Australia national netball team

Netball team
teamname = Australian Netball Diamonds


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union = Netball Australia
fullname = Australian Netball Team
nickname = Diamonds
founded = 1985
region =
ground =
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chairman = Noeleen Dix
ceo = Kate Palmer
captain = Sharelle McMahon
coach = Norma Plummer
top scorer =
caps = Liz Ellis (117)
url = http://www.netball.asn.au
league =
season =
rank = First
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shorts2 =The Australian national netball team (nicknamed the Diamonds) are the national netball team of Australia. Australia have traditionally been regarded as the most successful netball team in international netball: they have won nine of the twelve Netball World Championships, in addition to being the current world champions and ranked at number 1 on the IFNA World Rankings.

History

While they remain amongst the world's very best, they have come under increasing challenge from New Zealand's national team, the Silver Ferns, in recent years. New Zealand won the 2006 Commonwealth Games final and the grand final of the 2003 Netball World Championships, which saw Australia lose the top world ranking. However, Australia have since regained their world number 1 ranking after winning the 2007 Netball World Championships.

Historically, the Australian team has had a slight edge over perennial rivals New Zealand, as posting 49 victories, as opposed to New Zealand’s 42 out of the 82 tests they have played (as at 20 October 2006), including two matches ending in a draw. This gives the Australians a 58% win rate over the Silver Ferns but New Zealand’s dominance over the trans-Tasman rivalry during the past three years has seen them victorious on ten occasions from the past 16 match ups.

On the 8th of September 2008, it was revealed that the team is called "Australian Netball Diamonds". [cite news |last=Lulham |first=Amanda |title=Our girl's dazzling new look |publisher="The Daily Telegraph" |url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24313244-5001023,00.html |date=2008-09-09 |accessdate=2008-09-12] This is the second Australian team to be named after a gem, where the first was the Australian women's basketball team, the Opals.

2008 Diamonds team

ee also

*Netball in Australia

References

External links

* [http://www.netball.asn.au Netball Australia website]