As far as national squads go, the 2024/25 Australian Diamonds is an important one. They are at the start of a four year cycle building towards a home World Cup at the end of it, with the event to be played in Sydney during Netball Australia’s 100th anniversary year.
With so much on the line, the selectors have had to juggle rewarding those who’ve campaigned so successfully in the past and are still at the peak of their game, adding in new players who will challenge for a place in the 12, and trying to cover contingencies from retirements to injury.
National coach Stacey Marinkovich shares some frank insights on her selections.
You have had some massive achievements in your first four year cycle, including gold at the most recent Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup, although there have been a few losses sprinkled in there. In this current cycle, Australia will hold a home World Cup in 2027 – does that change your planning at all?
We are in a slightly different phase as we have a bit more time. When I first came into the job we had two years from that first appointment effectively, this time it’s the full four years. Our list has a really good blend of youth and experience which creates a competitive environment, and makes sure we have a ready made list of players in case some players don’t go the distance to the World Cup.
At the same time, if there’ s a lot of retirees after the World Cup, we are continuing to make sure the Diamonds have sustained success with really smooth transition of players.
Having a home World Cup is much more encompassing than playing overseas. You want to be able to connect with your community, to showcase the sport in the best way. So there’s the performance on the court, but there’s also the interaction and role that players and staff need to have off the court.
Diamonds celebrate with their NWC 2023 banner. Image – Aliesha Vicars
There is a different kind of pressure that comes with a home World Cup, and of the players, only Paige (Hadley) has had that experience before. How do you handle the challenges that go with that pressure?
You are fortunate every time you put a Diamonds’ uniform on – you are in an environment that comes with expectation, so the athletes have a good understanding of pressure.
But obviously it will be different, more loved ones around, more familiar spectators. So it will create an atmosphere for the players, but the expectation is also more, as opposed to when you are tucked away in South Africa with a smaller group of people around you.
There’s obviously going to be some psychology around it, plus being really clear on our roles and responsibilities, our systems, how that’s going to evolve or change. We will work through that at as a group. The best thing to be able to do is table all those thoughts and feelings, and work through what we need to put in place to allow us to focus on the task at hand.
We also need to embrace a pretty significant and special occasion.
Hannah Mundy has been impressive for the Vixens. Image Clinton Bradbury/Bradbury Photography
You have three new inclusions: Hannah Mundy, Georgie Horjus and Ash Ervin.
The exciting part of the youth that we’ve brought into the squad is that they’ve shown they can play against world class athletes across their SSN experience. Their new challenge point becomes consistency and international competition against various styles of play.
We have to get them into our training environment to see them in the Diamonds context, playing in different partnerships and under different strategies, because it goes to a different level of intensity and speed of game.
We see what that looks like for those players, then progress to debut with the support of experienced players around them.
I liked what you said before the interview started, that your responsibility is not just to have success at the World Cup but to look towards the future of Australian netball as well. Sport is cyclical and your squad appears to have overlapping youth and experience to cope with the unexpected.
We’ve certainly made sure that we don’t just bring in a group of youth and take away our experience, because the reality is our experienced players are absolutely flying in the SSN at the moment.
I don’t select based on age. Age just brings an awareness that you track the players and their performances, and make sure that their bodies are robust. Equally, you don’t leave players out because they are youthful. If they are ready to step up and challenge, then we want to be prepared to put them out on court.
We have some great young talent that needs to be polished, and some experienced players are continuing to lead the way.
Georgie Horjus gets the shot up, despite defensive pressure. Image: Hannah Howard/On the Ball media.
Ash Ervin troubled Grace Nweke at Fast5 last year, and took a big step up against Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard last weekend. By bringing her into the group, you have the option of running Courtney Bruce or Sarah Klau at goal defence and Jo Weston at wing defence, giving you a really tall defence.
That is the point. Goal keepers are becoming a lot more versatile, they are playing across the goal defence position as well and Ash does have a presence in the circle. She does need to continue to build the strength and power that comes with the evolution from a youthful athlete to an experienced one.
Ash Ervin is continuing a wonderful season. Image: Kylie at CBK Photography
There’s always unfortunately a few players that miss out – this year it was Maddy Proud and Ruby Bakewell-Doran who were cut. What are your thoughts on their omission.
With Maddy, it’s one of those occasions where there is a huge amount of depth and competition across that midcourt. We’ve got a blanket of players of similar age groups so we need to look for the next layer to come through and challenge. Unfortunately, I can’t take everyone. Maddy is working really hard recovering from her knee injury and we will continue to support and connect with Swifts around that.
It’s similar with Ruby. We have changed the balance of the squad – we’ve added another goal keeper with some height which could see some of our existing players move forwards. We needed to balance the squad, because otherwise we are goal defence heavy so we had to find a way to get our numbers right. Again, we will have those feedback discussions with Ruby, and continue to work with Firebirds on her development plan.
You’ve included two invitees – Em Mannix and Lucy Austin, who are at opposite ends of the experience scale. Mannix is having a great season and has previous Diamonds experience. Is she a ready made addition if there is an injury to a key defender?
We’ve changed the structure of how we use the invitee. It’s really purposeful in the exposure that they get – it’s not a one-off occasion. They get the opportunity to show that their domestic skills are transferable into the Diamonds.
Emily is having a standout year, showing that she can impact across two positions, and for us, we want to see more. We’ve had some strong performing combinations in the Diamonds environment, so now what does her involvement look like amongst those players, and do we elevate her into the squad or to continue to strengthen her relationship with the defenders.
Lucy Austin has put a lot of work into her game and conditioning over the past two years, although unfortunately isn’t getting as much court time this year.
Lucy did an incredible amount of work and also played very strongly for us in the Fast5 competition. She’s shown she’s got the athleticism, a shot that she can take from anywhere in the circle. Whilst she’s playing a specific role for Thunderbirds and is having varying court time, by having her as an invitee, we can get our hands on her and set a connected development programme with her SSN club.
We can also see how we can assist her progression, so she continues to be part of our pathway because she has got some very strong attributes. Working with some experienced players around her will help her game to improve further.
You lost two players to retirement who you will need to find alternatives for – goal attack Steph Fretwell and wing defence Ash Brazill. In the shooting circle Kiera Austin has really stepped up in a successful Vixens outfit, but it’s perhaps been harder for Sophie Dwyer in a team that’s struggling.
I have a really different opinion to the outside world in terms of some player’s performances. We’ve had some good communication with Sophie, and Julie (Fitzgerald) is a huge supporter of the Diamonds. There are attributes that Sophie has been focusing on in her game that I can see are really developing.
We can get caught up in the win/loss or a particular stat, but there’s a lot more to the game and she is taking some really good steps. We have to take a SSN performance for what it is, but then we have to transfer it to that Diamonds context and playing with different players around her.
We saw at Nations Cup Sophie transitioned really nicely and showed strong development, and I don’t see that’s gone backwards. We will see where we continue to target her continued growth when we come back together.
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