"Simple footwork errors, throwing easy balls away under no pressure ... maybe in the past, there have been too many excuses, but young players especially need to know what is required at an early stage."
England veteran and former Firebirds star Tamsin Greenway agrees that a strong hand can only be beneficial.
"It's what we have been crying out for the last five or six years," says Greenway. "It is good for her to be nailing us and saying when things are not good enough; hopefully that is what the girls will learn on this tour. Maybe being English, we usually have more of a stand-offish approach and a tendency to make excuses. We can't commit so many errors and expect to get a close score; we get away with it in our domestic league but come out here and suffer."
Both Greenway and Mayes played under former Ferns coach Lyn Gunson, who ran the English high performance programme for years, was coaching director at Team Bath and also national coach for a period.
"She was the best coach I've ever worked with," says Greenway. "She stood for no crap and it was a very direct approach. She would bring us to tears some weeks but we never stopped learning."
Certainly it seems England is the best hope of taking netball beyond the transtasman duopoly. The Sunshine Girls of Jamaica seem to be on the wane, with only the freakish ability of Romelda Aiken keeping them competitive in the last few years. England's third place at this year's world championships backed up bronze medals at the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games. In 2010, England had their first win over Australia since 1981. They have beaten the Ferns twice since 2007 and pushed New Zealand close in January - but still struggle for consistent results against the top two. The UK is a potentially huge market and netball is the biggest female participation sport in Britain. Unfortunately that doesn't yet translate to media, public or corporate interest.
"There won't be much coverage of us playing the Silver Ferns at all," says Mayes. "Where the publicity might come from is the fact that some of the England rugby team came to watch us play [in Auckland]."
Signing autographs has been a welcome novelty for many English players on these shores, while even the established Greenway can provoke confusion back home.
"Sometimes you come off [back home] and a fan will ask you to sign something and then say 'were you goal attack?' - and the GA was a black player."
The 20 players on the national programme receive some financial help but below them, the cupboard is bare.
"We don't really have a domestic set-up," says Greenway. "The girls underneath the national squad have maybe two sessions a week, so there is quite a drop off; the standard we play week in and week out just isn't there. It's not until we come out here that we have any real pressure or competition."
