Diamonds Ready for Title Defence

Published On: 6 August 2015

Australia wants to set the tone for its Netball World Cup title defence in Sydney, in the first 15 minutes of its opening match, with captain Laura Geitz convinced they’ll be ready.


The Diamonds begin their title defence against Trinidad & Tobago at Sydney’s Allphones Arena on Friday night at 7.05pm (Perth time).


Having wrapped up their preparations with a training session at Netball Central this afternoon, Geitz said the team was eager to take the court and start their pool matches.


“It’s such a short competitive week, it will be here and over and done with before we know it,” Geitz said.

“So we need to make sure we are putting out our A-Grade performances every time.


“The girls are starting to really feel the vibe and energy floating around and excited to have opening ceremony and into our first match.”


The opening match will also be the 1000th match played in Netball World Cup history, which first began in 1963.


Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has declared her squad was “in the best shape possible that we could be in” heading into the start of Netball World Cup.


With matches to come against Barbados (Saturday, 1.20pm Perth time) and arch rivals New Zealand (Sunday, 12.20pm Perth time), over the weekend, Alexander hinted that all 12 athletes would most likely see court time at some stage heading into next week.


“We won’t be taking Trinidad lightly,” Alexander said. “They’re a really proud country and they’re going to put out what their best is in that first quarter as well.”


Geitz believes coming up against the Silver Ferns early in the tournament will only benefit the Diamonds for later in the campaign, highlighting last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where they only overcame England by a goal in a pool round match.


“That was probably a bit of a turning point for us, a really tight match,” Geitz said. “So I think it’s a bit of blessing to have that really big hit out against a challenging opponent and be able to get things set in place heading into the latter part of the week.”


The Australian squad contains two WAIS netball scholarship holders, with Cailtlin Bassett and Natalie Medhurst tipped to play a lead role in the Australian shooting circle.


Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015 will be broadcast in Australia on FOX SPORTS, Network TEN and via the Netball Live app, available to download from the App Store and Google Play.

-NetballAus