“The Diamonds are getting used to losing.” These words, from Netball Australia board chair Liz Ellis, cut deeply. But while that could have been a scathing assessment of Sunday’s 18-goal loss to New Zealand that saw the Silver Ferns take an unbeatable 3-0 series lead, it in fact came from 2021 – the last time the Diamonds lost the Constellation Cup.
Perhaps those words provided the team with the spark they needed, or maybe it was simply a team that was rusty from two years of being in and out of lockdown, taking their time to adapt to a new coach. But from there, the Diamonds went on to win back Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and the Netball World Cup in 2023 – both of which they had lost by a solitary goal in the previous cycle.
The Diamonds are one of the world’s most successful sporting teams and their dominance has been so enduring that there is always a lingering feeling that it must come to an end. Over the years, Diamonds players and fans have got used to hearing the death knell sound on the odd occasion when a series is lost or a major tournament goes awry, and have become just as accustomed to bouncing back.
However this latest series loss will give pause to even the most rusted-onfollower, for it is not just the number of losses, but the nature of them that have rocked the netball world.
The 2021 series – in which Ellis questioned the team’s ability to find a way to win – featured three Australian losses, by five, six and two goals. In the middle of that series, Australia also managed to pull off a nine-goal win. Meanwhile in the 2024 series, the Diamonds have lost by 14, 11 and 18 and have not even looked competitive. They have suffered big defeats before – a 25-goal loss to New Zealand in 2005 in a match when Ellis tore her anterior cruciate ligament stands out – but a dig through the history of the Australian team uncovers very few losses with double digit margins. Three such losses in succession is unprecedented – never before has the team lost three matches in a row by more than 10 goals.
Worryingly it is the team’s senior players – who were expected to form the backbone of the team leading into the next two major tournaments – that are headlining the team’s worries. Captain Liz Watson only managed six goal assists in her 35 minutes on court in Sunday’s game, while also giving away three turnovers. Defensive stalwart Courtney Bruce recorded just one deflection and one gain in her 42 minutes, giving up 11 penalties and two turnovers. Paige Hadley – who has been part of the Diamonds set up for almost 12 years – stepped out of court with the ball after a hard-fought gain by her defenders in the third quarter, handing the ball straight back to the Silver Ferns, in a moment that was emblematic of the match.
With two years before the Commonwealth Games and three years until the next Netball World Cup, it is not the worst time for the Diamonds to be facing a crisis. They hold a strong margin at the top of the world rankings list and can afford some losses as they experiment with their team and look for a way to reassert their dominance. Coach Stacey Marinkovich showed her willingness to experiment during Sunday’s match, bringing in the relatively inexperienced Matilda Garrett and Rudi Ellis, along with debutante Georgie Horjus. While the changes did not pay off on the scoreboard, they at least indicate that Marinkovich is open to a changing of the guard. With only pride to play for in the final game of the series, there will be plenty of eyes on the Australian coach to see if she will start her struggling senior players from the bench and give the younger players the benefit of a clean slate, rather handing them than the almost insurmountable task of clawing back a deficit.
Despite the unprecedented situation the Diamonds find themselves in, it is unlikely their era of dominance is over. For all the fears that surrounded the Constellation Cup loss in 2021, the team did not “get used” to losing – the will to win is too deeply embedded in Diamonds’ culture to be lost forever. But how long it will take to dig themselves out of this hole remains to be seen and may come down to the courage to make risky selection calls while time is on their side. If those calculated risks are taken now, this series may become yet another minor slump that ultimately precedes glory.
