Netball International

GAME 2: AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND

L-R: England and Australia after the game. England on the attack.

England coach Jess Thirlby described the Roses’ 61-59 win over the Australian Diamonds at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney as “hugely significant”, while Aussie coach Stacey Marinkovich spoke of the need for her team to find a balance between all out attack and maintaining possession.

It was immediately a very different feel to today’s game from three days ago, as uncharacteristic missed shots at goal and turnovers were a theme early on. The England defensive unit were up for the fight, frustrating the new Diamonds goaler combination of Cara Koenen and Kiera Austin. Funmi Fadoju was the star for England, with eight gains and two intercepts in a Player of the Match performance.

Despite not being at their best, the Diamonds stayed in the contest, and a long bomb from Austin with four seconds to go in the second quarter gave the home side a two goal lead at halftime, much to the delight of the 12,072 noisy home fans.

The Diamonds made changes at halftime, with the Vixens duo of Sophie Garbin and Austin reuniting in the shooting circle, while Tilly Garrett came on in defence in place of homegrown star Amy Parmenter. However England kept at their task, with Lois Pearson’s 26 goal assists and 39 feeds  highs as they kept their nose in front for much of the match.

Stacey Marinkovich made more changes to try and wrestle back momentum, with Rudi Ellis coming and immediately forcing a turnover, and Kate Moloney was put in Wing Defence at one stage late in the match.

But the visitors held on to record a famous win, and its significance wasn’t lost on their coach:

“It’s a hugely significant moment for this team in their journey, but for the Roses full stop. I’m pretty sure it’s only the second or third time we’ve beaten Australia on  Australian soil.

You look at this group, they’re evolving, we’ve got debutants in here, we have got people who have never played Aussie before. That we’ve found a way to win this early in this team’s evolution is really satisfying.”

Jess Thirlby spoke about how the team turned around a 13 goal loss in less than three days:

“We were disappointed with what we put out in game one. There was enough in game one to show that we were with the Diamonds, but it was patchy.

Defensively we knew we had to be bold and brave to be the catalyst. We saw some early signs right at the front of the game that kind of told us that the fix ups we’d spoken about meant that we could build some pressure. We knew that we were in the game even if we didn’t get a lot of ball, but we got the ball at the right time time.”

Giants Super Netball captain Jo Harten is now part of the England coaching team, and while she has a good knowledge of the Aussie players, captain Fran Williams said  it’s other qualities that Jo possesses which benefit the team the most:

She’s English through and through, and I think she gives that team a tactical lift, not just in the knowledge, but also in how she brings energy around our group.

While disappointed with the loss, there didn’t seem to be any signs of panic from Diamonds star Kiera Austin after the game:

International netball is never going to be a blowout game like the first one. Bendigo is another chance to go and get them. There were a lot more ebs and flows in that game than the previous one, so that’s a massive learning for us to not just rely on them happening.

It was a huge day for women’s sport in Sydney, with AFLW, NRLW and the netball being played on the one afternoon in the Harbour City. Kiera said the big crowd for today’s game was a taste of things to come:

We’ve been doing so well getting crowds to games this year, so it’s exciting looking forward to our home World Cup in 2027.

The third and final game of the series will be played in Bendigo later this week.

SCORE:

ENGLAND - 61

AUSTrALIA - 59