2022 Constellation Cup (Oct)

Thank you TB and Ian. You’ve saved me a lot of typing.

`wI agree that it does go both ways. I’m an Aussie and follow all netball and still see the game in general has gotten way too rough. No way was Aussie that physical in the first two tests. THIS comes down to the umpires allowing a certain degree of physical contact. Those Aussie players except prob Chatfield that mentioned above are/were rough and dirty, they usually take the body when the attacker is in the air or on uncertain footing or taking landing spaces, late hits etc… which is extremely dangerous play and shouldn’t be allowed.

Just maning up to the body I have no problems with and fair contest. You see cautions and warnings handed out for the exact same play in SSN and ANZP so why not internationally? Rules are the same just different umpires. Yes Aussie are number 1 but doesn’t mean everyone enjoys their playing style especially those netball purists that value skill over smash and bash. The Aussie defenders absolutely have the skill set to win the ball much cleaner than they do, they just choose not to because they can get away with it.

Now @Ian I will disagree with you there that Davu was the only player that took it too far.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Nate.

@nate – I am not going to use the word rough but the aussies were not as physical in the first 2 tests because they were outmuscled by NZ. Even as an Aussie supporter, I can respect that.

NZ held strong because they had good service from the midcourt. Australia also didn’t have the experience necessary to body up to NZs strength, Bruce at GD and the inexperience of Parmenter, Aryang and RBD showed.

Weston and Price created far more opportunities for Bruce because they were tight and relentless on their players.

As an Aussie my only concern after last night is how much stronger Nweke will be after that game. She battled on and didn’t let it get to her. Her feeders, not so much.

Ekenasio had a bad game, she won’t have 2 in a row. And the fact that ferns can beat Australia twice without, crampton, Burger and Watson is impressive

Nothing wrong with the physicality of that game. There has been way worse in some of the recent SSN matches.

The players are SO much stronger physically than they have ever been – so I don’t know how people expect netball to remain the same? Physicality is part of the game’s growth and we need to grow with it!

The issue for me re the umpiring, is that in the 2 games in NZ the umpires called contacts all over the place. 3 days later in the games in Australia, same group of umpires let most of it go.

What changed, were the instructed to???

I’m all for physical games, but there is a line between physical and dirty and I think the diamonds defence at times crossed that line in that game. I’m not saying the ferns don’t go just as hard but I think their physicality is a lot more targeted towards getting the ball, whereas sometimes it seemed like Bruce and Weston were grossly physical for the sake of it and that comes across as dirty. I’ve been coached that way before “get in their heads early and rough them up until the umpire calls you in to line” sort of scenario and in this case the umpires didn’t so they continued the whole game. It was bad to watch at times.

On an unrelated note, I think Steph Wood thrives more when anyone other than Koenan is at GS and I can’t seem to figure out why..?

Interesting theory re-Koenan but doesn’t really explain Wood…
Wood scored almost half of Aussie goals though so suggests to me she was in the circle a lot so why doesn’t she have the same volume with Koenan?