Liz Ellis warns Diamonds that Northern Ireland could be 'tricky' World Cup opponent

Australian netball legend Liz Ellis previewed the 2019 World Cup which begins in England tonight, live on 9GEM.

"It looks like the netball women are going to be left to clean up the mess left by the cricketers unfortunately. I think what the cricket showed us though is how hard it is to reach a World Cup final," Ellis said on TODAY.

The Aussie Diamonds take on Northern Ireland to kick-off their Netball World Cup campaign at M & S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

Ellis said that even though Northern Ireland are ranked eighth in the world, they have inside knowledge at their disposal.

"They've got Dan Ryan who coached the Adelaide Thunderbirds here last year. He's the former captain of the Australian men's netball team so he's got a really good netball brain," Ellis said.

"He knows these Diamonds players really well so he will have a few tricks up his sleeve. It's a tough game for Australia to open with because of that.

"So they should win and they should play quite well but that creates expectations when they're trying to blow the cobwebs out and the nerves out. There's nine players that have never played a World Cup before so tonight's game could be a little bit tricky."

Ellis said the role that Super Netball has played in developing and lifting the level of the skill around the world has been immense.

"In the past it's been a two-horse race between Australia and New Zealand and the first week is just about getting games out of the way so you can get to the final. Not so this time," Ellis said.

"There's five teams that are capable of winning it. England are one of those teams and they won the Commonwealth Games gold medal last year, but if Australia focus too much on getting revenge for that game, they're going to struggle. "

Ellis believes all the pressure is on the host nation England going into the tournament, and how they cope with that added expectation will be telling in how far they go.

"I think England are the team to beat. Australia go in ranked number one in the world but the fact that England have so much confidence from their win last year and the home crowd will play into their hands. But there's also pressure playing a World Cup at home and we saw Australia deal with that four years ago in Sydney.

"The pressure of having the crows behind you, their coach has announced she's going to step down, there's a few things which have the potential to derail them."