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Clinical Aussies all class in crunch
Bill Casey – Newcastle Herald
SHE was costing them the game, so they took her off. Who cares whether it was her last game? Who cares whether she has been the very guts of netball for years? A record-breaker. The captain. A super goal-shooter for 15 years in internationals. The be-all and end-all of the game, I suppose. Too bad. You’re having a bad game. Off. Benched.
It won it for them. The very clinical professionalism of the callous indifference to Vicki Wilson’s feelings. The Australian women’s netball team is the most professional Australian team of them all. More professional than the rugby league Kangaroos, far more than our cricketers, and certainly more than the Wallabies.
The netballers are a mighty team. They know winning is what it is all about. Not ‘doing the right thing’. It’s so easy to overlook the hard decisions. It’s just as easy to hide on the coach’s bench as it is to hide on the field of play.
On Saturday night the Australians beat New Zealand 42-41 to win the world championship in Christchurch. That’s each championship of the ’90s. Three of them. They beat New Zealand by a point in 1991 and South Africa in Birmingham in 1995.
So don’t think it’s only New Zealand. We don’t say ‘it’s only New Zealand’ when it’s the All Blacks. Think of the Australian celebrations when Australia beat the All Blacks. As many countries play netball as play cricket. Or rugby league. And hard-nosed coaching is what it is all about.
It all started off with Joyce Brown, who in my opinion was the greatest achieving coach Australia has produced. Of anything. She had the team until 1994 and made the Australian netball team a superb unit. The present coach, Jill McIntosh, kept her nerve on Saturday night when Australia was six down and Gone to Gowings.
Wilson had missed four easy shots in the third quarter. It was her last game but McIntosh couldn’t be motherly, matey. No. McIntosh had a job to do, a responsibility to not let down other people. Players, a country.
She had already thrown the youngest girl on the bench, Sharelle McMahon, into the game and decided Adelaide’s established hardhead Jenny Borlase was the player to replace Vicki Wilson. She and McMahon did the job.
Afterwards, they said it was a perfect way for Wilson to finish her career. They didn’t mention her faults in the game, but only her overall career. Wilson has always been part of the most professional team in Australia. She knew McIntosh had made the right decision.
She made two comments afterwards. “One of our best wins. Probably my worst game.” She could have made a third. We’re not playing a game for mothers and daughters. We’re playing world-class sport.’ That’s how this Australian team has changed the face of netball.