‘We’re not far off’: Coach Stacey Marinkovich on Diamonds’ Netball World Cup squad, selection process

The Diamonds’ head coach then dissects the performances with her co-selectors, Sydneysider Annie Sargeant and WA-based Michelle Wilkins as, gradually, methodically, the pieces of the World Cup player puzzle are slotted into place.

“We’re not far off,” Marinkovich tells CODE Sports of the whittling-down process. “Obviously it’s just getting the mix of the squad right, and we don’t have long to go, so we’d have to be pretty much 80 per cent there, I think.

“Then it’s just making some of those tougher decisions, or it’s reassuring (ourselves) that what we’ve got is going to be the right balance.’’

There are 21 in the current squad, including the pregnant Gretel Bueta and the unfortunate Tara Hinchliffe — the recent Diamonds’ debutante who re-ruptured her ACL during the pre-season Team Girls Cup.

Up to 22, but typically a couple fewer to leave some wriggle room, will be named in a fortnight, then trimmed to the 12 — plus three reserves who, for the first time, should be available as permanent injury/illness replacements — to travel to Cape Town ahead of the first whistle on July 28.

Pipped by a goal by New Zealand in the 2019 final in Liverpool, top-ranked Australia is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and has won or shared 11 of the 15 previous titles, but only held both pinnacle event trophies at the same time twice.

What recent form and results suggest, and Marinkovich confirms, is that the incumbents will be difficult to dislodge.

“Going into a World Cup it’s hard to crack into the team, there’s no doubt. We’ve had some good success,’’ says Marinkovich, who replaced Lisa Alexander in 2020, and has a 19-6 record plus one draw in 26 Tests.

“And the other part is you need time together as a group and that’s something we’ve been able to do particularly over the last 12 months … is make sure that our entire squad was able to get in and get hands on ball and get some combinations out there that we hadn’t seen in greater detail.

“So it’s then weighing up what’s happening in the rest of the countries. The New Zealand league is in full swing, and then there’s the England league, so you’ve just to keep an eye on other areas, to know what we’re coming up against.’’

As to roughly how much consideration is given to the aspiring Diamonds’ form at club level, relative to previous efforts internationally, with several players famously vaulting into past teams on the back of brilliant late efforts, Marinkovich insists she has not thought of it in percentage terms.

“I think there’s a large portion where we do look at our Diamonds performances and what we see within our environment, we do put some decent weight on that, because I have a very limited time with the girls going into World Cup,’’ she says of the quick turnaround between the Super Netball grand final on July 8, and the Diamonds’ staging camp two days later.

“So you need to have some embedded combinations that understand the game plan, but we certainly want to understand what people are doing and their performances in SSN — what transfers and what the girls need to target, when they’re in their club land, that may be a little bit different to the way we do things in Diamonds.’’

Marinkovich says her own transition from SSN to Diamonds has been aided by the communication and co-operation from the national league cohort. “It’s upfront. We have really good, open and challenging conversations,’’ she adds. “So we support the girls trying to win premierships and the clubs are supporting us trying to win gold medals. It’s working well.’’

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Exhibit A: Collingwood head coach Nicole Richardson is also Marinkovich’s assistant with the Diamonds.

Exhibit B: The Magpies deploy Sophie Garbin almost exclusively in a position that is neither her favourite or best; nor is goal attack where she would play for the Diamonds should Garbin make her World Cup debut in Cape Town against Pool A minnows Tonga, Zimbabwe and Fiji.

With Bueta unavailable, vice-captain Steph Wood and her Lightning partner Cara Koenen certain selections and Kiera Austin ahead of Sophie Dwyer in the duel for the second GA spot, Garbin is presently favoured to edge out Firebird Donnell Wallam for the holding shooter’s bib.

“Stacey has spoken to me about just making sure I’m still strong and executing, and I don’t have to worry too much about not playing goal shooter; just still executing the skills that the Diamonds selectors are looking for,” Garbin said on Fox Netball last weekend about her different roles for club and country, while Marinkovich believes the West Australian has improved physically and aerobically from playing further up the court.

Wallam, meanwhile, surely the most-discussed netballer of 2022 given the Hancock Prospecting sponsorship contretemps and that emotional debut against the Roses, has only one position. And is playing there.

The 29-year-old has struggled at times for the still-winless Firebirds but was a standout in the Queenslanders’ late comeback against the unbeaten West Coast Fever on Sunday and is averaging 48.8 points — behind only Jhaniele Fowler, and with inferior accuracy, but also willing to shoot from longer range.

“Whilst there was a lot of outside noise around Donnell, I think she shows that she is really committed to performing on the court, and this is only her second year, so she continues to grow in terms of her knowledge of the game but also the different on-court scenarios,’’ Marinkovich says.

“Obviously defenders are starting to adjust as they get to understand her game more. So you always see players have some good consistency and have some great match-ups against some players and then they’ll be challenged in a different way in other games, and I guess that’s the part where we’re looking is how do they adapt and adjust in those moments.’’

More generally, Marinkovich was satisfied that the Hancock drama was unable to derail the performance-first approach of a unified and committed group during a stellar calendar year.

“That was our job. That was our responsibility. That’s the commitment we’ve made in putting your hand up to be a part of the Diamonds group,’’ says the coach, who never wore the gold dress in her own 98-game domestic career.

“I think there was a really steely focus that just shows how driven this group is to make sure that they don’t waste opportunities in representing their country.’’

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At the pointy end of the biggest female participant sport in the land, those chances can be hard to get. In a stacked midcourt, particularly.

Marinkovich says the contenders are all athletic, exceptional at maintaining possession, dogged in defence, and with the fitness to see out games and outrun opponents. Most are also of a similar mid-late 20s age, settled in their domestic environments and thus with established combinations and an understanding of what’s expected. “So it’s hard to pick but it’s a great problem to have.’’

Even outside the squad, transplanted shooter Alice Teague-Neeld is having a superb season at wing attack for the Fever and leading SSN for goal assists and centre pass receives, so pressing for a place in the 22.

With captain Liz Watson and Paige Hadley both definites, 33-year-old Ash Brazill is likely to be preferred at WD/C over Amy Parmenter for her already-declared swan song, leaving either Commonwealth Games centre Kate Moloney or in-form Jamie-Lee Price in an arm-wrestle for the final spot.

Price was in Liverpool four years ago. Moloney was not.

Moloney rose to the occasion in Birmingham last year in Hadley’s absence. Price, an emergency, was devastated to miss out, but has since responded well to the selectors’ feedback.

“She’s a very driven and competitive athlete,’’ Marinkovich says of the robust Giant. “She’s been a great addition to our Diamonds squad and has certainly stepped out on the international court as well, so she continues to raise the bar and challenge.’’

The defenders, despite Ruby Bakewell-Doran’s best efforts, are likely to remain unchanged, with Sunday Aryang and Jo Weston — whose pre-season was compromised by a calf injury — both capable of providing cover on the wing and adding to the versatility of the group.

“Sometimes you change things up by strategy,’’ says Marinkovich, “and sometimes you change the dynamic by personnel.’’

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With apologies for drizzling on the parade of a few would-be late bolters, the good news for those still seeking to impress is that Marinkovich is scheduled to watch each team in person three times.

Which provides an alternative view and additional insights, such as what’s being done off the ball. Long court broadcast vision is tagged and coded, and everything used in conjunction with the existing data set from the Diamonds’ bulging bank.

“So SSN is a little portion of it, and then we’ve got a lot of other things that we’ve been doing along the way to really shape our decision-making,’’ Marinkovich says.

“Obviously any time a player comes into our environment it’s what they do in training in that combination with others that we look at, then the performance of the Diamonds in all our international series.

“So understanding the level that we’re at, what we’re trying to strive towards and where are those gaps and what are the skill sets needed to be able to bridge them.’’

The captaincy and vice-captaincy are, of course, selection-dependent, but that will be a formality should injury not intervene, with praise from the coach for Watson and Wood’s drive of both cultural behaviours and standards of performance.

Yet margins remain small at the sport’s top end and, by the time of the first centre pass in Cape Town, it will be six months since the Diamonds’ last: during a six-goal eclipse of Noeline Taurua’s Silver Ferns.

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“If I had the girls day in, day out, week in, week out, you certainly would know where our performance sat really closely, but when you have these breaks between coming together you never feel just ‘comfortable’. So you’ve got to get the connection and cohesion happening, you’ve got to reinstall the way we want to play,” Marinkovich says.

“But it’s nice to, I guess, have earned the right to say that we’re world No.1 with this group of players, and also our high performance staff, because when we first came in we had the title but we hadn’t earned it or contributed to the success of the Diamonds.

“So it’s nice to be able to say that we’ve added to the legacy. But there’s another big competition to go and I guess in some ways it’s OK to feel uncomfortable, because it keeps us really honest at the same time.’’