Stacey Marinkovich sang the praises of her shooters Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin, who came off the bench to drive the Australian Diamonds to a 61-45 Netball World Cup final win over England.
Garbin, 26, and Austin, 25, shot at 82% and 88% respectively after being injected into the highly fraught battle for gold in Cape Town. Both provided a stern test for England’s defenders, who ultimately could do little to dim their shine.
“Credit to Sophie and Kiera,” the Diamonds coach said, singling the two out. “They’re young players and they’ve had big years in SSN [Suncorp Super Netball] and ups and downs at different points, but to come on in a World Cup final and have to shoot and run and connect when they haven’t been out there for a couple of days … It just shows the character they’ve got.”
Australia’s captain, and wing attack, Liz Watson, who put in a monster shift with 36 feeds in 57 minutes, agreed, having conducted the pair in the attacking end. “Kiera was so focused I kept giving her that talk and direction and she kept saying: ‘Yep, yep, yep, I’ll do that,’” Watson said.
“I think the way she was feeding the ball to Sophie as well, it’s not a surprise to us because they do it all the time in training so we see it in training all the time, but then to come out there and do it on the biggest stage in probably their whole career is pretty special.”
Garbin had not been used by Marinkovich in Australia’s previous two games, including their preliminary stage loss to England, while Austin had just 13 minutes against the Roses and none in the semi-final win over Jamaica.
“[They] said: ‘OK, I’m here, I’ll do my thing,’” Marinkovich said as she confirmed that the days of starting seven in international netball were gone: “It takes your entire group; it’s just ferocious out there.”
England’s Jess Thirlby conceded that getting the ball off Garbin and Austin, and Australia more generally, blunted the Roses’ ability to stay in the game as the Diamonds tightened the screw in the third quarter to deliver a stunning win.
“We weren’t really able to steal enough ball off them,” she said. “We rely so heavily on an incredible world-class defensive unit but you can’t give the ball away, and then for that to be found wanting when they can’t win it back.” She said: “They were the better team in this final.”
