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Silver Ferns Casey Williams and Katrina Grant - Source: Photosport -
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With the focus now firmly on the Commonwealth Games, Silver Ferns vice-captain Temepara George sees being able to give every squad member time on court as one of the positives from the 2-1 netball series loss to Australia.
While there has been much talk about the depth in the Australian ranks, New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken made plenty of use of her bench over the three tests.
She called on 10 players in the series decider in Auckland yesterday, whereas Australian counterpart Norma Plummer opted to stick with the same seven players for the entire match at Vector Arena.
George said the mid-court was definitely a more confined area to operate in during the 46-40 loss than had been the case when the Silver Ferns won 59-40 in Wellington just three days earlier.
"We knew that was a going to happen and I think as a unit we didn't work as well as we did on Thursday night," she said.
"In saying that, we did get some positives out of that. Getting players out there in pressure situations was certainly a huge positive going into Comm Games and knowing how players can come on in those tight situations."
The sole Silver Fern to sit out the test in Wellington, defender Katrina Grant, played the full 60 minutes in Auckland and her performance gave her the New Zealander player-of-the match award.
Aitken described being able to give court time to all 12 of her players over the course of the series as "awesome".
She was happy with the depth available to her, but wanted further improvement in performance.
As in the second test, Aitken substituted ace shooter Irene van Dyk at halftime, bringing on Daneka Wipiiti, who again turned on a strong showing, this time in a much tighter contest.
Wipiiti's 12 goals from 14 shots gave the best strike rate of either side with 86 percent, just ahead of impressive Australian goal attack Natalie Medhurst with 27 from 32.
Van Dyk, who had another tough battle with 1.96m Australian defender Susan Fuhrmann, landed 13 from 17, or 76 percent; compared with her Silver Ferns career average of 90 percent.
Aitken said van Dyk's substitution was planned and part of the strategy of giving other players the chance to experience the white-hot environment of facing Australia.
"We want to have those options, especially in the shooting circle, and it was great for Daneka to be able to come on again in a tougher environment than she did the last time," she said.
"We have to keep our options going, but Irene certainly has to keep developing her game, as does everyone."
While Australia will be the big threat to New Zealand's chances of retaining their Commonwealth crown in New Delhi next month, Aitken is also keeping a close eye on other nations, including the two most likely to be also contesting the medals - Jamaica and England.
While New Zealand had two convincing wins over Jamaica last month, Aitken said their lineup for the Games was likely to be different, so there would be scouting work done on them during the tournament.
"We have our game plans for each of the big three in structure and then we will just flesh things out a bit," she said.
"You're always ensuring when you have a quick turnaround from one team to another that you've got your big plans sorted and players are comfortable with shifting from one to the other."
