Fears New Zealand netball would suffer with the dumping of the trans-Tasman netball have eased in the wake of the Silver Ferns ten goal win over arch rivals Australia.
Beaten four days earlier by England, New Zealand shocked the Diamonds with their intensity and dominated throughout the match.
With the Commonwealth Games looming early next year, next month's Constellation Cup clashes between the two teams in Auckland, Christchurch, Adelaide and Sydney take on added significance as a battle for psychological supremacy.
Silver Ferns with the Quad Series trophy after their ten goal win over Australia. Photo: Photosport
There had been fears New Zealand netball would suffer when the trans-Tasman club competition was scrapped in favour of separate national competitions this year.
But they were set aside as the Diamonds appeared non-plussed by the Silver Ferns' zone defence and energy and a high penalty count also hurt the visitors as New Zealand led 18-10 at the first break.
New Zealand's young, 192cm goal keeper Kelly Jury caused havoc in the Australian shooting circle, with the Diamonds having to rethink their feed into captain Caitlin Bassett.
Kelly Jury Photo: Photosport
"It's who takes that ascendancy psychologically in that first quarter and we played into their hands, we talked about not doing that but unfortunately we did," said Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander.
"We know about all our strategies against the zone, we simply just didn't do it."
Bassett admitted her team simply did not handle the Silver Ferns' pressure well enough.
"I think we lost our connection," she said.
"We didn't play as a team, we were doing too much individual work and not enough unit work. They split us apart.
"They exposed that for us, put us into individual units, we didn't step up and get back together again."
The New Zealand defence generated a wealth of turnover ball and Te Paea Selby- Rickit (35 from 41), Bailey Mes (17 from 18) and Maia Wilson (five from five) were clinical in their conversion for New Zealand.
