KEY POINTS:
Singapore finished its netball world championship with a 59-44 win over Malaysia, 15th ranking, and an intriguing suggestion from coach Kate Carpenter about a possible adjustment to the tournament's structure.
The disparity between the top four countries and the rest has been glaringly apparent over the past week, prompting Australian coach Norma Plummer to publicly wonder about the structure after her team annihilated the Cook Islands 90-22 in yesterday's quarterfinal.
"I would have expected going into the top eight we would have had a harder game," she said after today's match.
"I really think the draw needs to be looked at so the top four get to play one another and we have a competition that's extending everyone and the true winner would come out of that," Plummer said yesterday.
Carpenter, whose skilled but slight Singapore team have missed out on a couple of a wins by just a goal or two, said there could be a case made for introducing a system of bonus points.
"There's such a big difference after the top four and a big drop off to the rest. So I guess there might be some discussion about how it could be done better. We were talking about this yesterday and we said 'what about bonus points?'
"The rankings don't necessarily reflect the strength of teams. We've had good performances, but we haven't had a good result all week. We were two off the Cooks, and one off Barbados yesterday," said Carpenter, who starts as coach of the Wellington-based Central franchise in the new Transtasman netball league next month.
She said the possibility of introducing a bonus point system would be worth the international federation's consideration.
"I think that they're welcome to new ideas, especially perhaps given that we are hosting the next world championships."
Singapore had to work for their win today, with Malaysia working them hard in the second quarter after an indifferent start. Carpenter was satisfied with the win, after Singapore came into the tournament unranked and an all-time best of 12th in 1999.
"We had a really good build-up, we've just been unlucky with results and unlucky with injuries. We've had to rotate players and some haven't been fit for games.
"We're there - that's the disappointing thing about the matches: we've been closer than some other teams ranked higher. But that's just how it works out."
- NZPA
