Netball: Ferns envious of Diamonds' depth

Gretel Tippett sunk the winning shot for the Firebirds in the weekend's grand final. Photo / Getty

Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu must despair when she looks at the type of talent the Australian Diamonds can afford to leave out of their World Cup squad.

Amid fierce competition, several of the transtasman league's leading players missed out on a spot in the 12-strong Australian line-up named today for the August tournament.

There were some especially tough calls for Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander down the shooting end, with Swifts star Susan Pettitt - the best performing goal attack in the ANZ Championship this year - athletic youngster Gretel Tippett, who sunk the winning shot for the Firebirds in the weekend's grand final victory over the Swifts, and newly naturalised shooter Carla Borrego all failing to make the cut.

Facing selection dilemmas of the opposite variety in her attack end, with concerns being raised over the lack of depth in that area for some time, Taumaunu offers a wry chuckle when asked what she made of the Australian shooting line-up.

"Susan Pettitt must be a really disappointed young woman, because she has played very well all season. I was also interested to see if they would go for Borrego or Tippett, so to have three players like that not included, when pretty much any other country in the world would take them as one of their first couple picks just shows the depth that they do have over there," said Taumaunu.

The Silver Ferns line-up for the World Cup will be named next Thursday following three-day trials in Auckland. There is already a sense of foreboding about the Ferns' World Cup hopes following a disastrous 2014 international season, in which New Zealand lost all five hit-outs against their trantasman rivals by an average of 12 goals.

The results suggest the Diamonds clearly have the wood over the Ferns line-up which, with the exception of a few injury disruptions, has remained relatively settled for the past few years. With that in mind there have been calls for the New Zealand selectors to take a few risks with the World Cup team. But others have warned against making too many changes to the group and backing the experienced group to build on the lessons learnt from last year's humbling defeats.

Taumaunu would not be drawn on whether to expect any major changes from last year's group, but is promising to pick a form team.

"The field is open. We will pick the best team and it is up to players to front up and show that they deserve to be part of that best team. If lessons from last season have not been learnt then there will be selection consequences," she said.

"The idea of having trials is to test and check and see how people look on court against each other and that was something I regretted not doing before we went to Commonwealth Games."

The Diamonds' World Cup side features three changes from the team that toppled the Ferns by 18 goals in last year's Commonwealth Games final. NSW Swifts midcourter Paige Hadley, who was left out of the initial 18-player Diamonds squad earlier this year, has forced her way into the side, replacing the injured Madison Robinson. Thunderbirds shooter Erin Bell has earned re-selection at the expense of Tegan Philip (Vixens), while Rebecca Bulley replaces retired defender Bianca Chatfield.

Alexander announced the team at a glitzy media gathering at the Sydney Opera House this morning, although much of the surprise factor had been lost after the team was mistakenly published on Netball Australia's website last night.