NETBALL CHAT with Linda Bunch

World Netball has improved thanks to Australia.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games is all the proof required.

Past Australian coaches and players prominently filled the coaching roles of many nations down the years.

No one can argue the level of world netball has risen considerably in the past four years thanks to a combination of Australian coaches sharing their knowledge and skills across the world and international players joining our Suncorp Super Netball competition to then take their learnings, knowledge and new skills home to share.

New Zealand's choice to select their national team for the Games from players in their domestic competition only showed heavily in fixture and finals results for the Commonwealth Games.

England reaped the benefits of a large percentage of their players competing in Australia's 2017 Suncorp Super Netball, the world's strongest competition.

The future of netball is strong and will grow stronger thanks to the foresight of Australian Netball, their coaches, players and competitions.

As disappointing as the gold medal game result was for us die-hard Aussie supporters, England deserved their gold medal.

They were rewarded for being the better team on the day. They did their homework, knew exactly what was required for their plays and also to shut down the Diamonds.

They took the court (and the gold medal) thanks to determination, grit and perhaps a little benefit from an overly confident Diamonds outfit.