Diamonds vow to regain sparkle in fourth netball Test

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Diamonds vow to regain sparkle in fourth netball Test

The Diamonds are vowing to finish the Constellation Cup series with a bang, with skipper Liz Watson admitting her side is hurting from three successive losses to New Zealand to surrender the prized netball trophy.

The Australians lost two games in New Zealand before a whopping 18-point defeat in Perth on Sunday night for the Silver Ferns to take the Cup.

The world No.1 team have one final chance in Melbourne on Wednesday night, desperate to prevent the Kiwis’ first 4-0 clean sweep of the series.

Watson said the match was still important despite the trophy in New Zealand’s keeping for just the third time since 2010.

“It’s obviously disappointing knowing that the series is over and that we haven’t won the Cup but we had a good chat before about bringing that excitement off and wanting to finish the series off playing the way that we want to play,” Watson said on Tuesday.

“Everyone recognises we haven’t been at our best the last three games and New Zealand have and that’s what it takes to win.

“It absolutely hurts and probably the most disappointing thing is the way we’re losing and the scoreboard, having three in a row as well.”

“It’s come down to lots of silly errors that we’re making … we want to be proud of our performance because we haven’t been.

A regular for 60 minutes, Watson has spent time on the bench as coach Stacey Marinkovich searched for the right combination to stop the Silver Ferns’ charge.

New Zealand shooter Grace Nweke has taken her game to a new level, scoring 144 goals in the three games.

Watson backed the coach’s call.

“It’s part of elite sport and you can’t be out there all the time.

“Obviously losing by 18 goals or whatever it was, something has to change, and whether that’s positions, personnel, whatever it may be, we can’t expect to always just put the same thing out there and get a different result.”

She said she wasn’t sure of the selection for game four, and if Marinkovich would use the game to expose more players given the series was already lost.

“That’s probably a really big decision for Stace right now,” the star midcourter said.

“I think people have come on and done a really good job – obviously Georgie (Horjus) in her debut was incredible to come on and do that but I think we need to make sure that we do get the value out of this series … we as athletes just want to win, no matter what it is, so whoever’s out there is going to be hungry to do that.”

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