Diamonds out to strangle NZ netball attack

Oct 11, 2016 - 4:35 AM Australia plan to heap even more pressure on New Zealand in a bid to strangle the Silver Ferns' attack in the Diamonds' first netball Test in Tasmania in 27 years.

Coming off a 68-56 win in the first game of the four-Test Constellation Cup series in Sydney on Sunday, the Diamonds want to generate more turnovers in Wednesday's match at Launceston's Silverdome.

"The leaders who are out on court, and I'm one of them, certainly need to take a lot more control in what we need to do when it does start to get clogged," Diamonds shooter Natalie Medhurst told AAP.

"'We struggled to create more turnover ball (in the first Test), so dare I say it as an attacker, defensive pressures certainly drive intensity.

"We need to be consistent with that over four quarters which I think will be a big focus for us."

The Australians will look to clamp down on promising Silver Ferns shooter Te Paea Selby-Rickit, who performed well in Sydney after coming on for the second half.

Likewise, New Zealand have signalled they will be doing their homework on emerging Diamonds' goal attack Gretel Tippett, who impressed on Sunday.

The Ferns will be hoping to string together longer periods of play like in the fourth quarter of Sunday's game, in which they outscored Australia 18-14.

"When we get those basics right we've got the capabilities of playing a very exciting game and at the moment we're just not doing that as well as we can," New Zealand coach Janine Southby said.

The Diamonds haven't played in Tasmania since facing the West Indies in Launceston in 1989.

However, they could probably argue they take their act around Australia more than any other major national team.

Launceston will be the 10th city to host a Diamonds Test since 2013.

"I think coming to regional places is always pretty exciting," said Medhuirst, who was born in the South Australian country town of Millicent.

Source: AAP