Australia finishes off international netball clean sweep

The Aussies have won the Fast5 tournament, capping off an incredible year where they claimed every major title in netball.

Australia has defended its Fast5 title, beating New Zealand 35-23 to cap an incredible 2023 season in which they have swept every major title in the sport.

The Aussies won the Fast5 title for the first time last year and dominated their greatest rivals in the sport to seal a repeat win in Christchurch on Sunday.

They add the trophy to the World Cup, Quad Series, Constellation Cup, South Africa series and Commonwealth Youth Games titles they won in a dominant year in all forms of the sport.

Australian captain Matilda Garrett was named player of the final after leading a defensive effort that broke down the Kiwis’ game, forcing them to briefly take champion shooter Grace Nweke off the court in favour of a moving circle.

Garrett lifted the trophy for Australia just weeks after becoming Australia’s newest Diamond following her debut in the traditional version of the game.

“Once I go home, that will probably be when I get a bit more time to reflect and probably take a bit of a breath but these last few weeks and months have been absolutely phenomenal and it’s a year that I will never forget,” Garrett said.

“It was just so special to be able to lead out here with (vice-captain) Hannah Petty, who’s one of my closest friends and do it with a lot of the (Adelaide) Thunderbirds girls and the young girls we often come up against in Suncorp Super Netball.

“Australia’s had an absolutely phenomenal year in terms of winning and Fast5, while it’s fun, it’s still such a hard and skillful game, so it means just as much to win the Fast5 series as it did to win (on debut in) the South African series.”

Garrett carried her outstanding form to New Zealand, where she, Ashleigh Ervin and Teigan O’Shannassy put the will of some of the world’s best shooters with their defensive pressure.

It was certainly the case in the final, where the “arms over” pressure of 192cm Ervin, unnerved Nweke, while she, Garrett and O’Shannassy followed an outstanding game plan hatched by coach Nicole Richardson that denied the Kiwis high-scoring options in the early power plays and eventually forced the Kiwis into hail Mary options to try to catch up.

“With New Zealand, we know that they’ve got Grace (Nweke), who’s a strong target and then they’ve got goal attacks who we know are dangerous outside of the circle when shooting the twos and threes,” Garrett said.

“So for us, it was just about sticking really tight to our players and knowing that they’re happy to take the two and three-point shots, so trying to keep them out of that area and put them closer to the post and into uncomfortable positions.”

The Aussies headed to the first break with a five-point lead after Tippah Dwan sank a four-point goal after the buzzer to give her side some breathing room after the Kiwis clawed their way back into the match following a fast start from their rival.

Australia’s defenders kept them in the game in the second term, with the “arms over” defence of towering goalkeeper Ervin keeping Kiwi star Nweke in check.

Australia's Fast5 netball team celebrate after defending their title with a 35-23 victory over New Zealand in the final in Christchurch. Picture: Netball Australia

Georgie Horjus kept Australia’s margin in place after a tight second term, her four-point goal in the final seconds of the term leaving the teams level-pegging at 8-8 in the second to hand the Aussies a 21-15 buffer at the long break.

They call the third term the championship quarter and while Australia didn’t score heavily, the defensive pressure they were able to apply was eventually the difference in the match.

The suffocating defence of tall defenders Ervin and captain Garrett forced the Kiwis to substitute Nweke - who was so outstanding for the Silver Ferns in the recent Constellation Cup - opting for a moving circle in a bid to outfox their rivals.

It made little difference though, with the Aussies winning the quarter 9-6 to take an eight-point lead to the final break and forcing the Fast Ferns into low percentage options in what was ultimately a fruitless bid to catch up.

England shooter Paige Reed was named player of the tournament.

While players are able to shoot from three zones, for goals worth one, two and three points - and double that value during a “power play” in each quarter - the Aussies played a safe game, using their fast ball movement and racking up safe points as well as shooting regularly from the two-point zone - a range they are used to from Super Netball.

The Australians lost just one game through their five round matches, going down 38-36 in their opening match to Jamaica after Gezelle Allison landed a six-point hail Mary on the buzzer with her team trailing by four.

It was the only blemish for the Aussies through the round-robin stage though, with the team beating South Africa (38-32) and New Zealand (38-29) on the opening day before taking the scalp of Malawi (42-24) early on Sunday.

Heading into their final pool match against England, the Aussies were on six points, level with New Zealand and England and facing a simple equation to make the tournament decider, contested by the top two teams at the end of round-robin play.

Beat England, or draw at worst, and they were through to the decider, lose and they would be tipped into a playoff for third place.

In a dominant display, they won 37-16, before the Kiwis went on to beat Jamaica 50-16 to set up another encounter between the world netball powerhouses for a major title.

England eventually won the bronze, scoring the last seven points of the match to beat South Africa 30-22.

AUSTRALIA 35 (Austin 19, Dwan 8, Horjus 7, Fawns 1)

NEW ZEALAND 23 (Nweke 12, Malesala 8, Heffernan 2, Metuarau 1)

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