The Australian Diamonds are unaccustomed to having a bare trophy cabinet. Although they hold the Quad Series trophy, it is little comfort after failing to secure Commonwealth Games gold in 2018 and the Netball World Cup in 2019. Even the Constellation Cup (often dubbed the Consolation Cup) is in the hands of New Zealand.
The naming of the latest squad this week marks the first step in the journey to refill the trophy cabinet. The 18-player list named on Thursday will later be cut to 12 who will board the plane to Birmingham. It’s not impossible for players outside that 18 to force their way into the final team through outstanding performances in Super Netball, but it would be very unusual. Most likely it will be from these 18 players that coach Stacey Marinkovich needs to find a core with the golden glow about it.
