Diamonds face hectic two-year schedule

The Australian netball team is set to embark on a gruelling two-year schedule, with a nine-month season in 2010 and a relatively short break before the world championships the following year.

The five-Test tour of the United Kingdom in February ,which comprises two matches against Scotland and three against England, heralds the start of a hectic schedule.

Australian coach Norma Plummer is also hoping to squeeze in a training camp in India, the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, either side of the UK tour.

After returning home, the players will throw themselves into the third season of the ANZ Championship trans-Tasman competition between March and July.

The Diamonds will then play home and away Tests against rival New Zealand and will also host Jamaica in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games tournament in Delhi in October.

Following that competition, the Diamonds will head to England for the second World Series tournament in November.

With the 2011 world championships scheduled for Singapore in July, their off-season break is likely to be shorter than usual with the ANZ Championship having to be moved forward from its usual July finish.

Plummer stressed she wouldn't take any risks with the three players who had recently undergone knee clean outs, skipper and shooter Sharelle McMahon and defenders Bianca Chatfield and Julie Corleto.

"I certainly won't take any risks with any of those players that have had surgery, they have got to be fit to travel," Plummer told AAP.

"I wouldn't want them to go in if it meant they weren't at peak condition, because it's a long year and we have bigger scalps down the track with the Commonwealth Games."

Netball Australia chief executive officer Kate Palmer confirmed her organisation was trying to organise some time for the Diamonds in India early next year as preparation for their Commonwealth Games campaign.

"We'd love the opportunity to go into India, some of our young athletes haven't travelled to that part of the world yet," Palmer told AAP.

"It could only be done before or after the tour to Britain, it depends on what stage the organising groups are at in India, we don't want to impose ourselves while they are in their final stages of preparation."

Palmer said her organisation was very conscious of the burnout factor and Plummer had been working closer than ever before with the Australian ANZ Championship coaches.

Plummer was philosophical about the crowded program, with the players attending camps in January 2010 before playing their five British Tests in just over a week.

"It's going to pretty hectic, but most of our tours are becoming that way now," Plummer said.

- AAP