Australian Diamonds midcourter Paige Hadley is backing the youthful side to redeem their 2018 Commonwealth Games defeat and go all the way to snare gold at Birmingham.
Despite making her Diamonds debut in 2015, Birmingham marks Hadley's first Commonwealth Games appearance and she's determined to help her side find redemption after their heartbreaking one-goal defeat to England at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
Wearing the gold dress for the first time at the Sydney 2015 World Cup, Hadley has plenty of big game experience and she believes seeing the intensity of international netball and to win a major title at a young age has prepared her for the trials of Comm Games netball.
"A few of the girls are laughing about that [delayed Commonwealth Games debut], they feel like I've been around for so long," Hadley told ESPN.
"But it's my first one, and it just goes to show how hard it is to make a Commonwealth Games team. My journey has been such a roller coaster up and down so to finally be in that 12 to go to Commonwealth Games there's nothing better.
"Having that World Cup experience is massive. I got into that World Cup team really young, really raw, no idea the magnitude of what a World Cup or Comm Games was but to go out and win it in Sydney was just amazing. Obviously the last few years with the World Cup and the Comm Games not being in our favour, it's been tough and I think it's going to be really hard in Birmingham, but I think the motivation and the drive is there for this group to make sure that we're going all the way to win that gold."
While it's a new look Diamonds that will take the court in Birmingham, there's still plenty of scars within the playing group. Four players from 2018 are making the trip to the UK determined to make up for the loss on home soil.
"There's a few girls that were there [Gold Coast 2018], Liz Watson, Courtney Bruce, Jo Weston and Steph Woods, they were all there.
"To have it on our home turf and to lose by one to England, now we're going across there to be on their home turf to hopefully win that gold. It definitely hurts, but certainly a driver for this team, and we've been very open about not having a gold medal in the cabinet for the last two big pinnacle events, so the drive is there and I can't wait to get out on the court with the girls."
A Commonwealth Games gold medal loss in 2018 was quickly followed by a one-goal defeat to the Silver Ferns at the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool. It is the only time the Diamonds have not held either titles in their trophy cabinet.
With a new coach in Stacey Marinkovich and several young players, the Diamonds head to the Games with the least experienced squad out of the big three teams. With just 299 international caps, Australia face an England squad with more than triple the experience with 925 caps, while the Silver Ferns will take 436 caps of experience. Despite the stats, Hadley believes the Super Netball experience within the squad has them ready for international competition.
"I don't look at that too much," the 29-year-old told ESPN. "I think we're playing the best league in the world where everyone wants to play week in, week out against the best athletes and that's the best experience you can get. It's about getting out there and getting that experience under those pressure moments.
"Stacy's come in and she's put her own twist and her game style on us and I've absolutely loved it. She's given us structure, but she's also given us freedom. So it's about us as a group, the last two years we've been growing, but we haven't played that much netball together with COVID, so to be able to keep growing, and hopefully by the end of the tournament we're absolutely flying.
"We're obviously not as experienced as England and New Zealand, but you know when push comes to shove and you're on that court it's doesn't matter about experience, it's about putting out a game plan and being able to execute under pressure and I think Suncorp [Super Netball] doing that week in week out, you've got to be able to do that. This league was the best this year, to make the final four it came down to goal percentage, so it's going to be tough. But I have no doubt this youthful team can do it."