But adoring netball fans - both young and old - were in for a treat on Thursday as Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander paid a visit to Warrnambool Stadium. 

Alexander, who has coached the national netball team since 2011, took a free 45-minute junior netball session, a two-hour clinic and a 90-minute coaching workshop, which was livestreamed on Facebook. 

And before the youngsters' fun began, Alexander regaled a group of local coaches and umpires with stories from the road.

Attention quickly turned to the Australian side's shock one-goal loss to England in the Commonwealth Games final in April.

Helen Housby converted from a penalty with one second remaining, pushing the scores to 52-51 and earning the Roses their first-ever Commonwealth gold medal. 

The match was also the first-ever Commonwealth final that wasn't fought between Australia and New Zealand. 

Alexander joked it was difficult for her to embrace the popularly-held opinion that the result was good for netball.

"Putting my diplomatic hat on, I think having more competition at the top will help us survive as an international sport and make us more exciting," she said. 

"And that's important, because encouraging young girls to dream of playing for Australia is one of our key points of difference to AFL."

The Diamonds coach said selection headaches were the biggest difficulties of the job. 

But the best thing was when she could sit back and watch everything just work. 

"My greatest love is when the Diamonds are in action and I don't have to do anything," Alexander said. "Those moments when they're basically just coaching themselves and getting things we've done at training right."

Alexander also touched on the upcoming Netball World Cup, to be held from July 12-21 in Liverpool, where the Diamonds will look to win their fourth title in a row and 12^th in history. 

Australia will start in Group A, alongside Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka.

​"I hope we're put under pressure in the early rounds," Alexander said. 

"They're not that easy anymore."