Australia national netball team

The Australia national netball team originates in 1934, when female players participating in what was then known as women's basketball at a national carnival in Brisbane, were later selected for the sport's first international match against New Zealand in Melbourne on 20 August 1938.[1] The outbreak of the Second World War delayed a three-match tour of New Zealand to 1948, which the Australian side won handsomely against their trans-tasman opponents.[1] Their first match against non-Kiwi opposition occurred in 1956, when the team played a Sri Lankan composite side on the way to a staggering 57-game tour of the United Kingdom, which featured tests against Scotland and England, of which the latter was played before 5,000 people at Wembley Stadium.[1]

Australia and England during a test match in 2008

The sport harmonised its rules in time for the inaugural World Championships in 1963, which Australia won.[1] The Diamonds dominance of international netball continued thereafter, winning 11 of the next 14 World Championship (since renamed the Netball World Cup) titles and coming second only to New Zealand. Since netball's inclusion in the Commonwealth Games in 1998, the Diamonds have won three gold medals, having lost twice in finals to New Zealand and once (quite recently in 2018) to England. Their historical success has ensured their number one ranking in the INF World Rankings.

Australia's fiercest rival in the sport is New Zealand, nicknamed the Silver Ferns. As of October 2013, the two nations had met in 115 test matches with just 13 victories separating the teams.[2] Then national team coach Norma Plummer labelled it "the one game you want to play in...it's exhilarating because it's the best in the world, nothing else beats it."[2] Famous Australian wins over the Silver Ferns include a five-goal win at the 1983 World Championships and a memorable one-goal win with seconds to spare in the final of the 1999 tournament, which was played in Christchurch before a hostile audience.[3] The Diamonds have won eight of nine Constellation Cups between the nations. The team has met the Silver Ferns in several World Cup finals, winning the gold medal match in Sydney in 2015 but losing the equivalent match in Liverpool four years later.

In more recent years, Australia have developed a keen rivalry with the England Roses. The Roses' thrilling win over the Diamonds in the final match of the 2018 Commonwealth Games was labelled "the biggest gold medal upset in the history of the Commonwealth Games" by The Australian.[4]

Prior to 2008 the team was simply known as the Australian national netball team. In the second half of the year Netball Australia formally adopted the nickname the Diamonds, a concept familiar to most other Australian sporting teams, including the women's national basketball team, the Opals.[5] Lisa Alexander took over as head coach from former national team player Norma Plummer in August 2011.[6] Alexander's tenure ended in March 2020. She was the most capped Diamonds coach, managing the team for 102 test matches.[7] Later that year, Netball Australia announced Stacey Marinkovich (then-current coach of the West Coast Fever) as the new appointee to the position.[8]

When competing at the Fast5 Netball World Series, the team is referred to as the Fast5 Flyers.[9]

Australia's kits are supplied by Coast2Coast. The team sponsors are Samsung, Nissan, Suncorp and Woolworths.[12]

The Diamonds use many different home courts around Australia. The courts they most commonly use are:

• Constellation Cup
• Netball in Australia

• Official team website
• Netball Australia website