Diamonds coach admits Games conundrums

For all her renowned meticulous planning, Australia's netball coach Lisa Alexander admits to a couple of conundrums.

Alexander is unsure of her best starting line-up for the Diamonds' Commonwealth Games campaign, which starts Thursday.

And she also doesn't know precisely what mental space her players are in.

"You never quite know the mental side of things," Alexander told reporters on Tuesday.

"It's always something you play around with and it's something I'm very invested in as a coach, the psychological approach.

"The spirit that we play in is very important - we need to really respect every opponent we come up against."

Alexander still doesn't know her best starting seven line-up.

"I truly can't at the moment," she said.

So she's planning to throw her entire 12-strong squad into the early fray to find out.

"It will evolve over the week. And it will change," Alexander said.

"It may take all 12 athletes to get us to the final where we want to be and competing for that gold medal."

"We have got a pretty clear understanding of how we need to be by the end of the tournament, so it's a matter of managing all of our athletes."

The Diamonds' schedule:

- Thursday: versus Northern Ireland

- Friday: versus Barbados

- Sunday: versus South Africa

- Monday: versus Fiji

- Wednesday: versus Jamaica

- Semi-finals on Saturday April 14; medal matches on Sunday April 15.