Aussies planning to ‘hit back hard’
Coach intends talking to umpires after hammering in penalty count
Australian Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has wasted no time in plotting a comeback victory over the Silver Ferns.
The world champion Diamonds went down by a massive 11 goals to the Silver Ferns on Sunday at Hamilton’s Claudelands Arena in the third Constellation Cup test, after decisively dominating the Kiwi side across their nine previous games.
The Ferns’ vastly improved performance gave New Zealand faint hope of claiming the Constellation Cup for the first time since 2012 with a 14-goal win but Alexander isn’t willing to give up the title just yet.
Putting her squad through their paces in a tough training session yesterday — a day earlier than planned — following an “honest conversation” about Sunday’s performance, Alexander said she expected nothing less than a solid comeback in Wellington tomorrow.
“Clearly, yes, we didn’t bring our full intensity to that match, and that’s part of the reason we’ve spoken about the need to do that for this final game,” Alexander told Radio Sport.
“Hopefully no one hasn’t been given the message that last Sunday’s performance was unacceptable from a Diamonds team and that we need to really get out there [tomorrow night] and show how we would like to play and we need to make sure we bring our best to this contest.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get back on and that’s why we started with training [yesterday] . . . we’ve got an opportunity to hit back now and very hard.”
Handling the Diamonds’ tough one-on-one defence style was pinpointed by Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua as a key area for improvement after their 15-goal loss in the series opener.
Although the Ferns held their ground more firmly in the second test, it wasn’t until the series moved to Kiwi soil that the Australian side was held more accountable for their tenacious tactics.
Admitting the Diamonds struggled to maintain their usual composure while accumulating almost double the number of penalties than the Ferns on Sunday, Alexander said it was something she had addressed and she planned to have a conversation with the umpires before the first centre pass.
“What really cost us was those basic errors and the umpires can only do what they do and if we’re dropping balls and stepping . . . we need to address that, that’s our basics that we need to address,” she said.
“We’ve got a few questions we’d like to ask around our defenders especially. We felt we’ve adjusted but we need to find out what further adjustments we need to make.
“It’s been a very stark change coming over here . . . Forty more penalties is not acceptable.”
A fresh starting seven started Sunday’s match, with Australian captain Caitlin Bassett on the bench, but a below average team performance will likely see Alexander call on her strongest line-up to open game four.
Taurua is expected to stick with the same experienced seven she has kept on court for the past nine quarters of the series as she seeks to back up New Zealand’s first positive outcome since April’s abysmal Commonwealth Games campaign.