Quad Series: Diamonds wary of rebuilding Silver Ferns outfit

The Australian Diamonds have a wary eye trained on their archrivals the Silver Ferns.

Maria Folau of the Silver Ferns competes against Karla Pretorius of South Africa during their Quad Series in Tauranga earlier this week. Picture: Getty Images

The Australian Diamonds are keeping a wary eye trained on their arch-rivals the Silver Ferns, despite a historic streak of recent dominance.

Australia have strung together four straight wins by more than 10 goals against New Zealand, a feat neither team have managed since their first four trans-Tasman matches, held during World War II.

But the Ferns are rebuilding and have been underestimated by many fans, according to Australia’s coach Lisa Alexander.

“They’ll be a different outfit when we tackle them on Sunday compared to the Commonwealth Games and (January) Quad Series this year,” Alexander said.

The Silver Ferns finished fourth at the Gold Coast Games, the first New Zealand team not to win a medal at a major netball tournament.

Netball New Zealand ­announced an external review of the underperforming Silver Ferns after the tournament.

The report that followed, released in July, said: “Netball in New Zealand continues to struggle to embrace a true high performance culture, the no compromises, no shortcuts philosophy so much a part of many elite sports.”

New Zealand coach Janine Southby resigned on the morning of the report’s release and was replaced eventually by Sunshine Coast Lightning coach Noeline Taurua.

Australian goal attack Steph Wood, one of Taurua’s charges at the Lightning, said the “master” coach’s fingerprints were ­already becoming obvious.

“She’ll definitely bring a lot of structure to their team, and I think you’ve seen it. Their bones in the past two games have actually been really good, it’s just been the execution at times,” Wood said.

Alexander said she has seen “a lot more passion and leadership” on the court.

Taurua has also benefited from her time in Australia’s coaching ecosystem.

She’s moved the Silver Ferns’ defensive system away from its traditional zone approach to a hybrid approach that mixes in one-on-one structures, and is trickier to prepare for.

The Silver Ferns began their Quad Series campaign with a 13-goal loss to England last week, after which Taurua called out a shooting circle unwilling to deal with the physical demands of international netball.

New Zealand responded three days later with a 24-goal shellacking of South Africa.

That kind of improvement, and the return of captain Laura Langman, has the Diamonds on notice.

They will enter tomorrow’s match sore but undefeated after Wednesday’s bruising win over England in Newcastle.

Australia have won every Quad Series trophy bar one since the biannual tournament was introduced in 2016, and need to beat New Zealand to retain bragging rights this year.

The Silver Ferns can overhaul the Diamonds with a six-goal win.

The Roses are out to make up some ground against South ­Africa in tomorrow’s curtain-raiser.