Threats to Diamonds abound
AUSTRALIA WILL NEED TO OVERCOME THE HOSTS’ HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE AND A WELL-DRILLED KIWI SIDE TO PREVAIL IN ENGLAND
THERE are no easy netball games at the Commonwealth Games. Not any more. This is going to be one hell of a tournament because any team can win it. Australia is the world No.1 and favourites, but that doesn’t mean it will win the gold medal.
A member of my 21s team over here at London Pulse, a thoughtful young woman, told me she thinks Australia will finish third, as she played against the Diamonds at the start of the year.
I don’t think they will come third, but it is interesting that there is such variability and uncertainty about who is going to win and even who is going to be in the top four.
AUSTRALIA
I’VE written before about my concerns with the Diamonds team, but they can still win the gold medal with the strong team assembled in Birmingham.
In my view, Gretel Bueta is the best player in the world at the moment.
Just from the point of view that she is so unique and does it all.
Steph Wood will partner her in attack, but whether she can last a whole game is the question mark, particularly in a long tournament.
Steph has been playing mostly half games of GA at Super Netball level, whether that is just a management plan ahead of the Games I don’t know, but experience tells me she may have a bit of trouble maintaining four-quarter efforts over an extended period.
Kiera Austin will most likely take her spot, but that combination with Gretel is only very recent – a good partnership in attack takes some time to bed down. That is a concern for Australia.
ENGLAND
ENGLAND is the biggest threat. If the English are firing they are going to be very hard to beat, especially because they’re truly on home soil.
They will have literally the eighth player in the crowd, which will really make a difference, more than we’ve perhaps ever seen in netball.
Ellie Cardwell will be the big danger. She has been signed by Adelaide Thunderbirds, very smartly by Tania Obst, and she will be the one I think that will really show Australian fans this woman means business.
People will say she doesn’t look netball fit, but she is strong and has taken her skill level to a new level.
The men’s netballers talk about how great her hands are, how she pulls the ball in with one hand and just plucks it out of the air.
She has got a deadly shot from anywhere, plus she can change up her game and play movement or on the body.
The defensive end of Geva Mentor and Layla Guscoth is one of the most deadly in the world. I consider Layla to be the best goal defence in the world at the moment.
Throw Eboni Usoro-Brown and Stacey Francis-Bayman in and that will be a really hard-nut defence that is going to be extraordinarily difficult for what
I would call an inexperienced Australian front line.
NEW ZEALAND
NEW Zealand is the best “team” because they combine so well together under the absolute genius of Noeline Taurua.
Noels is clearly the most experienced coach at the Games and that in itself could get New Zealand into a final.
Watching Noels coach is just a joy. It’s all about the team. There are no major stars in their team – although they’ve got some really top-line players and some lovely young players coming through.
They’re going in under the radar, which Noels loves, and although they’ve probably set themselves for next year’s World Cup rather than the Comm Games, they will trouble everybody.
They also have an Australian performance analyst Professor Anthony Bedford, who knows the Aussie players inside out. He worked closely with us in the Diamonds set-up and he has worked with Noeline before at the Sunshine Coast.
He is the numbers man and has really good ways to think about netball.
I know Noels is not just into individual stats, but team stats that really make a difference to performance. They are a well-drilled team. Their preparation has been exceptional and they will be very hard to beat.
JAMAICA
JAMAICA are no longer the big secret in world netball, they are just going to be awesome.
You can’t go past Jhaniele Fowler. Truly she has taken her game to a whole new level. She will be so hard for anyone to play on, but the Australians will have an advantage because they are used to playing on her.
But many of the Jamaicans have been training in Australia under our high-performance coaches, who are second to none in the world.
We know they have the talent at each end, but if they can combine as a team through the midcourt and keep it together for the whole tournament, they are a major threat.
They could end up in the gold medal final. They could win it. They are certainly capable, but have they got the centre court?
PREDICTION
OF course I want Australia to win gold and I expect them to win gold.
But it’s going to be very close and my prediction is that England will win gold because of the home court advantage.
I’m not just picking England because I am here, it’s not a popularity contest, I actually genuinely think they will win.