Netball: No rest for the Ferns as myriad issues remain

Australia's 1.92m shooter Caitlin Bassett made it hard work for defenders like Casey Kopua in the first test. Photo / Getty Images

While the Diamonds enjoyed a weekend off following a resounding win in the Constellation Cup opener, the Silver Ferns were back on the training court yesterday making a start on their list of work-ons ahead of Wednesday night's second test. And it is quite a list.

Having had a couple of days to crunch the numbers and review the match footage of their 17-goal loss in game one in painstaking detail (made all the more painful by the poor quality of the Silver Ferns' play for the most part), Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu will be left in little doubt of where her side need to improve in Melbourne.

The problem will be trying to prioritise the key things New Zealand need to address before they hit the court again on Wednesday.

Taumaunu has made no secret a lot of attention will be directed towards the midcourt, after the Ferns struggled to contain Australia's swift ball delivery through the middle. As a result the likes of Madison Robinson and Kim Ravaillion were able to hit the circle edge seemingly at will, delivering unstressed ball into the shooting circle.

But that is not where the Ferns' problems end.

While slowing Australia's through-court attack will help out the Ferns' defensive end, the defenders still need to do more themselves to limit the impact of 1.92m shooter Caitlin Bassett. Casey Kopua, Leana de Bruin, and later Katrina Grant did a good job of containing Bassett in patches - keeping her to just 8 goals in the opening spell - but they still leaked far too many easy goals under the post for their liking.

Much of their attacking issues from Glasgow remain, with hesitancy on their ball delivery into the circle, a lack of options coming on to the ball and poor shooting major concerns.

The performance issues in the attack end have created some interesting selection dilemmas for Taumaunu and assistant coach Vicki Wilson ahead of the second test. The New Zealand side were more competitive in the second half in Invercargill following the introduction of rookie shooter Bailey Mes at goal attack and Grace Rasmussen into the midcourt, despite it being a relatively untested frontline.

Rewarding the pair with a start would mean relegating the two most experienced attackers - Liana Leota and Jodi Brown - to the bench, leaving Cathrine Latu to lead the attack end. And while Mes displayed stronger movement to open up the shooting circle, her accuracy was not up to international level, landing just 11 of 19 attempts in game one.

Constellation Cup Game 2

Where: 9pm, Wednesday
Where: Hisense Arena, Melbourne

Ending the streak

Australia have won the last six contests against the Silver Ferns going back to last September.

Sept 19, 2013, Auckland Australia 48-45

Oct 4, 2013, Adelaide
Australia 58-50

Oct 7, 2013, Melbourne
Australia 52-47

Oct 13, 2013, Canberra
Australia 50-49

Aug 3, 2014, Glasgow
Australia 58-40

Oct 2, 2014, Invercargill
Australia 59-42.