Diamonds off to a Winning Start
The Australian Diamonds have had a terrific start to their 2017 Netball Quad Series campaign defeating both the New Zealand Silver Ferns and the South Africa SPAR Proteas in Durban.
The opening match of the series was a Trans-Tasman clash between Australia and traditional rivals, the New Zealand Silver Ferns.
Allowing their opposition no time to ease in to the game the Diamonds quickly pulled away to a four goal lead before New Zealand were able to score one.
This strong start saw the Diamonds lead 16 to 10 at the first quarter break, a lead the Silver Ferns were never able to recover.
Australia proved why they are the current Netball World Champions, taking out the game with a comfortable 57 to 50 goal victory.
Diamonds Head Coach, Lisa Alexander praised her side saying “I put the challenge out to the whole team; there was no reason why we couldn’t turn over ball in the centre passes. There was a real hunger off the first centre pass. It was terrific to see and we have to continue to build on that full team defensive effort.”
Heading into game two against the South Africa SPAR Proteas Alexander said “South Africa will be a different opponent, as they won’t put the zone on quite as much as New Zealand. Tonight we were really concentrating on our own game, and we will do so in preparation for our next test match.”
Australia began their match against the Proteas in a similar fashion to the game against the Silver Ferns, this time scoring five goals before their opponents registered on the scoreboard.
Not reflected within the score the South Africans placed immense pressure on the Australian side right from the first whistle.
Australian midcourter, Gabi Simpson said “we knew that South Africa were going to come out strong, you can never underestimate a South African team.”
“We were definitely prepared to really give it a good crack; we were expecting good first ball contest and that is exactly what we got.”
Quarter time saw the Diamonds in front 17 to 9, a score margin that continued to increase at every break.
Despite the 62 to 46 goal victory Lisa Alexander said that her team’s play was far from perfect.
“We allowed their frenetic play to infect us and affect our composure at times. Our decision making went out the window – that was a little disappointing but it certainly points towards a few things that we need to fix for the next Test against England.”
“Too many times we were looking down at one option and putting pressure on that instead of using our swings and our double plays and our ball movement,” Alexander said.
Simpson spoke about how they had made improvements in their full court defensive pressure in the game against the Proteas, “we’ve been working really hard on our full court defence, right from goal shooter right down to goal keeper and having seven people active in our defensive play at all times. We were able to force a lot of turnover that way tonight.”
The Australian Diamonds will now head to London where they will take on England this Sunday night (AWST) in their final match of the Quad Series.
The side will be looking to build upon their previous performances in order to maintain their winning run and assert their dominance within the sport on the world stage.