While the jaded Ferns rest up after a busy first half of the year that began with a tour to the UK in January, Waimarama Taumaunu must get straight to work thinking about how they can develop the personnel and a game plan that will challenge the dominance of the Australians.
Their greatest concern is not a new one - depth in the shooting end. The Ferns have been trying for years to prepare for the post-Irene van Dyk era with limited success. In the end van Dyk's retirement six weeks out from the start of the Commonwealth Games rushed up on them.
Cathrine Latu had started only a handful of tests against Australia before she was given the task of being the Ferns' go-to shooter in a major tournament.
It is difficult to properly assess how she coped in that role, with the mercurial shooter picking up a calf injury in the team's third pool game against Northern Ireland. That saw her miss the Ferns' key group match against Jamaica and a tense semifinal against England before she took the court in the last quarter against Australia, at which point the result was already beyond doubt.
Compounding matters for the Ferns was a foot injury to Maria Tutaia. While Tutaia managed to get back on court in the latter stages of the tournament, she was clearly still hampered by the injury.
The Ferns might have been able to scrape through to the final without a dominant shooter, but they were never going to get away with it against Australia. They are just too accurate on attack to allow the Ferns' defence enough ball to keep their team in the game.
There is little chance of New Zealand improving their shooting depth in the next year. With three of the five New Zealand franchises fielding imports in their goal shoot spots, and van Dyk indicating she'll play on for the Pulse next season, there are few opportunities for young shooters to experience solid court time in the ANZ Championship. So Ferns management must develop existing combinations and work closely with fringe players to bring them up to speed.
New Zealand's inability to shut down Diamonds shooter Caitlin Bassett will also be troubling Ferns management as they look ahead to next year. The likes of Casey Kopua and Leana de Bruin were reduced to mere spectators at times as they struggled to disrupt the flow of precision high-balls into Bassett.
The Ferns have fielded the same four defenders - Kopua, de Bruin, Katrina Grant and Anna Harrison - for the past three major championships. They are an experienced and formidable unit, but they are also now well known to the Australian attack end, who have developed solid strategies to counter the floating defence of the rangy defenders with speed and footwork.
The team will next meet Australia in a four-test Constellation Cup series in October, before hosting England in an abbreviated two-test series.
These matches will form a key part of the Ferns' development for the World Cup, but the most important period in the next 12 months will be the summer conditioning window. Several players, including Leota and new cap Ellen Halpenny, went to Glasgow underprepared for a tournament environment. With the newly revamped World Cup format to place even more demands on players with eight games scheduled over 10 days, there can be no cutting corners in their build-up to the Sydney tournament.
