KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Senior shooters Sharelle McMahon and Catherine Cox insisted the world netball championships starting on Saturday wasn't just a two-horse race between Australia and New Zealand.
The Australian squad assembled in Melbourne today prior to their departure tomorrow for Auckland where the competition starts next weekend.
Vice captain McMahon and fellow shooter Cox, along with captain Liz Ellis are the only members of the Australian squad who have participated in a world championship.
McMahon, who has played in the last three world championships, accepted anything less than a victory in the tournament wouldn't be acceptable, but felt at least three other teams probably thought the same way.
Cox and McMahon insisted England and Jamaica were also front line contenders, alongside Australia and defending champions New Zealand.
"This is one of the most open tournaments we've ever played," Cox said today.
"England beat New Zealand earlier in the year, Jamaica are always a threat, so you can't focus on one team, that would be a really big mistake.
"I think that we've learnt from the Rugby Union World Cup - you can't focus on any one team.
"It was a great lesson learned from the rugby that Australia and New Zealand probably focussed on each other a little bit too much."
McMahon, who shot the last gasp winning goal against the Silver Ferns in the 1999 final in New Zealand rejected the notion Australia had become favourite for this year's tournament.
Australia have enjoyed the upper hand over New Zealand since the 2006 Commonwealth Games, with Silver Ferns' coach Ruth Aitken suggesting the Aussies were now favourites.
"They (New Zealand) are still world champions and the championships are going to be in New Zealand, so they have every right to carry the title of favourite," McMahon said.
"We have our own expectations within this group and we're not worrying too much about how everyone else views what's happening."
Cox, who will be playing in her second world championship, claimed Australia still had plenty of scope for improvement despite their recent good run against New Zealand.
"There's still way more to come from us, even the last couple of wins (against New Zealand) have not been pretty and there's a whole stack of things we need to improve on, this team is absolutely still building."
Cox, who was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia at an early age, wasn't concerned the late switch of host from Fiji to New Zealand would disadvantage Australia.
"Aussies love big crowds and the New Zealanders are great at cheering on netball," she said.
"We had a good result in front of the biggest crowd they've had at a test match."
- AAP
