Why bronze medal serves as reminder world No.1 Diamonds ‘won’t back away from fight’

The Australian Diamonds are out for Commonwealth Games revenge.

And that starts today against gold medallists New Zealand in the first of four Constellation Cup tests.

Catch every game of the Constellation Cup 2026 LIVE on Kayo Sports.

For the first time in netball history, Australia failed to progress to the gold medal match at a Commonwealth Games - losing by one-goal in heartbreaking scenes to rivals Jamaica in the semi finals.

While going on to secure bronze with a dominant win over England, it was a tough spot for our world No.1 ranked netballers with star defender Courtney Bruce admitting players battled with the disappointment of that result.

"We were super disappointed with the result in Glasgow - it's definitely not where we wanted to be and walk away with," she told Fox Netball.

"But the power of this group and the collective staff too is the group's ability to reflect, look inward and look at what we need to do to close those gaps.

"It's been very clear from our staff about where those gaps lay and what we need to work on and how we work on them.

"To be a professional athlete we have to be a bit stubborn and I think this group is quite stubborn. To be able to work through that and be prepared and want to work, and take those tools on to find those gaps, lean into those gaps and want to work on it - not back away from a fight. I think that's the best thing that has come out of that Commonwealth Games experience.

"We know what we need to do to compete and how to challenge each other to allow us to get there.

"We've had two court work sessions already. We've been able to work on those gaps. There's a level of confidence.

"Comm Games is one experience that doesn't define the Diamonds' future or history."

Players and staff took time away after Glasgow before beginning to unpack where the campaign went wrong.

But it's now back to work with a home Netball World Cup on the horizon in less than 12 months' time.

"To be able to lean into what that (Comm Games loss) was … you need to take a bit of a balcony approach and that's hard to do when you have a lot of emotions sitting around it," she said.

"It wasn't probably until we came back into the hub, prime sessions in our states and individuals with Stacey (coach Marinkovich) and Richo (assistant Nicole Richardson) that those gaps were presented to us and then re-presented to us in camp.

"We definitely had some downtime to process individually.

"To be able to switch off - as much as we're athletes, we are also humans first. Being able to have some downtime, reflect on what the Comm Games experience was … then hit the ground running come into this camp.

"It can be tough (the mental load) - both the Diamonds and our club help us manage it extremely well.

"There's definitely a motivation and a hunger in the group post-Comm Games.

"Everyone enjoyed their down time … that allowed people to come back with a clear want and hunger for this Con Cup.

"The Commonwealth Games potentially was that little push we needed to find that hunger to push into Con Cup."

Bruce heads into the Constellation Cup facing arguably the biggest challenge in international netball - stopping Kiwi goaler Grace Nweke.

But she remains confident a team-first approach can succeed in unsettling the young rising star.

"I have so much respect for Grace as a netballer - she's an incredible athlete," she said.

"How young she is, she's got an absolute future ahead of her and it's crazy to think how much better she's going to get.

"But it's about the collective unit, how we collectively shut down the Ferns and make them feel uncomfortable.

"For anyone competing with Grace in a one-on-one situation, it's hard!

"It's about trying to put the doubt in the attacker's minds. Try and get them to potentially throw a ball a little bit shorter or a little longer to give us that split second for an extra opportunity.

"I'm excited to come up against her … if we can disrupt one or two balls out of 10 then that's a win.

"We don't have to disrupt every ball because I think that's a little bit of a task that we won't achieve or be able to tick off.

"We know we have an incredible rivalry with New Zealand - the Commonwealth Games is totally separate to what this Constellation Cup is. The confidence is there.

"It's about us just being able to step into those moments and have each other's backs as collective when it does get tough.

"It's never going to be an easy run.

"(The Comm Games disappointment) was one game and we know what we have to address."

Game one of the Constellation Cup will be held at Sparks Arena in Auckland, with the first centre pass from 5.40pm AEDT.