By Paddy Regester
What have you done for me lately?
Shamefully these seven words sum up the natural mentality of many sports fans. We demand success, consistently and emphatically.
Much has been said about Diamonds head coach Lisa Alexander in the past two years after she led highly favoured squads into both the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup, only to come away with the silver on both occasions.
After Netball Australia CEO Marne Fechner announced today that the contract of Diamonds head coach Lisa Alexander will not be renewed beyond 2020, these two “failures” will no doubt be highlighted as the obvious contributing factors.
Lost among the opinions, the hurt, the frustration and the elation will be the incredible legacy left behind by one of Australian sports most successful national coaches.
102 test caps, 83 of them wins for win/loss percentage of 81%.
Of those 102 caps, 86 of them were against the four nations that have shared the top five INF rankings since Lisa took over as head coach: New Zealand (49), England (22), South Africa (12) and Jamaica (3).
Speaking of the INF rankings, when Lisa inherited the head coach position from Norma Plummer after the 2011 Netball World Cup, the Diamonds were the number one ranked team in the world.
They have held that same position every game they’ve taken to the court with Lisa at the helm.
Lisa became Australia’s most capped coach ever, surpassing Jill McIntosh’s total of 94, during the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool and became the first Diamonds head coach to reach 100 test caps during the 2019 Constellation Cup.
Reaching the 100-cap milestone was something she was extremely proud of and humbled by.
“I personally didn’t ever sit down and think ‘I want to get 100 Tests’. It never happened that way. I’m just happy each time we get out there and win. That is just fantastic.”
Two games later, in what would inevitably be Lisa’s final test as coach, the Diamonds raised the Constellation Cup in Perth for an incredible seventh consecutive time.
They’re baffling numbers, all achieved through years of hard work and dedication to the sport, her players and to her staff.
Lisa's key stats:
- 102 games as Head Coach.
- The most in Diamonds history.
- Win 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2015 NWC
- Silver 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2019 NWC
- Constellation Cup 6 straight wins
- Australia have remained the world’s no 1 ranked nation since 2011
