{"id":811078,"date":"2026-07-19T23:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811078\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T23:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:17:10","slug":"netball-champs-showed-blueprint-to-beat-australia-but-diamonds-confident-history-can-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811078\/","title":{"rendered":"Netball champs showed \u2018blueprint\u2019 to beat Australia. But Diamonds confident history can repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Diamonds have shrugged off concerns surrounding their attack end heading into this week\u2019s Commonwealth Games, where Australia is aiming to defend their gold medal.<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest netball news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/newsletter-sign-up?utm_source=NetballArticle&amp;utm_medium=TextLink&amp;utm_campaign=signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sophie Dwyer and Sophie Garbin will make their Games\u2019 debut when they take the court in Glasgow, alongside Georgie Horjus, while Cara Koenen played 2026 out at the more unfamiliar goal attack at club level \u2013 with only Kiera Austin going in with both form and experience.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Diamonds great Catherine Cox was concerned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/netball\/super-netball-grand-final-2026-adelaide-thunderbirds-vs-melbourne-vixens-live-blog-scores-expert-tips-start-time-teams-photos-news\/news-story\/b612f729353e92eb03d52f9fc55865fa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Melbourne\u2019s Super Netball grand final defeat<\/a> \u2013 where both Garbin and Austin headed to the bench, provided a \u201cblueprint\u201d to rivals looking to beat Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Thunderbirds claim record SSN title | 02:37<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t help but sit here and think how many international teams are watching this grand final with interest \u2013 this is how you beat the Diamonds attack line,\u201d she said during that grand final.<\/p>\n<p>But Austin and fellow Diamonds teammate Courtney Bruce were confident the attack end would fire come game one against Tonga on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wider public\u2019s not privy to the other things that go into selection,\u201d Bruce said, defending her Sunshine Coast Lightning teammate in Koenen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously past performances, experience, all of that goes into selection too. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cCara\u2019s played a completely different position to what she\u2019ll play in the Diamonds dress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess for me too, I played a lot more goal defence this season than I ever have. So I think it\u2019s more just knowing that there\u2019s a lot more that goes into selection and combinations and how things work out there that the general public aren\u2019t privy to when it comes to selections.<\/p>\n<p>Diamonds set for Glasgow | 00:39<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know what Cara can do in that shooter position and I think she\u2019s just added another string to her bow in terms of the capacity that she can, if we needed to, run out of full game in goal attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Koenen\u2019s selection is eerily similar to that of Garbin at Australia\u2019s 2023 Netball World Cup success, where the goaler endured a tough season playing out of position at goal attack for her club Collingwood Magpies before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/netball\/just-burst-into-tears-aussie-world-cup-debutant-reveals-massive-relief-behind-dream-call\/news-story\/c0542eb6d5402a75778dadec4b4fcd0b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">getting the call to represent Australia<\/a> \u2013 as a goal shooter.<\/p>\n<p>Garbin went on to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/netball\/netball-world-cup-2023-sophie-garbin-australian-diamonds-catherine-cox-analysis-selection\/news-story\/d1feb75c863430055bec053131657145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">dominate that World Cup campaign<\/a> \u2013 and Bruce is confident Koenen can emulate those feats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is exactly that same situation as Soph \u2026 we know what goes on in our inner sanctum and the performances that (Cara) puts out in training week in, week out, day in, day out. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 100% back Carzy to have an incredible tournament and absolutely rip up defenders with her movement in that goal shooter position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Austin said the versatility in Australia\u2019s attack end would prove to be a strength given the tight game schedule.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve said to a lot of people SSN is a very, very different environment from what international netball is for a plethora of reasons,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cara Koenen had to play out at goal attack for her Super Netball club Sunshine Coast.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have timeouts, you have to be really going for 15 minutes. The concentration level is through the roof. The intensity is through the roof. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s always different things going on in an SSN land. And there is a sense of fatigue that comes to an end of the season as well. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut coming into a marquee event where we only get two marquee events every four years, there is a completely different sense of belief or sense of opportunity. You don\u2019t want to let any opportunity go begging. You don\u2019t want to wonder, oh, what if? <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that I\u2019m necessarily concerned (about the Vixens\u2019 grand final day performance and what that could mean for Australia). <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all so excited to go out there and to see what we can do as a completely different group to what our own individual SSN teams are. So, it\u2019s absolutely a challenge, but one that we\u2019re excited to take on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Austin could find herself sharing midcourt and attack end duties with the likes of Horjus, given the work she\u2019s done previously in wing attack at big events.<\/p>\n<p>Kiera Austin and Sophie Garbin in attack for Australia against New Zealand.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Garbin and Koenen can now play at goal attack \u2013 as will Dwyer, Horjus and Austin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is exciting that there is so many different combinations to put out there and we are practising all that in camp,\u201d Austin shared. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s such a short amount of time that we have, but we\u2019re really deliberate and purposeful with our training sessions and we have been not throwing the bibs up but trying all those different combinations and I think that makes us really hard to prepare for because you might expect a certain line-up, but then there could be a completely different one put out there. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEspecially for a Comm Games event where you can\u2019t bring in someone if there is an injury or whatever else, you have to be able to play different positions and do the role for your team. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe versatility in our attack end will be a real strength of ours for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Australia will open their Commonwealth Games gold medal defence against Tonga on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diamonds have shrugged off concerns surrounding their attack end heading into this week\u2019s Commonwealth Games, where Australia&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-811078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}