Bianca Chatfield: Diamonds who proved the doubters wrong with Commonwealth Games gold

There’s no doubt Marinkovich has been under a lot of pressure. In an era where there’s so much media and so many places to have conversations about netball, I feel during the past two years she’s really had to bunker down and wait for this moment.

And, through Covid, Marinkovich has had the least amount of time of any Australian coach to be able to prepare a team for a Commonwealth Games. So she deserves a lot of credit for what she’s been able to do, how she’s been able to bring this team together, and for making the calls that were needed.

I loved that she owned it after the loss to Jamaica in the round game and said: “I made the changes too late; that’s something I need to go back and review.”

This time, the changes came at exactly the right time.

Firstly, moving Gretel Bueta out to goal attack and bringing on Cara Koenen — who played a much stronger game than I probably expected — at shooter.

Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson were starting to get their confidence back and get hand-to-ball, and that change to two tall, moving shooters really shocked and unsettled the Sunshine Girls’ defenders in a way we hadn’t seen before.

Then, at the other end, injecting Sarah Klau into keeper and Courtney Bruce coming out to goal defence exposed Jamaica’s lack of a Plan B, while Australia had many more options they could have tried, too.

The main decision you would question over the whole Australian campaign was the decision to risk an injured Paige Hadley.

She brings leadership experience and I know that counts for a lot off the court but you have to ask when they knew the severity of the injury, because if anything had happened to another of the midcourters or the load on the other three became too great, it could have backfired.

Happily, it didn’t.

With the World Cup now less than a year away, the Australians have put themselves in a great position to regain that title, as well.

But Jamaica will go away and do their homework. I don’t know if it’s just more court-time and experience in their midcourt that will help bridge the gap completely, but they’re close, and that’s the exciting part.

Jamaica could have won the gold. They didn’t, but they could win the gold at the World Cup.

Distinctions

The Diamonds

In the past we’ve been critical of the Diamonds for not making enough changes or making too many, but Marinkovich got this just right in the final. Bringing on Klau and Koenen changed the game.

Kate Moloney and Ash Brazill really owned their positions through the tournament. I remember talking to Kate on the day the players were getting their selection phone calls and she doubted she was going to even make the team.

So just to see her go from that moment, then to be the starting centre, play every minute in both finals, and play in every important game, I think her passion and the steadiness she adds in the centre was a crucial link.

Her Vixens’ teammate Lizzy Watson has always been the lock at wing attack and Kate’s had to really prove her worth. Even though it’s come off the back of Hadley’s injury, she seized this opportunity and showed everyone she can do it.

I think that combination and understanding between Kate and Liz really did help the team in moments when things weren’t going their way.

So did having a rock solid wing defence like Braz. She put her AFLW career on hold to concentrate on netball, and there’s been times she’s been written off as a Diamonds’ player, so her performances in Birmingham were great to see.

Gretel Bueta. What an absolute superstar.

This is really the first time she’s been able to showcase her brilliance and athleticism in both shooting positions. To me, the best way to watch the Australian Diamonds play is when the circle is full of movement and we’re not relying on someone who is just taller than everybody else.

If you think back to when Gretel first started, her accuracy was always a huge question. So was her volume. Now she barely misses and you’re so confident every time she has the ball in her hand.

This season, especially, it’s the fittest we’ve ever seen her, but she’s so strong at the same time. I don’t know what’s changed, whether it has something to do with strength and conditioning programs or it’s just age and maturity, but I hope Gretel stays around for a long time because she is just brilliant.

Jamaica

From typically finishing third or fourth, they’ve shown they are real contenders by taking the silver and beating Australia for the first time ever to top Group A, then beat New Zealand in the semis.

Australian Rob Wright was such a valuable inclusion into their coaching set-up. The pivotal moment for me that showed his influence was in that round game, when he said to Wilson not to worry about Bueta but to go out onto Steph Wood because she was the main feeder. As soon as she did that it turned the game around.

Jhaniele Fowler

She’s been great in Super Netball.

She was great in the Commonwealth Games.

But not unbeatable.

Passes

Uganda

Not just because of how and how well they performed; to have another team that’s climbing is great for the sport, because they challenged everyone they played against.

They remind me of Malawi a few years ago. Peace Proscovia was taking on more of a coaching role than a playing role, and that’s the expertise gained from Super Netball coming through in helping these other countries.

The She-Cranes play with such flair. They attack the ball. They’re not scared. They have no fear playing against the world’s best and they just try and own the court.

New Zealand

We weren’t sure what we were going to get from this Ferns line-up. You never want to doubt them, but they didn’t have a team with the ability to win gold this time.

There were quite a few positives, though: They got better over the tournament and were able to beat England for the bronze. Coach Noeline Taurua is trying to reset and build on the way to the World Cup, and this is the very start of it. They have good players to come back in, and they got some more international experience into the likes of Grace Nweke, Kelly Jury and Kate Heffernan.

Shaquanda Greene-Noel

The Trinidad and Tobago captain was a real eye-catcher, playing every minute of every game and averaging 8.2 gains. The UK Superleague signing period is about to open. Watch this space.

International rules

No Super Shot meant no get-out-of jail-card for players like Jo Harten and Helen Housby, who dominate with the two-pointer in SSN.

I don’t mind coaching time-outs, but I do really appreciate players having to grind it out and problem-solve for themselves when they’re out there on court. I think that is the true version of our game.

Rolling subs should probably come in, though, to end this charade of calling an injury time in order to make a substitution outside the quarter breaks.

Fails

England

They had an ageing list. Two of their key defenders have retired, and Geva Mentor, at her sixth Commonwealth Games, is 37 years old.

The whole defence-end will need a fresh look and that does take time to build, so I think the Roses will really struggle to fill the shoes of some of those departing.

Have some of them stayed around too long?

This was their moment to prove they still had it. Unless there’s young English defenders hammering down the door, then I guess the answer is no, but you have to wonder whether the Roses have been able to put enough time into the emerging defensive group to see who’s coming through and who gets the next opportunity.

Where is their Sunday Aryang equivalent? A player like that, who we know doesn’t need to be out there right now but is learning and developing in the Diamonds’ environment? What I would worry about for England is who’s next?

In attack, Harten was battling through with her knee injury, and even though Ellie Cardwell has got such promise, they really didn’t have enough up that end to take on the world’s best defenders — especially without the Super Shot to fall back on.

As the host nation, yes, the pressure was on England, but they also had huge support from packed-out stadiums and couldn’t make the most of it. This was their big chance.

A big fail, too, for blaming the umpires after their semi-final loss to the Ferns. That was a really cheap shot, because the calls, good and bad, were going both ways.

Neutral umpire police

The best umpires should be selected, regardless of nationality.

Still, the fact that they weren’t did not affect one particular team. People in the stands might question that but, watching on TV, it didn’t seem like there were outrageous things happening that decided matches, and it was the same at both ends of the court.