Netball: Tight timeframe puts pressure on Ferns

Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken is confident the team will be at their peak for the world championships. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In the week the countdown to the Rugby World Cup ticked past the 100-day mark to much fanfare, a different milestone will pass today which will probably barely register in the public's consciousness.

But it will be foremost in the Silver Ferns' minds as they assemble in camp in Lower Hutt today, exactly one month out from the start of the world netball championships.

Their preparation for the tournament begins with a two-test series against Australia next week, after which the Ferns will have just one further three-day camp before they depart for Singapore on June 27. The tournament will run from July 3-10.

The Ferns' brief build-up is a reflection of the tight timeframes under which management has been forced to work to prepare for this event with the ANZ Championship having wrapped up less than two weeks ago.

But there is concern that Australia, who are operating on the same timeline, have a more comprehensive programme.

The Diamonds have a five-day camp in Hong Kong before they fly to Singapore on the same day as the Ferns. But New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken is confident her management team has come up with the best schedule to allow the Ferns to be at their peak come the beginning of next month.

Aitken said that with four mothers in the side - Irene van Dyk, Temepara George, Leana de Bruin and Liana Leota - she wanted to keep the team in New Zealand for as long as possible to ensure players were not cut off from their families for a long stretch.

"Probably for us it is the trade-off between the extra international travel that Australia are doing," she said. "How much time they get on the training court will be the interesting thing."

Aitken said the Australians would have an advantage in that they would be more conditioned to the hot and humid Singapore climate.

While Aitken has said she is "comfortable" with her side's schedule over the next month, her Australian counterpart, Norma Plummer, has expressed some reservations about meeting the Silver Ferns before the world championships.

Plummer believes the two tests next week in Palmerston North and Auckland will be a "distraction" for her side.

The wily Australian, who is expected to be replaced as national coach after the world championships following the news yesterday that she will be in charge of the West Coast Fever for the 2012 ANZ Championships, said she would have preferred to spend the time training in-house.

"I'm not actually even keen on playing it. I would rather have had the time to put the work in on the players and combined the team better."

With five changes to the side that lost to the Silver Ferns in last year's Commonwealth Games final, Plummer will face a tough challenge of bedding down new combinations in each third of the court.

SILVER FERNS' SCHEDULE

Today: Players assemble in camp in Lower Hutt.

June 7: Team travel to Palmerston North ahead of first test against Australia.

June 9: Test 1, Palmerston North.

June 12: Test 2, Auckland.

June 20-22: Team reassemble for 3-day camp in Auckland.

June 27: Silver Ferns depart for Singapore.

Australia's schedule

Tomorrow: Australia depart for New Zealand to prepare for next week's two-test series.

June 9: Test 1, Palmerston North.

June 12: Test 2, Auckland.

June 22: Australia fly out to Hong Kong.

June 23-27: Hong Kong training camp.

June 27: Diamonds arrive in Singapore.