Silver Ferns captain Adine Wilson secures the ball during last night's test against Australia. Picture / Mark Mitchell
Worryingly for New Zealand, Australian netball co-captains Sharelle McMahon and Liz Ellis see plenty of room for improvement before next year's world championship in Fiji.
While happy with last night's 51-47 win over the Silver Ferns in Wellington, both McMahon and Ellis emphasised how much more work was needed if
Australia are to wrest the world title from the New Zealanders.
Ellis was especially critical of some weaknesses she had identified in her own game.
"We really could do better. A couple of times (goal defence) Mo'onia Gerrard and I just got mixed up. She plays wing defence in our club team, so I'm not used to her being in the circle with me."
And the amount of time it took for the Australians to dominate was also a worry, Ellis added.
"Towards end of game we really came into our own but it took us a little while to get there."
The win was Australia's first in New Zealand for nearly five years, and their first back-to-back win over the Silver Ferns since 2002.
The Australians, trailing 23-26 at halftime, had to weather an assured Silver Ferns start before gaining in confidence to finish strongly in the closing five minutes to secure the win.
There were, they admit, plenty of positives too, especially when the Silver Ferns got on a roll for a 15-11 lead after 15 minutes.
"We still have a lot to improve on. By no means are we happy with where we are now," McMahon said yesterday.
McMahon said Australia's patience on attack -- and defensive tenacity -- eventually paid dividends.
"One thing we'd been working on was not throwing too many passes away. When things didn't open for us straight away, we were patient enough to wait for the space," she said.
Persistence and consistency were the keys for Australia, Ellis agreed. The team was able to maintain pressure in defence and treasure possession on attack, confident in the knowledge that eventually the goals would come.
"We knew we had to grind away and do the little things well. We had to have the composure to be steady with the ball and maintain possession," Ellis said.
"Having the resolve to come back from the deficit against a quality side such as New Zealand was really pleasing."
- NZPA
