Donnell Wallam backed to sparkle for Diamonds on netball Test debut
Coach Stacey Marinkovich is confident Donnell Wallam will handle the glaring spotlight of her Diamonds netball debut against England after an unsettling build-up.
The Australian team opens their three Test series against England in Newcastle on Wednesday night with goalshooter Wallam in the squad. She will become the third First Nations woman to don the green and gold and the first in more than two decades.
Marinkovich has a 15-player squad at her disposal and would not reveal if Wallam would play in the opening Test, with games remaining in Sydney on Sunday and the third in Brisbane next Thursday.
But Marinkovich felt Wallam would be ready to make her debut when called upon.
“She’ll certainly be ready,” the coach told AAP. “We certainly check in, she trained really well yesterday, and it’s just looking through when those combinations are built and when it’s the right time to put her on court.
“Our process has stayed exactly the same – we submit our 12 and then we go through our line-up and make adjustments through the game.
“It’s not a unique situation; Donnell was selected as part of our squad because of the talent she’s got so we’ve got to look at who we’re playing against and what we need at a particular point in time.”
Wallam caught the eye of Super Netball clubs after shifting her career to play with All Leeds Rhinos in the UK Netball Superleague. In the 2020 season she scored a record 1,013 goals, averaging 63 goals a game.
Wallam’s delight at her selection for the series was dampened with the furore over a $15m sponsorship deal with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
A Noongar woman from Western Australia, Wallam raised concerns about vile historical comments made by Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock about the Indigenous population.
She was said to be uncomfortable wearing a uniform with the Hancock Prospecting logo.
Teammates took a stand with Wallam which resulted in Hancock Prospecting cancelling the cashstrapped sports body’s financial lifeline. Other sponsors such as Origin Energy have since pledged their commitment.
Having won back the Constellation Cup from New Zealand, Marinkovich will use the England series to test players and combinations for the Diamonds ahead of next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Skipper Liz Watson and her deputy Steph Wood have both been rested from the series, with Paige Hadley the new captain assisted by Courtney Bruce.
“We’ve got a lot of versatility and a lot of depth across the entire group so there’s a lot of questions that we still want to challenge and ask of the group so that we leave no stone unturned as we build towards the World Cup,” she said.