Story of the year: Australian Diamonds
Having pulled off a perfect calendar year, and their best season on record, it is impossible to reflect on the 2014 sporting year without the Diamonds emerging as the standout.
World beaters: The Diamonds conquered all in 2014. Photo: Getty Images
Having pulled off a perfect calendar year, and their best season on record, it is impossible to reflect on the 2014 sporting year without the Diamonds emerging as the standout. In fact, their golden season saw them recognised as Australian sport's greatest success story of the year, taking out the Australian Team of Year award in October.
In 2014, the Diamonds were untouchable. They won all 13 Tests, amid a 19-game winning streak - a feat which saw them regain the world number one ranking. Captained by Laura Geitz, the 2014 Diamonds also conquered the hurdled that had plagued the side for 12 long years: pole position at the Commonwealth Games. With netball yet to included in the Olympic lineup, the Commonwealth Games, along with the World Championships, are the sport's pinnacle events, and the Australians had not revealed in gold slung glory since 2002.
As with all their defeats, the Diamonds were forced into this drought by arch rivals, the ferocious New Zealand Silver Ferns.
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Described by netball legend Liz Ellis as "the closest rivalry in world sport," the Diamonds and Ferns have squared off in all four Commonwealth Games since the sport was introduced in 1998, and were two-apiece going into Glasgow. Under the reign of coach Lisa Andrews, nothing was going to be left to chance this time around. This Commonwealth Games would be the "Mount Everest" of their careers, Andrews told her team. When the Diamonds touched down in Manchester, they were a formidable Amazonian force - the culmination of a gruelling pre-Games build up, meticulously-refined strategising, cutting-edge sports science, and an insatiable hunger for gold.
With the lingering burn of the double overtime loss to the Silver Ferns at the 2010 Delhi Games ingrained in their memories, the stage set for an epic showdown. But, gold-starved, the Aussies' quest for vengeance produced a spectacular 58-40 demolition - an 18-goal victory and the largest-ever winning margin between the two sides in the final of a major event. Back in the southern hemisphere, the Diamonds continued their dominance, closing out the year with a 4-0 victory over New Zealand in Constellation Cup series. The win secured the Diamonds another record: the first clean sweep of the series by one country since the Constellation Cup was introduced in 2010.
The winner
For Diamonds captain Laura Geitz , a year doesn't come sweeter than 2014. In her first year of leading the national side, the 27-year-old was able to cross off the "one unticked item on my bucket list" when she captained the Diamonds to victory at the Commonwealth Games. Ruling herself out of the 2018 Games, Manchester was Geitz's last opportunity to get her hands on gold, after the agonising double overtime defeat to the Silver Ferns in Delhi in 2010.
In addition to leading the Diamonds to their best season on record since 2002, Geitz was awarded the ANZ Championship Player of the Year gong for her exceptional on-court performance for the Queensland Firebirds. She rounded out the year with yet another feather in her well-adorned captain's hat, picking up Leadership Legend award at the 2014 Women in Sports Awards.
Off the court, Geitz's 2014 campaign was equally stellar. Since being selected in the national side in 2008, the 27-year-old's profile has snowballed alongside her career, burgeoning into a personal brand that now places her among the country's highest-profile sports stars. In 2014, the Laura Geitz empire expanded further, with the signing of deal that will see her signature brand of apparel and netball equipment distributed nationally.
Losers
The NSW Swifts: Triumphing over a injury-laden start to the season, the Swifts finished as league co-leaders on 18 points, booking their first finals appearance since 2011 and, with it, their first chance to hold the championship trophy since winning the inaugural season in 2008.
They looked set to stampede into the finals rounds with five wins on the trot, but a crucial stumble in the final round against the Northern Mystics clipped them of an outright top-of-the-table position. Instead, they shared the honours with the Queensland Firebirds and Melbourne Vixens, but were effectively relegated to third position on goal difference.
They dispatched with each of their co-finalists at least once during the rounds, proving themselves capable of clinching the title.
But with pole position gone begging, there was no margin for error as they faced off against the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic in the knockout semi finals match. Deja vu loomed large, with the prospect of their finals campaign prematurely ending at the hands of their across-the-Tasman foes, just as it had been by the Northern Mystics in 2011.
With seconds on the clock, it was the Magic's Jo Harten that sent the Swifts dreams crumbling down, with a heartbreaking goal in the dying moments snatching a nail-biting 50-49 point victory for the Kiwis. And with it, the Swifts were saddled with a disappointing fourth-placed finish.
Shock of the year
More alarming than shocking, former Diamonds coach Norma Plummer was forced to seek help from police after receiving death threats from a Dunedin man via her personal website. Based in Perth, Plummer notified WA Netball, which referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police. A joint investigation with New Zealand Police, resulted in a 49-year-old man being issued with an official warning.
Crystal ball
Looming on the horizon is 2015 Netball World Cup, formerly known as the World Championships, which will see teams from 16 nations descend upon Sydney in August. If the Diamonds storm into 2015 with the same ferocity as they concluded this year, they should be an unconquerable force when challenged on home turf.