Netball: Silver Ferns ready to face some 'real opposition'

Casey Williams says her team are eager for Malawi warm-up match. Photo / Natalie Slade

Three days out from the opening whistle of the netball world championships, president of the international federation Molly Rhone has already declared the tournament a success on many levels.

And if the organisation is anything to go by, Rhone expects this year's tournament in Singapore will be remembered as one of the best yet.

"We've not seen this level of preparedness for quite some time," said Rhone, at the official pre-tournament press conference yesterday.

As of last night, all 16 teams had arrived in Singapore ahead of Sunday's opening ceremony, which chair of the organising committee Jessica Tan promises will "entertain and delight".

Ticket sales for the event are going extremely well, according to Tan, although she isn't forecasting a sell-out. It is expected the 11,000 seat stadium will be about 80 per cent full for next Sunday's big finale.

As for who walks away with the crown, Rhone said she wouldn't be concerned if the tournament was once again dominated by New Zealand or Australia.

Australia have won the tournament an incredible eight times outright and the Silver Ferns three times, while both teams shared the prize with Trinidad and Tobago in 1979.

So is it time for a new winner?

"My hope is that the best team wins," said Rhone.

"If it means that it is a team other than Australia and New Zealand then so be it."

Silver Ferns captain Casey Williams certainly doesn't see anything wrong with New Zealand going home with the trophy either. But she said her team had a long way to go before they could even start thinking about playing in a final.

After two days of brutal in-house training, Williams and her side last night had their first proper hit-out against "real opposition" when they took on Singapore in a warm-up game at the Toa Payoh Hall.

The Ferns will have another run against Malawi tonight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in what will be their only chance to scope out the tournament venue before their opening game against Fiji on Monday. They then have a third friendly scheduled against Barbados on Saturday night.

"Getting a bit of match play is very exciting because all we've done so far is eat, sleep and train," said Williams.

New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken admits she and her coaching staff have been cracking the whip since the team arrived in Singapore on Monday night, but she is pleased with the way the players have responded.

"When families arrive over the weekend there might be some challenging times, but that's where we've actually built in to the programme some time to get out and feel normal again."

The arrival of the players' families is just another facet of the Silver Ferns programme that has been carefully planned.

Aitken said the players find having their loved ones around is beneficial during a gruelling event like a world championships, but they also have to be careful that they don't distract the team from the task at hand.

"We do a lot of work on ideal performance states - that is what the players need to do to get themselves to where they need to be at a start of the game. And actually for a lot of the players family play a big part in that, so it's not about excluding them."