AUSSIE Diamonds mentor Stacey Marinkovich was a happy coach Wednesday night after her side defeated the Silver Ferns overnight, breathed new life into the Constellation Cup and returned to their “brand” of netball.

“I thought you just saw the brand that we want to play,” Marinkovich said. I think we started to understand what New Zealand is doing out on court. We were able to get ball speed and to be able to get over 60 goals, that’s showing that we’re going at our pace. It took real intent in our attack and defence, and it was a collective and obviously the people that came on also needed to run it hard.”

Amidst the off-court controversy regarding the Diamonds’ sponsorship in recent weeks, Marinkovich was not worried about her girls being distracted heading into the game.

“No I think for this group very firmly fixed and what our vision is, and we’re halfway there with the Commonwealth Games but we’ve got a World Cup to chase,” Marinkovich said. “We know that it’s going to be a build, there’s things that we’re trying to work through and build depth within our squad.

“It’s definitely not a panic, I think it was actually just working through and the only way you can understand New Zealand or any other international team is get the players out there and get that dynamic, so it’s been a learning but the thing that’s been progressive is the growth so that reassures you as a coach that they’re taking steps forward.”

Going into the game, Marinkovich said that her team were fully aware of what they to do to get back in the series.

“I think before the game we said that the series is still alive, so that certainly wasn’t taken off the table” she said.

“We were very aware of that, and I guess you keep trying to push the score out then you actually put it into a really level playing field. I think that was mentioned and I think the girls are very aware of where we were sitting, so whilst we’re trying to grow and build towards the World Cup, no one steps into a Diamonds dress and likes losing, so it’s certainly something but it’s the steps we’ve got to take and we took a step and we set a standard and now we’ve got to make sure that we grow from this experience.”

One particular player that drew praise from Marinkovich was Sophie Garbin, who played the game out in goal shooter despite not playing there all Suncorp Super Netball season. Marinkovich said that she was “obviously very strong under the post”.

“I thought she was very creative with the way she moves her body and looks for the screens and likes to set and create space for her goal attack,” she said. I thought that’s the first time she‘s started for Australia, you know she hasn’t played a lot in the goal shooter position, but I think her goal attack game has given her some other strings to her bow and I think you’re starting to see that out on court as well.”