Jamaican coach Janet Guy says her side have to modify their style if they are to break New Zealand and Australia's dominance in the game.
Following their 3-0 series loss to Australia, Jamaica's "Sunshine Girls" don't have enough time for major modifications before they meet the world champion Silver Ferns
and Barbados in a tri-nations series starting in Kingston on Sunday.
However, it is safe to assume the ambitious Jamaicans will be keen to implement some changes in what is likely to be their last international hit out before the Commonwealth Games.
Guy, a former international, said to beat Australia and New Zealand her players - renowned for their aerial play and argy-bargy defence - needed to be faster, more agile and be able to react quicker.
Although Jamaica's aerial style suits their long, lean players and is effective on attack, their main difficulty is that they cannot match the speed of the transtasman rivals, who play the game at a million miles an hour.
"We still have tall players, but we are encouraging movement," Guy said. "What the game requires at this level is speed over short distance. If you don't have that you are always running behind. You have to keep up to contest the ball."
The Jamaicans have regularly finished in the top five at the world championships. Their third placing in the 2003 event equalled their best effort in 1991.
The 2003 team beat New Zealand and Australia in the lead-up to the world champs and they came close to upsetting Australia again in pool play.
But since then, as is often the case with the Jamaicans, they have disappeared off the radar.
Apart from their appearance in the annual Caribbean tournament where they line up against the likes of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia - the Jamaicans have had little international competition since the world champs.
The only other team they have played was England in a three-test series, which was drawn.
That result, along with this week's series loss to Australia - they were beaten 47-38, 59-44 and 47-31 - would indicate Jamaica are not living up to their world championship efforts.
But that does not mean they can be ruled out of medal contention at next year's Commonwealth Games.
As Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken often says, "unpredictable" is possibly the best word to use when describing the Jamaican side - not because of their play but because you never quite know who is going to take the court.
The tall Jamaicans are equally at home on a basketball court as they are on the netball court.
As a result many head for American universities on basketball scholarships.
This is good for them but not so good for coach Guy, with seven players from her 25-strong squad unavailable for the games against Australia and upcoming tri-series.
She has drafted in six players who played at the World Youth Cup in July.
But Guy is not complaining.
What better way to develop players than to give them a run against the two best sides in the world?
"These girls don't have a lot of international experience. This is good exposure for them, and I am happy we are having games like this to help them.
"This is really a rebuilding stage for us. We have to carry on developing and nurturing the young ones and encourage them to love it. I want them to have a real passion for the game."
Such passion oozes from Guy and her assistant, former goal attack Connie Francis, who represented Jamaica for 17 years.
Together the pair have high hopes for Jamaica in next year's Commonwealth Games.
"I set myself a huge goal of Jamaica rising from number three," Francis told a Jamaican sport website.
"I envision us challenging for the silver or the gold."
Tri, tri, tri-again
* Jamaica v Silver Ferns
Played 36 times
Silver Ferns have won 33
Jamaica have won one (2002 second test in Jamaica)
Two draws
* Tri-Series
Sunday: Jamaica v Barbados
Monday: New Zealand v Jamaica (live on TV One 10.15am)
Tuesday: New Zealand v Barbados
Wednesday: Final (TV One 11.30am)
* Jamaica's world championship results
1963: Fifth
1967: Sixth
1971: Fourth
1975: Fifth
1979: Fifth
1983: Fifth
1987: Fifth
1991: Third
1995: Fifth
1999: Fourth
2003: Third
Jamaican coach Janet Guy says her side have to modify their style if they are to break New Zealand and Australia's dominance in the game.
Following their 3-0 series loss to Australia, Jamaica's "Sunshine Girls" don't have enough time for major modifications before they meet the world champion Silver Ferns
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