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The final moments.
The ecstasy.
The glory.#NWC2023 • #NetballWorldCup pic.twitter.com/4M961JbV3F
— Netball Scoop (@NetballScoop) August 6, 2023
Best defender – Courtney Bruce
Best mid – Kate Heffernen
Best shooter – Helen Housby
Tournament MVP – Helen Housby pic.twitter.com/CEiANNFwoC— Jenny Sinclair (@summerhill1003) August 6, 2023
An emotional Ash Brazill has revealed how a Helen Housby jab inspired the Diamonds to #NWC2023 gold in her final gamehttps://t.co/cz3vnL7LRV
— Fox Netball (@fox_netball) August 6, 2023
Congrats Aus, excellent full team effort and stellar games from Austin, Weston and Garbin in particular. Who knew Keira would be the hidden gamechanger (even moreso than Garbin) but well deserved MVP and so pleased for her continued successful trajectory after coming back from that devastating ACL. Bruce really standing up at the end too to drive the nail in the coffin for the Roses when the wheels started falling off. Lovely post-match interview with Braz too.
Hard not to feel frustrated by yet another set of incredibly rogue Thirlby coaching decisions arguably cost England a real shot at a closer margin, if not an actual win (as can’t take away credit from Aus’ form today). It took maybe 5m to revert the change from Funmi at GK back to Mentor, but 45m+ to put on Pitman after Metcalf Vs Braz exactly as it has done every single Aus game in history? Taking off Fran and Imo after they repeatedly proved themselves to be the match winning ball winners for the team? Malcolm on at C after she did a good job at WD in the pool match/semi and hadn’t been used there for ages? Swapping Housby and Cardwell without a concurrent WA switch, when Housby was basically our WA and GA?
With Geva retiring and no real experienced GK incumbent, and Helen hitting career-best form this year, along with the unexpected injury to Nweke this tournament, I do fear it will have been the Roses’ best shot at gold for a good while. Notwithstanding all that they still have an enormous amount to be proud of in getting silver – defying most people’s expectations in bouncing back from the CWG disaster and breaking historical records several times. Just seen that Housby won Player of the Tournament too!
Really do hope we’ll see a new coach for the next cycle (could Harten make the leap from support coach to a more permanent role??), but what a great world cup and thanks Ian and everyone at NS for all the hard work in keeping us in the loop with all the action!
Knew the Diamonds weren’t going to let gold slip through their fingers in the rematch.
Love the above comments from Brazill.
Unexpected to see Wood off for such a large part of the game, but Austin and Garbin obviously got the job done. I bet the Aussie supporters are glad Garbin got that second GS spot!
Enjoy the win Diamonds, but as you say Ian re England, they should be proud of their earlier NZ and Aus scalps.
Speaking of, grin viewing waking up this morning for this Ferns fan. I didn’t watch the game but caught the interviews. Disappointing for Crampton to not be able to finish her (potentially) last game for the Ferns and Watson to see such minimal court time, in saying that looked like we got sufficient turnover ball. The post mortem will be interesting.
And congrats to Jamaica for taking that game. Teams of 5-10+ years ago would have turned up to the bronze medal game and lost by 20+ goals because they just didn’t have the resilience. They have that in bucket loads now..
Thank you, Ian, for all your work on this forum. Congratulations to the Diamonds, at least my heart was in better shape than during the Aus Jamaica match.
I wonder if this will encourage NZ to open up to their players playing in other leagues, as I think that’s been the clearest cause of the improvement of England, South Africa and Jamaica etc.
When considering the NZL performance, it is important to remember that they would have had very good chances of making the Gold Medal match if Jamaica and England lost Fowler and Cardwell. However I’ve been surprised and disappointed with how poorly their players have been able to endure the intensity. It has really shown in their Fourth Quarters, where they had pretty poor showings in their last four matches. I guess this is an unpopular opinion in NZL, but I think it’s very obvious that their players struggle from playing in a competition that has far lower intensity than SSN. They were a goal away from finishing 5th. Even Debbie Fuller said it in her post-match interview with other words.
Jamaica were not at their best but considering they lost a heart-breaker the day before they were solid. They were not quite as strong across the tournament as they were at CWG last year, which might be a reflection of the long seasons many of their stars had. The midcourt is still a weakness.
As for the Gold Medal match, Garbin and Austin were simply fantastic. The ball was absolutely flying through the attack. England made too many mistakes in attack and there probably should have been some changes earlier on (like Williams/Fadoju at GD, Pitman at WA), but I don’t think it would have made a difference to the end result. England should be proud of their tournament; a Silver medal is a great achievement and they should feel relieved they never had to play Jamaica.
I wonder if we will see any retirements in the coming weeks. Wood, Ekenasio, Jane Watson etc. all seem like they might be done with Internationals.
I thought Nassanga would’ve won player of the tournament, considering she won 3 player of the matches.
Awesome to see reserves receiving medals as well, even if they didn’t get on court. (Hoping I have got that correct as I didn’t watch the medal presentation).
Speaking of medals, did anyone else notice the medals were titled “Vitality netball World Cup”
I know the talk has previously been that the Diamonds suffer from having no import limit in SSN.
But Quad Series, Comm Games, Constellation Cup and now World Champs? I would argue the imports make the Diamonds better because of the calibre of players from across the world they have to play against week on week. AND it grows world netball.
Will this result make NNZ reconsider their approach?
Great point D-fencr. I am a buzzing Diamonds supporter today. I was nervous about how they would go without Bueta at this tournament, but they were so good. So well deserved. Commiserations to England.
Thank you for all the coverage NS and Ian.
I doubt they will change those rules just based off this tournament. If they get 4th (or lower) at the next world’s then may be.. Sky will have concerns about the ANZP if Ferns were playing overseas, and would probably bargain down on what they will pay for broadcast rights. Sadly, money talks in the real world…
Losing Nweke threw a spanner in the works. You might say the rest of the team should have been better but let’s be honest, no one was planning for Wilson to be in GS outside of an impact role. The game plans would all have heavily revolved around Nweke.
I’m surprised Heffernan got midcourter of the tournament. I think her attacking game got exposed a bit. Let’s remember she had something like 10 test caps prior to this tournament. She will grow from this and be amazing in the future.
The defensive selections really irked me. The Jury-Burger-Watson combo could have worked against England but not Jamaica – Jury showed impact on Fowler in that 3rd place game. And she seems to work best with Karaka. But why wasn’t Burger in at WD??? Heffernan should have played C instead in that game, but Gordon suddenly started…
Can’t wait for the next episode of inside netball.
I was also surprised about the midcourter of the tournament. No disrespect to Heffernan, I think she is great, but is anyone seriously suggesting she had a better tournament than Liz Watson?
I know NZ is bitterly disappointed with this tournament, but I am sick of the excuses that are rampant on social media at the moment. I keep seeing comments that the NZ team is young and Australia is so much more experienced. That’s rubbish – NZ has more test caps. Then it is “we’re (NZ) rebuilding”. Again ridiculous. Look at the players Australia and England have lost in the last few years and they’re not focused on that. Then you get the NZ lost Nweke thread. Yes that is a blow, but if you have nothing else to go to then you’re not good enough. There are 11 other players in your squad and reserves. I will also say Nweke is no cure all. To think that is to completely disregard the incredible international defence she would’ve encountered, many of whom love contesting the high ball. Social media induced rant over.
Rob Wright was on CBass and Courtney Tairi podcast a few weeks ago. He did say it’s hard to beat the Diamonds twice in a tournament. He recalled 2015 when the Ferns won the round game but couldn’t back it up in the GF. 2019 was different as Diamonds won their round game against the Ferns.
Even test series, you barely see a team take 2 wins in a row off the Diamonds. -
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