydney 2027: Diamonds eye Netball World Cup defence in key planning camp