The Silver Ferns will play for Commonwealth Games netball gold on Sunday night after Jamaica produced one of the biggest upsets the tournament has seen, knocking world number one Australia out of the medal match with a 46-45 win in the second semi-final.
It is the first time the Australian Diamonds have failed to reach a Commonwealth Games netball final, and it hands New Zealand a chance that looked remote when the team arrived in Glasgow carrying an off-court crisis and a thin bench. RNZ reported that the Australian players walked off the court looking shell-shocked after the fourth-ranked Sunshine Girls held on by a single goal early on Sunday morning New Zealand time.
New Zealand booked their place the night before, beating England 61-54 in a semi-final they controlled almost from the first whistle. The Ferns led 16-11 at the first break, held a five goal buffer at half-time and then stretched away in the third quarter to lead 46-37. Shooter Grace Nweke finished with 52 goals despite England rotating three different goal keepers against her.
It is the Silver Ferns’ first Commonwealth Games gold medal match since 2014, which was also in Glasgow, and their first final at any pinnacle event since they won the 2019 Netball World Cup. The last time New Zealand won Commonwealth gold was the double extra-time win over Australia at the 2010 Delhi Games, a match still replayed in living rooms around the country.
What makes the run remarkable is the state the team was in a year ago. Head coach Dame Noeline Taurua and her staff were stood down in September 2025 after players raised concerns following a training camp in Sydney. Yvette McCausland-Durie took the side through the Taini Jamison Trophy series and the Constellation Cup as interim coach. Taurua was eventually reinstated, but when she sat on the bench for the opening pool match against Scotland in Glasgow it was her first time in charge of the Silver Ferns since October 2024. She had the squad together for a camp just three weeks before the Games began.
“It takes a long time to get here not only on court but also the work we’ve done off court,” Taurua told RNZ after the England win. “We’ve got to give ourselves a bit of a tick and a pat on the back and to be able to put that performance out there is something of a success already in our minds. But it’s always such an honour to play in a grand final, we’re going to give it everything we’ve got, this is what we’ve prepared for.”
Captain Karin Burger, who stood in as interim captain during the coaching upheaval, said the group had grown tighter as a result. “We’ve been working really hard for this, we’ve been through some ups and downs so to be able to be in this position and know we’re prepping for gold is a really good feeling,” she said. “England had their crowd backing them but I think the strength of this New Zealand side is playing for and with each other on the court and not letting the outside noise infiltrate the way we play.”
Burger is the only player in the current squad who has won a pinnacle title, having been part of the 2019 World Cup team.
The Ferns will go into the final a player down. Defender Catherine Hall ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in the pool match against Wales on Thursday and has been ruled out of the Games, leaving New Zealand with 11 players and a defensive end carried by Kelly Jackson, Burger and Carys Stythe. Goal attack Georgia Heffernan hurt an ankle in the same match and missed the final pool game, but returned to the starting seven against England. Taurua barely used her bench in the semi-final, which raises the obvious question of how much the starters have left after a turnaround of little more than 24 hours. She says the tank is not empty. “We’ve actually got a few more mileage in our bank, so our strength and conditioning coach is really happy about that, we know that we can run that physically,” she said.
Jamaica are not an unknown quantity. New Zealand beat them 53-48 in pool play, and the Sunshine Girls are without their prolific shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, who gave birth a few months ago. But the veteran Romelda Aiken-George anchored their attack against Australia and their defensive line, led by Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, was the difference in the semi-final.
The match carries weight well beyond the medal. Netball New Zealand confirmed last month that the ANZ Premiership will post a loss of around $3.7 million this year, and board chair Alastair Carruthers told 1News the shortfall had been covered from reserves in a way that cannot continue. “We actually don’t have a clear solution at the moment for the future of the domestic league,” he said. Netball New Zealand has since changed its eligibility rules so players who take contracts overseas remain available for the Silver Ferns. Carruthers argued the sport is undervalued, noting it has been played by girls and women here for 102 years and that the league still reached more than a million viewers on TVNZ this season.
Burger acknowledged the uncertainty sitting behind the campaign. “I don’t want to be distracted too much, but I know there’s a lot of girls who are in the ANZ competition who probably have a bit of anxiety as to what that looks like,” she said.
The netball is the closing act of a strong Games for New Zealand. Para cycling pair Emma Foy and Jessie Hodges won their second gold of the meet in the 1000m time trial, with Ellesse Andrews taking bronze in the women’s kilo, lifting New Zealand’s tally to 27 medals including eight golds. Tori Moorby then added javelin silver with a throw of 60.04m, the first major championship medal of her career.
The gold medal match starts at midnight on Sunday night, New Zealand time.
Will the Silver Ferns finish the job in Glasgow, and what should happen to the ANZ Premiership? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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