Diamonds ring the changes in clinical display against Barbados

The landslide victories keep coming for the Diamonds — and so the do the selection shake-ups.

Australia’s Jamie-Lee Price battles Latonia Blackman of Barbados during their World Cup match at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Picture: Getty Images

The landslide victories keep coming for the Diamonds — and so the do the selection shake-ups.

Coach Lisa Alexander rang yet more changes in Monday night’s 91-22 drubbing of an erratic, error-prone Barbados to claim a perfect four from four in the World Cup in Liverpool.

The Caribbean nation were no match for the defending champions, whose superb defence applied pressure throughout despite several personnel shifts.

None of Alexander’s 12-player squad have started every one of Australia’s games thus far, and many of the magnets moved.

Whether that’s simply a reflection of Alexander’s heavy rotation policy, or whether she’s not yet settled on her strongest line-up is unclear.

What is clear is that wing defence is still not a set-in-stone position.

Before last night, Jamie-Lee Price, April Brandley and even Paige Hadley have been given that role.

Against Barbados it was Jo Weston, and the Melbourne Vixens defender didn’t disappoint with an assured player-of-the-match performance.

“I think we’ve just got lots of options there and that’s what we’ve worked on for this tournament,” Alexander said.

“We wanted to have the flexibility of being able to have a number of different styles of play to combat our opposition.

“We’ll have a look at our opposition tomorrow and the next day and set whichever wing defence we think is going to do the best job against their opponent.”

Diamonds newcomer Sarah Klau enjoyed the first half at goal defence before Brandley took over.

The Collingwood Magpie was but one of a near-full set of halftime substitutions, with every bib rolled over except Weston and Courtney Bruce at goalkeeper.

“Really thrilled overall,” Alexander said.

“We wanted to have a look at that tall big defence end and Sarah’s game at goal defence was terrific.

“We played a little bit differently to how we normally play and it was great.

“They know they’re a great, strong team of 12 and we can pop anyone out there at different times to do a job.”

With world No 9 Malawi up next on Tuesday, further testing could be afoot to perfect the desired combinations in time for Friday’s showdown with the old enemy New Zealand.

That’s not to say these preliminary games don’t matter — the points count towards a favourable semi-final match-up that top-ranked Australia must win to meet expectations following last year’s Commonwealth Games slip.

Yet this contest fit Alexander’s example of a tedious, uninspired viewing spectacle for both fans at M&S Bank Arena and at home on TV.

And the scoreline was hardly shocking — 11th-ranked Barbados had already lost two of their three first-phase group games including a heavy defeat to New Zealand, coming out on top only against lowly Singapore.

Here they were bulldozed by Australia’s defence with a total of 57 turnovers, and when they did sneak through their shooting accuracy let them down, with only two goals in the second quarter.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH