Netball news: Diamonds secure series win over South Africa in Game two at Hobart

The Diamonds have survived a second quarter flurry from South Africa to seal victory in the best-of-three series against the Proteas in the first ever Test played in Hobart.

The first netball Test ever played in Hobart brought a familiar result for the Australian Diamonds, who sealed the best-of-three series against South Africa with a solid 67-52 defeat over an improved South Africa in game two.

The Diamonds withstood a second quarter flurry in which the Proteas drew level, accelerating away to lead by seven at halftime, before coach Stacey Marinkovich again rotated her enviably deep squad in which only Sophie Garbin was left unused.

Shooter Donnell Wallam was introduced against Nicola Smith after South African veteran Phumza Maweni was benched, and proved unstoppable in the air, nailing a perfect 12/12 in the third quarter among 25 from 27 for the match, while second-gamer Matilda Garrett, Sunday Aryang and vice-captain Page Hadley were also injected.

The Diamonds have wrapped up the series against South Africa in Game 2 of the best-of-three series. Picture: Getty Images

Player-of-the-match Kamogelo Maseko was outstanding for the Proteas in just her third Test but the 21-year-old could not prevent Australia’s 15th win from 18 Tests in 2023 — starting with the Quad Series in January, through the World Cup and Constellation Cup drawn 2-2 in the only minor blip during an outstanding year.

Before a crowd of 3647 at MyStateBank Arena, Marinkovich stuck with three of her starting seven from game one in Jamie-Lee Price at centre, Amy Parmenter (WD) and Sarah Klau (GK), while adding captain Liz Watson (WA), Courtney Bruce (GD) and Cara Koenen (GS), who played no more than a quarter each in game one.

And while a seven-goal unanswered run late in the first quarter set up the Diamonds’ win in game one, the first stretch of five came even earlier this time, and it was by that margin that the hosts led at the first break.

“I thought South Africa came out really hard, and it was obviously a tight contest at the beginning, just with us getting our flow,’’ Marinkovich said.

“I’m obviously trying some different combinations out there, so at times (they) got a bit comfortable in that just uncomfortable clunkiness... I thought defensively we could have stepped up a little bit more in the first part of the game, but I thought we started to get some rhythm, and I think any time you can score 67 goals you’ve got to be pretty happy with it by the end.’’

Marinkovich was also pleased with the performance of Wallam, the Firebird who was a World Cup reserve having joined the team for its final three games of the season alongside Garrett and Amy Parmenter.

“She’s had quarters here and there, and to able to go out there and get consecutive quarters and be able to have that presence, and I think it was her coming in and not trying to play a moving circle like we’ve had in other combinations, but bring her strength and she posted up strong, she went to post and I thought the midcoast were really starting to find the connection of the feed on and off the circle.’’

Donnell Wallam proved unstoppable in the air, nailing a perfect 12/12. Picture: Getty Images.

The Proteas opened with five of the first six goals thereafter, as the rock-solid Ine-Mari Venter and the lively Maseko shot at 100 per cent for the half, while several Sophie Dwyer attempts fell short, and a slight sloppiness started to creep into the home side’s game.

The Diamonds’ defence soon reasserted itself, however, with the Klau-Bruce combination — that included Bruce at GD in a configuration that Marinkovich was oddly reluctant to try against New Zealand to try to curb the damaging Grace Nweke — sharing six intercepts and six deflections in the first 30 minutes.

South Africa fought back in the second quarter with a flurry of goals, before the Diamonds defence regained control of the match. Picture: Getty Images

The ball-winners created opportunities for Watson to continue feeding Koenen in particular, as the captain racked up 24 goal assists and 30 feeds, before being sent for a rest at three-quarter time.

Including Wednesday’s 62-43 result in Cairns, the fifth-ranked Proteas have now failed to beat the Diamonds in 45 attempts, but this was a more productive attacking performance, Maseko showing speed and creativity bordering on audacity at times to contribute to a slightly improved attacking effort.While the Proteas had risen early to watch the Springboks clinch the Rugby World Cup, coach Norma Plummer was thrilled with the performance of Maseko, who missed selection for the netball equivalent in July -August.

“But she has been in the squad so we’ve been working with her, and of course we’d lost three shooters so we thought, ‘Well, this was the opportunity’, and certainly she hasn’t let us down. In fact she’s just blown that goal attack position apart, and we’ve been looking for it.’’

Due to retire -- again -- after the England series in December, Plummer also hailed a stronger team performance all-round.

“Much better play,’’ she said. “Yeah, we started off shaky and, again, that’s just learning to get into the game, but I was so impressed with the way they finally went up and put the body in and were able to cope with the pressure over them and that’s what I’ve been trying to get them to sustain. They’re not used to being able to just muscle around, and if you do it you get the ball, so they took it on and I was delighted.’’

The final Test of the two countries’ first stand-alone series since 2005 — and the last of the Diamonds’ triumphant year — is in Hobart on Tuesday night.

If Plummer will be asking for “more of the same if not better”, Marinkovich will be seeking a final 60-minute performance after being pushed to two goals in the second quarter and three in the last on Sunday.

“We still want to see us being able to finish out a tournament,’’ she said. “I think we pride ourselves on being able to win four quarters of netball and we haven’t done a lot of that against any of the top nation teams, so that’s something that we continue to strive for.

“And I think what I want to see and what we’ve talked about collectively is all of these girls have been selected because they bring their strengths, their uniqueness and their authenticity to the group, so how do we get that firing as a collective? So that’s the part that we want to see people’s strengths, because somebody else is complementing it at the same time.’’

SCOREBOARD

Australia 67 (Koenen 27/27, Wallam 25/27, Dwyer 15/20) d South Africa (Venter 22/25, Maseko 20/23, Streutker 10/10), at MyStateBank Arena, Hobart.

Crowd: 3647

Player of the match: Kamogelo Maseko

Originally published as Netball news: Diamonds secure series win over South Africa in Game two at Hobart