The official pools and match schedule for the preliminary rounds of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Netball competition have today been confirmed, marking one step closer to the pinnacle event.
The Australian Netball Team will be joined in Pool A alongside Jamaica, South Africa, Barbados, Fiji and Northern Ireland during the preliminary rounds.
Pool B will see matches between New Zealand, England, Malawi, Wales, Scotland and Uganda.
Overseen and sanctioned by the International Netball Federation (INF), today’s draw ceremony saw the bottom six ranked teams randomly drawn into two pools in order to determine the match schedule for the preliminary round-robin stage of the competition.
They join the top six ranked teams who were placed into the two pools in a snaking pattern, according to the INF World Ranking list as of 1 July 2017.
Each team will play every other team within their pool during the preliminary round matches which will be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre from 5-12 April, before culminating in the finals matches at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre on 14-15 April, 2018.
Australian Netball Team Coach Lisa Alexander said:
“It’s always going to be a difficult road to the Finals, as we are playing in a competition with the twelve best netballing nations in the world.
“There is no ‘draw of death’ – it will be plain, hard work in both pools.
“Both pools will have their tricky moments in the preliminary rounds – England playing New Zealand will be tough, Australia playing Jamaica will be tough, and Australia playing Fiji will also be tough with former Australian captain Vicki Wilson coaching the side.
“No matter what, every game we play will be challenging.”
GOLDOC CEO Mark Peters said:
“With the match schedule and pools now confirmed, excitement is certainly building ahead of the GC2018 Netball competition.
“We have already seen strong public demand for tickets to both the GC2018 Netball preliminaries and finals and today’s draw ceremony provides spectators with further detail about which nations they are going to be cheering on in April 2018.
“Featuring the top-12 ranked teams in the world, we know that spectators are going to witness an outstanding level of competition during the GC2018 netball competition.”
International Netball Federation President, the Hon. Molly Rhone OJ, CD said:
“We are confident that the GC2018 Netball Competition is going to be a fantastic showcase for our sport and a thrilling world class event, and now that the draw has taken place, excitement and anticipation is really mounting.
“We look forward to seeing our amazing athletes take to the court in April, to winning new friends for our sport, and to the success we know this competition will be for netball.”
The two pools determined today are listed below:
POOL A | POOL B |
1 Australia | 2 New Zealand |
4 Jamaica | 3 England |
5 South Africa | 6 Malawi |
8 Barbados | 7 Wales |
9 Fiji | 10 Scotland |
12 Northern Ireland | 11 Uganda |
View the full GC2018 Netball draw
Australia’s Draw
PRELIMINARY ROUNDS | ||||
Competition Day | Date | Time (AEST) | Home Team | Away Team |
Day One | Thursday 5 April | 8.30pm | Australia | Northern Ireland |
Day Two | Friday 6 April | 8.30pm | Barbados | Australia |
Day Three – Off | ||||
Day Four | Sunday 8 April | 8.30pm | Australia | South Africa |
Day Five | Monday 9 April | 3.00pm | Fiji | Australia |
Day Six – Off | ||||
Day Seven | Wednesday 11 April | 9.00pm | Australia | Jamaica |
CLASSIFICATION ROUNDS | ||
Date | Time (AEST) | Team |
Thursday 12 April | 9.00am | The schedule of classification round matches to be played on day eight will be available after the completion of the last preliminary round match of day seven. |
11.00am | ||
2.00pm | ||
4.00pm | ||
The teams ranked third to sixth in each pool at the completion of the preliminary rounds will compete in the classification rounds as follows: | ||
3rd Pool A v 3rd Pool B | ||
4th Pool A v 4th Pool B | ||
5th Pool A v 5th Pool B | ||
6th Pool A v 6th Pool B | ||
The classification rounds will determine placings 5-12 in the competition. |
SEMI FINALS | |||
Date | Time (AEST) | Team | |
Saturday 14 April | 3.00pm | 1st Pool A | 2nd Pool B |
5.00pm | 1st Pool B | 2nd Pool A | |
*The order of the Semi Final Matches is subject to change. |
MEDAL MATCH | |||
Date | Time (AEST) | Team | |
Sunday 15 April | Bronze Medal Match | ||
11.00am | Loser SF1 | Loser SF2 | |
Gold Medal Match | |||
1.00pm | Winner SF1 | Winner SF2 |