Another win! Diamonds triumph over South Africa to conclude highly successful 2023 netball season

Australia’s national netball team, the Diamonds, have done it again! And this time at a first ever test in Hobart where they made a clean sweep of a three match series against South Africa’s Proteas.

This final victory brings to a close yet another successful season where the ladies in green and yellow have officially won 16 out of their 19 tests.

The Origin Australian Diamonds have finished off a stellar year with a clean sweep of the South Africa Series.

MATCH REPORT ? https://t.co/hl85W4UXp6 pic.twitter.com/ilKLdcLChv

— Origin Australian Diamonds (@AussieDiamonds) October 31, 2023

Their winning streak included retaining the Constellation Cup against New Zealand, the Quad Series and taking home the World Cup after dominating England in Cape Town, South Africa, in August. 

Last year the team also took the gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, adding to Australia’s tally of 180 medals in total.

About the team’s success, Diamonds Captain Liz Watson said, “It has been an awesome series, an awesome month and I think just an awesome year for this group.”

The clash with the Proteas saw the Australians register their biggest winning margin after taking the opening matches 62-43 and 67-52 respectively.

Both sides were even with two goals apiece in the first half however Australia dominated the rest of the first half, leading 22-11 and 42-22 at the breaks.

At wing attack Watson shone as the best player on court as she consistently cut through the Proteas, achieving top match statistics with 44 successful feeds and 31 goal assists.

The second half saw Coach Stacey Marinkovich bring all five bench players into the game as South Africa threw everything they had at the game with five successive goals closing the score gap to 17.

Donnell Wallam (26/30) seized the opportunity in her first start of the series, while Cara Koenen (16/16) capitalized on Watson’s swift and precise feeding to the circle.

Koenen maintained her perfect shooting record for the second consecutive game. However, both Wallam and Koenen were substituted at halftime, allowing Sophie Garbin (28/30) and Sophie Dwyer (7/9) to continue adding to the scoreboard.

It was Australia who emerged victorious as the final whistle blew.

About the team’s amazing winning consistency Coach Marinkovic said, “I’m really happy with the way we finished what has been a massive year for us, [but] there’s always things to improve.”

“We’ve been challenged this year, we were challenged in Con Cup and there’s different ways that teams run with us, so we’ve got to keep raising the bar and finding new ways to be innovative in what we do.”