AUSSIE HOPES HIGH
Mind games as Diamonds build for World Cup
IF England is the World Cup’s “underdog favourite” — a tag some Diamonds backroom staff invented this week — what does it make Australia? The favourite underdog? Seems borderline blasphemous to say such a thing about the reigning champion and 11-time winner from the previous 14 editions.
And yet there is a tangible sense Australia’s successful netball team is, perhaps for the first time, trying to shift the pressure on to another country.
Whether that is indicative of a genuine power shift will only become truly evident on July 21 when one of 16 competing nations lifts the trophy.
What is indisputable is that when Tracey Neville’s Roses pipped Lisa Alexander’s side by a point at the Commonwealth Games, they thrust themselves into the very top echelon of a sport historically dominated almost exclusively by Australia and New Zealand.
Add in the Silver Ferns’ recent slide, Jamaica’s world No.2 standing and South Africa’s slow but sure rise under Norma Plummer, and the 15th instalment promises to be the tightest yet.
“We’ve blown the gates wide open now,” said England veteran Jo Harten.
“We don’t know who’s going to beat who on any given day, which is great for the event and for the sport, but it is scary as an athlete.”
But England’s exploits bring a special kind of expectation further exacerbated by a watching home crowd.
Neville has acknowledged it will be “absolutely brutal” while Alexander, intriguingly, has predicted England’s gold came a year prematurely.
“The last World Cup you would have thought that maybe (third-placed) England could have maybe got themselves into a final, but nobody was sure about that,” she said.
“Certainly now that’s not the case . . . they’re underdog favourites.’’
But what about Australia, itself under the extreme kind of pressure that is meant to form diamonds but broke the team on the Gold Coast last year?
Alexander made headlines then for saying Super Netball’s import policy — six of the Roses’ squad play in the league, as well as five of Jamaica’s and three of South Africa’s — created a situation whereby “our high-performance system (is) working for another country”.
She has since described the tougher competition as a good thing. And, to an extent, it may work in her squad’s favour.
This Diamonds crop is the least experienced of the topfive countries, with nine of the 12 set to make their World Cup debuts.
But at least they are all playing weekly in the world’s benchmark domestic league.
“It is making them (the foreigners) better players,” said Diamonds vice-captain Liz Watson.
Part of Australia’s challenge will be navigating the early stages against less-fancied opposition in Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, hitouts unlikely to provide the ideal preparation for tougher assignments further down the line. So what is a pass mark? “We would be disappointed if we don’t get into the final, that’s for certain,” Alexander said.
“And pretty much we would be wanting to win gold to get a pass mark for us.
“But that’s fine, we’ve had that pressure of performance before. It’s nothing more than what we put on ourselves anyway. That’s part of why we’ve been winners and we’re No.1.
“But it’s not a two-horse race (between Australia and New Zealand) any more, and that’s a good thing for netball really because globally netball would not have survived if we don’t get more countries being more competitive.”
WE WOULD BE DISAPPOINTED IF WE DON’T GET INTO THE FINAL, THAT’S FOR CERTAIN. AND PRETTY MUCH WE WOULD BE WANTING TO WIN GOLD TO GET A PASS MARK FOR US. AUSTRALIAN COACH LISA ALEXANDER