Two changes up front for the Diamonds in this final match. As Kiera Austin  at goal attack and Kate Moloney  at centre return to the starting 7 after being dropped from the entire game-day squad in Perth. It’s Moloney’s first start in this Constellation Cup.

An obvious change up front for the Silver Ferns, as New Zealand look to the future in the goal shooting circle. Amelia Walmsley gets the nod in the GS bib. It’ll be her first minutes on court all series, after Grace Nweke has dominated that position for a full 60 minutes in every game thus far. But with Nweke moving to Australia to play Super Netball next year with the NSW Swifts, sacrificing her national eligibility. This is the only change Taurua has made to her starting line-up in four games. Talk about confidence!

Alright, now we’ve seen the Kelpies win the Trans-Tasman Cup 4-0, we are eager to see whether the Silver Ferns can do the same.

The New Zealand women’s team have already won the Constellation Cup, 3-0. But as head coach Noeline Taurua has said, 4-0 sounds like a nice number. It’s only the third series they’ve won throughout Constellation Cup history, so it’s a massive deal for the visiting team. What have they got in store for us in Melbourne?

Okay, let’s look at the final numbers. Defensively, the Kelpies really upped their game in that back-half of the game to level the Net Blacks for gains, 11-all. Overall, Australia was more clinical too with 13 less general play turnovers.

The scoring statistics show the Kelpies were also able to lift their gain to goal rate over the final 30 minutes, which was the main goal Nerida Stewart set them at half-time. Not seen here is the substitution list which saw every single Kelpies player get on court for a minimum 24 minutes. Great to see such rotation through the side and how much depth they have in the men’s national set-up.

Well Punshon has been a dominant force at the back all series. The defender finishes with five deflections and one pickup from his 51 minutes on court. Speaking with Fox Netball, Punshon said:

“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys, we all put so much time and effort into this sport. There’s nothing like playing in front of John Cain Arena home crowd. Kudos to the Net Blacks because they took it to us today. Proud of them as well … Personally I try to play a hard game of netball, I couldn’t do it without my teammates at goal keeper or wing defence, they allow me to get the glory balls. So I have to thank them for their efforts.”

The man of the moment Gillbard slots the last two back-to-back goals of the game. Kelpie #98 bows out in style!

Yes, the Aussies have now won this series 4-0 but this is the lowest total they’ve finished with in a game throughout the four games. As well as the lowest margin, with a victory of 32 goals.

Shows how much the Net Blacks have grown over the past fortnight!

SCORE: 71-38 Australia’s way

Jerome Gillbard re-enters the game too! Back in goal shooter to finish his final-ever international netball Test. What a nice moment for him. Time to soak up his last experience in the green and gold. Hard to believe it’s only the 13 Test of his career. Would love to see more opportunities for this team in international netball!

Australia’s general under the post has made his way back on into GD for the final five minutes of the game and he pinches a rebound off a missed shot from the kiwis.

Before launching himself up the court, taking the ball two more times in transition as he switches from defence to offence.

SCORE: 66-35 Australia’s way

Timmy Apisai has been doing his absolute best to disrupt the Kelpies in defence and this time his team convert his efforts. He jumps on a missed shot from Lee-Tauroa and sends it up to the shooters for the Net Blacks 35th goal.

SCORE: 63-35 Australia’s way

Punshon and Nikolic pull out the famous Harrison hoist to get a little more height over the kiwis shot. The goal defence grabs the goal keeper around the waist and lifts him high in the air. As the Aussies bat the ball over the back of the court.

Oh wow, the Kelpies are rolling on with momentum. They’ve converted the first seven goals of the last quarter and the Net Blacks’ fatigue means they’re providing little resistance.

Shoutout to Liam Killey too who debuted in the first game of this series and is relatively new to netball. He has a basketball background and is extremely tall – but also super accurate. In his 25 minutes on court, Killey has shot 27 goals from 27 attempts.

SCORE: 59-28 Australia’s way

Off the first centre pass, wing defence Jack Vandervelde helps out in attack, allowing his teammates to rush forward and get straight into the goal third. A brilliant pass right up the guts of the middle channel sets the tone with ball speed and the Kelpies are on the board in the final quarter.

No sign of Gillbard’s return to court yet. Hopefully he gets back on in his last Kelpies game!

SCORE: 54-28 Australia’s way

The Australians have put on their most dominant performance for the game so far in the third quarter, outscoring the Net Blacks 20-8 over the 15 minutes.

It’s the second straight quarter where they’ve restricted the kiwis to eight goals.

But the overall margin is a lot closer at the final break than it has been in the previous three games. Great to see New Zealand fight back!

SCORE: 53-28 Australia’s way

With about two minutes left in the third quarter, Killey puts up a layup of his own to see the Kelpies reach 50.

SCORE: 50-25 Australia’s way

This Kelpies combo is absolutely flying. The Net Blacks have started once again to rotate through their game-day squad in order to try and find some answers to slow up the Aussie attack, but right now the kiwis can’t keep up.

SCORE: 42-22 Australia’s way

Nerida Stewart’s changes have come off and the fresh legs have brought a lot of energy to the court. They get off to a 4-0 start for the third quarter. This is a great shooting combo between Lee-Tauroa and Killey. We generally see them spearhead the attack at this point of the game, but we weren’t sure if Stewart would instead persist with Gillbard in the shooting circle to give him 60 minutes in his final international game.

SCORE: 37-20 Australia’s way

Coming out of the break, the Kelpies and Net Blacks have made a host of changes.

The Aussies have brought Victor Nikolic on as a super sub in goal keeper and Jack Vandervelde on in centre. We also see Dravyn Lee-Tauroa on in goal attack to partner Killey.

Let’s take a look at the numbers so far.

We can see the Net Blacks are getting more hand to ball, hence they’re leading the gain stat.

But they’re also leading the penalty stat, so are spending more time standing out of play and have given away five more general play turnovers.

On the scoring statistics we can see what Nerida Stewart was referring to when it comes to the Kelpies struggling to convert their gains.

They haven’t managed to turn either of their gains into goals just yet. So more work needs to be done in transition.

But they are doing better on the centre pass stat. Sure it could be higher, currently at 78 per cent. But it’s much better than the Net Blacks which has slumped to just 56 per cent.

Once again, right before the half-time buzzer Raerino jumps towards the post and adds another layup to his team’s tally.

You’d think the Kelpies would be happy with this score line, but it’s actually their lowest score at half-time for the series yet. Head coach Nerida Stewart has spoken with host broadcaster Fox Netball about her desire to see the team convert more of the ball they’re turning over. Both teams have been fast and loose with their passing at times and it’s landed back in the hands of the opposition. Still, given they are 13 goals up! She’s clearly a hard marker and striving for perfection.

SCORE: 33-20 Australia’s way

Mikaira Raerino is known for a layup and as we edge towards the main break, he’s getting on the jump more and more. Such an explosive leap from the Net Blacks target! It’s really entertaining.

SCORE: 32-18 Australia’s way

And just as we say that, there have been further positional changes for New Zealand as we get closer to half-time.

Oceon Grady comes off the bench into goal defence to replace Apisai, while Liam Dalton takes hold of Apaapa‘s wing defence bib.

The Kelpies respond with their own subs, giving Roberts a rest, Gillbard a run out in goal attack and Liam Killey his first minutes in the game at goal shooter.

This is an extremely tall shooting combo! We’ve also never seen Gillbard in the GA bib for Australia. Aussie coach Nerida Stewart has cheekily decided to test his lung capacity in his final-ever Test.

Fox Netball pundit Bianca Chatfield has just made an interesting point about the fitness of each team and how she felt the England Roses may have been impacted by the three-day turnaround between each game.

Overall the two nations played three games across six days. It’s pretty intense. Now Australia didn’t seem to have a problem with this, Sunday Aryang just said post-match that she even felt ready to play another game again.

But for England, where most of their athletes come from the UK Superleague set-up. A league that isn’t of a full-time professional status yet like Super Netball here. Perhaps they might have been up for the fight a bit more with a bigger break between outings.

It did feel like the Roses slipped off in intensity in the second-half and that their third quarter was flat. A good point from Bianca.

Before we head off to the press conference with the coaches and captains, let’s take a quick look at the final stats for game three. Looking over the numbers, it’s much the same from what we saw at the half-time. The Diamonds monstered England in defence, took more intercepts and got more tips on the ball. They were also cleaner in defence and were able to contribute more to the game as England players stood beside their opposition player a total 62 times. They gave away 14 more penalties and also turned the ball over eight more times. Ouch!

The scoring stats are not much better for the visiting team. In 60 minutes of netball they only managed to convert one of their gains. In comparison, the Diamonds made sure they scored seven more times when they turned over the ball.

We picked it! Goal attack Kiera Austin gets the honours for game three and also for the series. She was a consistent performer. She shot 24 goals at 83 per cent tonight, as well as 15 goal assists, 18 feeds and 12 centre pass recieves. Meanhile in defence, Austin and also had three gains, including two intercepts! That’s almost unheard of from a shooter. Wow!

Here’s what Austin had to say on host broadcast:

“They did their homework on us for game two, but we were back to the drawing board and it was great to put on that performance tonight … In these tournaments you have to back up really quickly and I haven’t done that well in the past, so getting enough sleep and fuelling my body is important. All the boring stuff and just taking it one game at a time … I’m learning from the veterans around me like Lizzy and Paigey and they’ve done it for so long, but it was great to see Sophie Dywer come on at the end there and I was stoked to get as much game time as I did this series.”

She said she’ll be off to support the Sydney Swans at the AFL Grand Final this weekend as the team lays low before it’s next international series against New Zealand in October.

Well there we have it. The Diamonds win game three to keep their unbeaten record at home against England intact.

Bodies were flying everywhere in those final minutes as fatigue set in and desperation reached an all-time high. What a frustrating end to the game for the Roses. They had the formula to win this series all worked out — or so it appeared — after game two. But the tough thing about facing the world’s number one team is you can’t hold them down for long. The depth and experience of the Aussies has proved the difference tonight.

They’ve managed to bounce back from their two-goal loss on Sunday to win by the very same margin they did last Thursday. 13 goals. It’s the Diamonds ninth series win over England.

Two and a half minutes left now and now it’s Kate Moloney‘s turn to get an opportunity. Replacing vice captain Paige Hadley at centre. Moloney started in the second game of course, but at least coach Marinkovich is getting her involved in the game now that she knows the result is certain.

With six minutes left in the game both teams have decided to rest their starting goal attacks and give their younger stars a go. The Roses went first, bringing Berri Neil on and Housby off. We can see Housby smiling on the bench about that decision, she clearly cares about building the next generation of England players. But in my mind, deep down she would know, that this also means England know they’ve lost this match and are now using the remaining minutes to blood new players.

Meanwhile, Australia have given Austin a rest and brought Sophie Dwyer on for her first minutes in this series. It’s their first substiution of the game

SCORE: Australia lead64-50

Kiera Austin once again is proving to be a thorn in England’s side as she swats a Roses centre pass away and into the clutches of Australia. The Diamonds defence is starring in all thirds of the court and Austin has to be a contender for Player of the Match for her combined efforts in offence and defence.

Defenders do tend to grow into games and in this fourth and final quarter Sarah Klau is one again picking off the high ball. It seems England haven’t learned from their mistakes against her in game one. Perhaps as fatigue sets in, it’s hard go fix those bad habits.

The Diamonds can see the end is near and are not letting up as they convert five of the opening six goals in this final quater to make a statement. This series is ours.

SCORE: Australia lead 55-43

Opening seconds of the final quarter and Diamonds goal defence Sunday Aryang gets a deflection as England try to send possession into their circle. Her elusive closing speed is what makes her such a deadly player. You think there’s enough room for a pass and all of a sudden there’s not. Australia convert England’s first centre pass.

SCORE: Australia lead 51-42

 That 15 minutes absolutely flew by!

And a bit of dynamic play by the two Aussie shooters in the final minute pleased the crowd. The ball was falling out of court and while balancing on one foot Garbin managed to send it back Austin’s way to lead to a cracking goal.

The Aussies have also broken their third quarter curse this series to take the period 20-18. Do the Roses have anything left in the tank to fightback from here? They look a bit flat.

New Zealand umpire Gareth Fowler and Housby are not seeing eye to eye. There may have been a teeny bit of back chat about a decision from the Roses centurion … And he’s responded.

“That’s enough goal attack.”

However, it’s not an official warning.

Speaking of substitutions … With about six minutes left in this quarter England have sent Razia Quashie on into goal keeper and shifted Williams into goal defence. Fadoju heads to the bench. Although she’s been threatening in this game the lively defender hasn’t been able to convert her touches on the ball into goals on the scoreboard. It’s time for a change.

Five and a half minutes into this third quarter and Roses head coach Jess Thirlby has injected Imogen Allison back into the game. Allison started at centre before she was replaced by Amy Carter (no relation to me, haha!) late in the second quarter. After spending a chunk of time on the bench now, it’s important she gets invovled in the game once again. Allison is playing in her 46th international game and she’s their most experienced defender.

It’s nice to see injured Diamonds defender Jo Weston in the stands alongside Netball Australia chief executive Stacey West. Weston was ruled out of this series and has been dealing with some lower leg injuries the past couple of years, but it’s awesome to see she’s made the trip out to the country to cheer on her teammates in her home state.

Ohhh, okay I see what you’re saying! I’ll keep an eye out for the next time Fadoju does it and see if I can also see that similarity.

Heading out for the third quarter Marinkovich has backed her wing defence to continue despite the warning hanging over her head.

Speaking with the host broadcaster, Marinkovich said this: “Obviously a rush of blood, just got to take a moment, take a breath and now she’s just got to make some smart decisions now.”

So let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

The Aussies are doing better defensively and getting their hands to clean ball. Otherwise, the rest of the stats are pretty even.

Here on the scoring stats, you can see the Diamonds are just a bit more certain on converting their centre passes and gains. But the Roses have scored the last six goals to make the margin look a bit more respectable at half-time. Be wary of the momentum shift! Not listed here is the shooting accuracy. Australia are at 88 per cent and England are 89 per cent.

Okay, so Australia have won both the opening quarters by three goals each but their lead was out to as much as nine goals at one point in that second period. So they really need to clean up some of the errors happening in attack. There’s a bit of ill discipline happpening for both sides.

The worrying thing is that we know England love to come out firing after half-time. They perform best in the third quarter, so the Aussies will definitely be wary coming back from this break. They actually haven’t won a third quarter yet this series so that’ll be a goal for Marinkovich for sure.

Price was playing on a new wing attack in the final three minutes of that second quarter and things were tense as Jess Shaw had clearly been told to get on court and get under the skin of the Aussie midcourter. At one point Price gave her a bit of a shove right in front of the umpire and was issued a warning for retaliation.

That warning can be escalated to a two-minute suspension if she doesn’t clean it up from here. Most of the time in international netball coaches will bring their player off if they get a warning as it’s better to make a change than it is to be playing down with just six players for two minutes.

As Price went to head down to the changerooms at the half-time bell she was interviewed by host broadcaster Fox Netball and acknowledged: “I probably need to be careful now.”

Will Marinkovich make the change? It would be a shame to see Price head to the bench because she has been so good this game.