Reigning Super netball champions West Coast Fever may be sitting top of the table, but their success won’t be enough for more of their stars to land a place in Australia’s World Cup team, Catherine Cox has warned.
With goal attack Sasha Glasgow enjoying another standout season and Alice Teague-Neeld topping the competition for goal assists and centre pass receives, calls for their inclusion in the Australian squad continue to grow.
But Cox fears the duo have simply run out of time to press their claims for a berth in the Diamonds’ 12-player squad to head to Cape Town for the World Cup starting in late July.
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“I think time is probably beating them – there’s not time for new players to come into the mix and have that time to gel,” she said on Fox Netball’s Centre Circle.
“Let’s not forget Australia has won everything they’ve touched recently, so it seems like why would you mess with that product?
“I feel like the consistency (Glasgow and Teague-Neeld) have shown deserves a selection at least in the squad.”
Speaking on Glasgow – who is also ranked fifth in the competition for goal assists, Cox said the star goaler could be at a disadvantage since her strength – the super shot – is not a feature of international netball.
“I think it’s a very different style of game playing with a (Jhaniele) Fowler,” Cox said.
“A lot of people would probably think it’s quite easy to get the feeds and assists in to Fowler because she’s going to take it nine times out of 10 even if it’s a bad ball.
“But you still have to get yourself in a position to get the ball, you still have the ball in your hand a lot of the time, you’ve got to find the target.
“And if you’re like a Sasha Glasgow, you still have to be putting up the shots and nailing them.
“I know when we get to international selection, there’s no two-point in mind – that’s not part of the game.
“Sasha’s leading the two-point shot at the moment in the competition. You have to take that out of it.
“But what she does demonstrate is she will back herself, she’ll go to the post.
“She’s a big game player. She’s been playing beautifully across the season.”
Interestingly, Glasgow is yet to nominate a nation to represent – should she get a call up – given her parents have British heritage so she’ll eligible for both Australia and England.
Fellow Centre Circle panellist Caitlin Bassett said it was Teague-Neeld who had impressed with the growth and confidence in her game under Fever coach Dan Ryan.
But Bassett warned Teague-Neeld could be limited by international opportunities from her lack of Australian combinations in the Fever line up.
“I think she’s absolutely picked up where she left off at the end of last season,” Bassett praised.
“Her connection with Glasgow and Fowler is incredible.
“I think she’s a little bit hamstrung that she’s not playing with any Diamonds connections at the moment.
“It’s really hard to look at that combination and say ‘yes we’ll pick her because we know she’s going to play well at World Cup based on those combinations’.
“She’s not playing with any Diamonds in the centre.”
As it stands, only the Fever’s defensive duo in Courtney Bruce and Sunday Aryang are regular selections in the Diamonds fold.
And given coach Stacey Marinkovich tinkered with squads for recent series against New Zealand and England before the Quad Series earlier this year, and neither Glasgow or Teague-Neeld featured, it could be hard for the duo to jump others in the selection queue.
Cox said wing attack Teague-Neeld’s statistics were impressive enough to warrant at least a squad call up.
“She’s got better stats than Liz Watson – the captain of Australia at the moment and that’s very telling,” she said.
“She deserves to be in the squad at the very least.
“There’s a lot of players putting their hands up and a lot of players on the cusp.
“Stacey Marinkovich has a big job coming up with selection of this side.”
Glasgow is competing against the likes of fellow shooters Cara Koenen, Steph Wood, Donnell Wallam, Sophie Garbin, Sophie Dwyer and Kiera Austin.
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Teague-Neeld meantime would be competing with Liz Watson, Maddy Proud, Paige Hadley, Kelsey Browne and Jamie-Lee Price – and is yet to show versatility as a centre.
The Australian Diamonds squad for the World Cup, starting in late July in Cape Town, will be announced during Round 7.
CATH COX’S STARTING SEVEN
**BASED ON CURRENT FORM**
GS Cara Koenen
GA Sophie Dwyer
WA Alice Teague-Neeld
C Jamie-Lee Price
WD Jess Anstiss/Amy Parmenter
GD Ruby Bakewell-Doran
GK Courtney Bruce
