Quad Series: Diamonds begin building for 2019 World Cup

Lisa Alexander’s Diamonds are aiming to build on the lessons learned from the Commonwealth Games.

The Australian Diamonds netball team pose for team photos at the AIS in Canberra earlier this week. Picture: Getty Images

The Australian Diamonds have prepared for a fresh international season by taking some lessons from the bitter ending of the team’s last outing.

That one-goal loss to England in April’s gold medal match of the Commonwealth Games left many Diamonds shattered for months.

Head coach Lisa Alexander said the team hadn’t gone overboard in focusing on the defeat, but remained determined to use it as fuel to drive towards new goals.

“You never forget things like that, but if you don’t learn from them, that’s the issue,” Alexander said.

The message out of the Australian camp has been of renewal: a clean slate, a fresh chance, a new challenge for a new team.

Nine of the 12-player team that will take the court today for the opening match of the Quad Series are returning for duty, but Alexander said the three changes — Kelsey Browne, Emily Mannix, and Gretel Tippett — made this group different to the one that lost five months ago.

With only 10 months until the 2019 Netball World Cup in ­England, the upcoming inter­nationals provide vital preparation for Australia’s gold medal ­defence.

The first step in that journey begins tomorrow at midday in Auckland when the Diamonds take on South Africa in the first of three Quad Series matches.

The Proteas will be eager to move past a disruptive period after injuries decimated the team’s midcourt and illness struck the camp in the lead-up to this tournament.

But Alexander is prepared for the same South African brand of “determined” and “relentless” netball. The team is led by former Diamonds coach Norma Plummer, who has displayed a canny knack for unpicking Australia’s game plan in the past.

South Africa have never beaten Australia in netball, but the 50 goals the Proteas scored against the undefeated Diamonds in January’s Quad Series was more than England or New Zealand could manage.

There will be more on the line for Alexander’s players than ­silverware, though. The entire group is “on notice” as the coach searches for winning combinations. “That’s just part and parcel of being one of the athletes that are chosen for the Diamonds. You have to understand that nobody owns their position in the team, and we’re all accountable,” she said.

“Our squad members have all done really well at camp, and they’re all on standby.

“If we need to make changes after this series, we will.”

Jess Anstiss, Sarah Klau, Kate Moloney, Tegan Philip and Jamie-Lee Price are all waiting in the wings in Australia’s 17-player squad, waiting for a call if Alexander decides to shuffle her group.

One of the biggest stories of the Super Netball contracting ­period came to a close yesterday when Magpies Netball signed Nat Medhurst.

Medhurst was dumped by West Coast Fever a fortnight ago. The team cited a focus on a long-term plan built around younger talent.

Collingwood clearly did not share the same concerns about the 34-year-old and gave her a two-year deal.

Medhurst said: “The reality is I was still expecting to be back at the Fever. I did have a contract in place and Fever decided to opt out of that.

“The fact that Collingwood invested a couple of years in me and are backing me in to still be able to deliver out there on court certainly gives me a lot of confidence.

“To be able to go out there and prove that in some ways age doesn’t really count for too much … is something I’m really looking forward to, (and) proving some people wrong about.”