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etball Australia has announced Stacey Marinkovich has been named the new Australian Diamonds head coach.

As current coach of the West Coast Fever in the Super Netball competition, Marinkovich has more than a decade of coaching experience and will continue with the Fever until the end of the 2021 Super Netball season, before becoming full-time Diamonds coach.

Her appointment means she will lead the team into the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and 2023 Netball World Cup in South Africa.

Marinkovich said she is proud to be appointed head coach of the team.

“This is something I have been working towards my entire professional life and I’m absolutely honoured and humbled that Netball Australia have granted me the opportunity to lead the world’s best netball team,” Marinkovich said.

“I am acutely aware of the expectations, the history and responsibility of taking on such a position and I am very much looking forward to growing the success of the Origin Diamonds program.

“Coaching the Origin Diamonds is not about me as a coach.

“It is about the team that is representing the nation and Netball Australia, and everything I will do in my time as head coach is about the quality of that representation.

“My coaching philosophy has always been to evolve my athletes by embedding a collaborative purpose and generating principles and standards that enable players, support staff, stakeholders and the wider netball community to thrive and advance towards sustained success,” she said.

Netball Australia CEO, Marne Fechner, said the decision came after a lengthy recruitment process, with a number of top-quality applicants.

“Australia is spoilt for choice when it comes to high quality coaches and the quality of the applicants, as you would expect, was outstanding,” Fechner said.

“The head coach role is critical within the context of our national high-performance system and we are excited to have Stacey stepping into the role, she is an outstanding coach and leader.

“Stacey understands the complexity of the performance challenges ahead and the expectation we all have for this team.

“The incoming coach will be charged with unlocking the extraordinary ability of this team and we’re confident that Stacey’s people first approach, technical capability and drive for success will do just that.

“We have and will continue to work closely with the West Coast Fever on the succession planning they have in place for their next coach and we will do all that we can to support that process,” she said.

The 2020/21 Origin Australian Diamonds team is set to be announced following the 2020 Suncorp Super Netball season, with Netball Australia and Netball New Zealand currently discussing the likelihood of competing in the annual four-match Constellation Cup test series this year.