Australia’s quest to win the only piece of netball silverware it doesn’t currently hold begins in Cape Town on Friday.
And while the Diamonds rightfully go into the quadrennial tournament as favourite, there are some burning questions facing the world’s number one side.
Fox Netball pundit Erin Delahunty breaks them down.
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Can the Diamonds win without Gretel Bueta?
The last time Australia won a pinnacle tournament – the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year – superstar shooter Gretel Bueta played a pivotal role.
But the 30-year-old, who is due to give birth to her second child soon, isn’t in Cape Town.
Coach Stacey Marinkovich has plenty of quality to call on, and will no doubt use Sunshine Coast Lightning pair Steph Wood and Cara Koenen in matches that matter, but Bueta’s absence is significant, given she brings a certain X-factor, as well as physical dominance and accuracy at the post.
In Birmingham, she shot at 96% accuracy across the seven matches, scored the second-most goals in the tournament behind Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler, and put in 37/37 in the final against Fowler’s side.
Bueta, who stands at 192cm, moves better than almost any player of her height and has a rare, unconventional flair, making her one of the hardest players in the world to match up on.
Her genius forces opposition teams to focus on locking her down rather than working as a unit and often teams simply don’t have an answer. If Wood picks up an injury or plays poorly, the Bueta-shaped hole will be pronounced.
Which midcourt combination will prove superior?
In what is one of the biggest first-world netball problems ever, Australian coach Stacey Marinkovich has to work out which midcourt combination she will run in the finals.
Paige Hadley – among the last players to join the squad after playing in the Super Netball decider on July 8 – and captain Liz Watson are locks in centre and wing attack respectively, but Ash Brazill, Jamie-Lee Price, Sunday Aryang and Jo Weston are all options for wing defence. Brazill and Price can also cover centre.
Marinkovich will rotate players through all three positions in the preliminary rounds to keep her stars fresh, but at the business end of the tournament, the selected trio will be critical, especially against the likes of New Zealand and Jamaica.
Brazill is a world-class specialist wing defence but was patchy for Collingwood in Super Netball this year, Price spent the year at centre for the Giants, and Aryang and Weston are “part-timers”, predominantly playing goal defence for their domestic clubs the Fever and Vixens.
So who gets the vital job in the big games will be fascinating.
Given she pushed her way into the side through pure good form at centre, it will also be interesting to see if Price is on the court when a medal is on the line.
Can the Diamonds adjust to ‘real’ netball quickly enough?
Mid-game at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool, there was a moment when midcourter Jamie-Lee Price looked for all money like she was walking towards the sideline for a tactical time-out – something that doesn’t feature in the international rules.
It was only for an instant, but it showed the chasm that exists between the way netball is played in Australia’s Super Netball league and internationally, where time-outs, rolling substitutions and the super shot don’t exist.
Leading into Cape Town, the Diamonds have had less than 20 days together as a full squad to “de-condition” from Super Netball rules so how successful the side is at that will be key.
The super shot means Super Netball goalers are conditioned to being able to reel in a margin in the last five minutes of each quarter and defenders to play an entirely different style in that same period, often leaving the post unattended, a cardinal sin on the world stage.
Thanks to time-outs in Super Netball, players in the league rarely, if ever, play 15 minutes straight or have to problem-solve on the court, as they can rely on coaches to call a break and deliver instructions.
Rolling substitutions mean if a player is being beaten or is in penalty trouble, they can quickly be replaced, but at the World Cup, a substitution can technically only be made if there is an injury.
The mental shift back to “real” netball, as purists call it, has to be swift and absolute.
Will not having a series against Jamaica prove fatal?
For decades, the World Cup was all about New Zealand and Australia, but the emergence of new netball powerhouses, such as England and Jamaica, ensures it’s no longer a two-horse race.
After beating Australia in a pool game and claiming silver at the Commonwealth Games last year, Jamaica shapes as a real threat to Australia and other top nations in Cape Town.
The Sunshine Girls boast a bevy of Super Netball stars, including the Adelaide Thunderbird premiership-winning pair of Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson, tall timbers Jhaniele Fowler and Romelda Aiken-George and defenders Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Jodi-Ann Ward.
Throw in a midcourt that includes Nicole Dixon-Rochester, Crystal Plummer, Adean Thomas and Khadijah Williams and the Jamaicans are not to be taken lightly.
This prompts the question as to why Australia didn’t make a series or even a one-off match against Jamaica a priority in the lead-up to the Cup. Since late 2022, the Diamonds have played New Zealand, England and South Africa, but not the Sunny Girls.
The Diamonds are familiar with the Caribbean stars who ply their trade Down Under of course, but some pre-Cup matches would have been invaluable intel-gathering exercises.
Can shooter Sophie Garbin prove the doubters wrong?
Air balls and inaccuracy plagued shooter Sophie Garbin throughout her 2023 Super Netball season with Collingwood, which is why her selection in the World Cup 12 ahead of Donnell Wallam shocked many.
Playing at goal attack, not her preferred shooter, and in a team with an anvil above its head for the last few games, 26-year-old Garbin shot 122 from 191 attempts for an accuracy of 64% in the regular season – the worst volume and accuracy of any shooter in the Australian World Cup team by a long way.
Garbin was the third least-accurate shooter in the league and had 99 general play turnovers – the third-most in the home and away season.
In comparison, Wallam shot at 87% and was the fifth most-accurate goaler in the league behind Jhaniele Fowler, Shimona Nelson, Cara Koenen and Mwai Kumwenda. She shot the second-most one-point goals behind Fowler.
Coach Stacey Marinkovich will most likely use Garbin at shooter in the early pool games against lower-ranked teams such as Zimbabwe, Tonga and Fiji to build her confidence.
Silver service from the Diamonds’ midcourt should help get Garbin back into her previous good form and quieten the critics who think Wallam should have got the nod.
