The 2023 Netball World Cup will take place between July 28 - August 7, with SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand airing the semi-finals and the final live and free from August 5-7.
Watson formed part of the squad that surrendered the World Cup to trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in 2019, but now finds herself within reach of reclaiming netball’s biggest prize and the final piece of silverware in the current cycle.
Australia’s journey to South Africa, where they will face Jamaica in a mouth-watering semi-final, has been fuelled by revenge; upheld by the first few words Marinkovich uttered when she was appointed head coach in 2020.
“When our coach came on board nearly two, three years ago now, she said, ‘we don’t own the Commonwealth Games medal, we don’t have the World Cup trophy, we don’t have the Constellation Cup, we don’t have the Quad Series’,” Watson told SBS Sport.
“There were so many things that we wanted to get back and the World Cup is the last thing that we haven’t got back yet. So I think there’s this real motivation and drive to just want to get that.”
With Marinkovich at the helm, the Diamonds have since recaptured their formidable form of years past, where success in the most recent Quad Series and Constellation Cup have come either side of a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Watson was there for it all and helped command the midcourt alongside vice-captain Steph Wood - the pair producing a collection of crucial plays in the attacking third to secure vital victories over England, Jamaica, South Africa and, of course, New Zealand.
New Zealand, Jamaica and England, who defeated Australia by a single point in the preliminaries, find themselves yet again at the business end of a World Cup in 2023, though their respective failures would return the Diamonds to the rarefied air they’ve only twice been able to occupy over the last 25 years.
Since netball’s competitive debut at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, no other national team have been able to complete the coveted Commonwealth Games-World Cup double achieved by Australia in both 1998-99 and 2014-15.
Only the Silver Ferns, in 2006-07 and 2010-11, and England’s 2018-19 Roses have come close to replicating such an honour, one Watson hopes she and her teammates can soon experience for themselves.
“We want to be that team who can go back-to-back from a Commonwealth Games to a World Cup,” Watson said.
“Not many Australian teams have done that in the past and just to have that sustained success, to be right at the top for as long as we can, I think is really important and special.
“But obviously it takes so much hard work, but to be able to keep going with the success; not relax, not get complacent, and just be the best team in this era that we can be. I think that’s everyone’s biggest goal.”
Winning the World Cup would “mean everything” to the 29-year-old, but perhaps more so for the journey it took to reach this point; barely two years removed from a career-threatening foot injury.
Even the most gifted athletes have been undone by the impact of long-term injuries, but, thankfully for the Victorian, the support of her close family, friends, and the Melbourne Vixens only made her stronger.
“It did kind of come as a shock to me when I was told that I’d have to have the surgery,” she explained. “I’d had some foot problems in the past but I never thought that it (would) get this bad.
“The surgeon pretty much said, ‘we want to make sure you’re able to walk properly for the rest of your life, it’s not just netball’. As soon as he said that I was like, ‘just do it, get it right’.
“The support I had at the Vixens, they had a really clear plan for me… of course, I was obviously wanting to run as soon as I could but they held me back and did heaps of other work to be able to get me stronger and fitter.
“I think I came back probably the strongest and fittest I’ve been.”
Watson’s eventual return to the court culminated in her second Liz Ellis Diamond award for her unparalleled performances in 2022, and helped pave the way for the position the Diamonds currently find themselves in: two wins away from a 12th World Cup.
Only eight quarters stand in Australia’s way of making good on the mission Marinkovich set out for them three years ago; eight quarters for them to handle their ‘unfinished business’.
For Watson, that territory comes with being the hunted, but it’s one she believes “we’ve got to take as a privilege and an honour, to know that we can keep getting better and, hopefully, teams don’t catch us as we do that".
Netball World Cup 2023 SBS Broadcast Schedule – LIVE on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand
Saturday, August 5
Netball World Cup 2023 Semi Final 1 - England v New Zealand
1900 – 2030 (AEST)
LIVE on SBS Viceland and via SBS on Demand
Sunday, August 6
Netball World Cup 2023 Semi Final 2 - Jamaica v Australia
0000 – 0130 (AEST)
LIVE on SBS Viceland and via SBS on Demand
Monday August 7 (overnight Sunday into Monday)
Netball World Cup 2023 Final
0200 – 0330 (AEST)
LIVE on SBS Viceland and via SBS on Demand
