Is the Diamonds' worrying form another minor slump or a hole too big to climb out of? | Megan Maurice

10/28/2024 06:21 PM

After going 3-0 down in the Constellation Cup to New Zealand, losing has become an all-too familiar feeling for Australia's netball team

"The Diamonds are getting used to losing." These words, from Netball Australia board chair Liz Ellis, cut deeply. But while that could have been a scathing assessment of Sunday's 18-goal loss to New Zealand that saw the Silver Ferns take an unbeatable 3-0 series lead, it in fact came from 2021 – the last time the Diamonds lost the Constellation Cup.

Perhaps those words provided the team with the spark they needed, or maybe it was simply a team that was rusty from two years of being in and out of lockdown, taking their time to adapt to a new coach. But from there, the Diamonds went on to win back Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and the Netball World Cup in 2023 – both of which they had lost by a solitary goal in the previous cycle.