Australian netballer and Southern Sting import Natalie Avellino has launched a broadside at the world champion Silver Ferns, claiming the Commonwealth Games gold medal favourites are living on past glory.
Avellino, who at 35 is making her Games debut in Melbourne next month, yesterday claimed there would be no repeat
of Australia's embarrassing record 25-goal loss to New Zealand in October, declaring the Silver Ferns would be unable to reproduce a similar performance come crunch time.
"I don't think New Zealand can play as well as they did in that match. I really think they've played their best," the wing attack said.
"There's a lot of talk out there that we're not that strong, that we don't have a chance, that we're going to get flogged. But we're training really hard and we're putting it together.
"We probably weren't as physically strong as we needed to be last year but our strength has really increased ... everyone can tell within themselves they are much stronger now," she told the Herald Sun newspaper.
Avellino acknowledged Australia was relatively inexperienced compared to the Ferns, particularly after losing defender and captain Liz Ellis, but the squad's confidence was building with each training camp.
"It's about being smarter. We've been trialling different combinations since we last played New Zealand and we're moving the ball a lot better, there's not as much hesitation."
Several players stayed on at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra this week for extra training after last week's five-day camp, reinforcing their desire to break their run of losses against the Silver Ferns.
Avellino, Megan Anderson, Allison Broadbent, Susan Furhmann and Janine Ilitch were among those who decided to train on.
Since netball was introduced at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998, Australia's record is unrivalled, with the team yet to lose a match in the preliminary rounds or finals games.
In Manchester four years ago, they pipped New Zealand in double overtime.
Australia have a four-day training camp in Canberra from Monday and a final camp in Melbourne, starting on March 9.
- NZPA
