Diamonds go up against Tonga and the crowd in opening Commonwealth Games netball win in Glasgow

Sun 26 Jul 2026 at 12:02am

, updatedSun 26 Jul 2026 at 12:05am

The game was never going to be close between the Diamonds and Tonga, but as Uneeq Palavi hit the Griddy on her way onto court, it was clear the result was only part of the story.

One was the undisputed number-one team in the world and defending champions, the other was on Games debut.

"[Before the game] we were pretty much telling ourselves 'oh, we're gonna beat the diamonds' but it's just a hype up to get around," Palavi said.

"It's just another step closer to putting our little country on the map and that's all that matters."

As is so often the case, especially at the Commonwealth Games, the gulf in profile and quality meant every Australian goal was met with polite applause and each Tongan bucket led to cheers usually reserved for contests of significantly more consequence.

Only 36 hours earlier, the British King and Queen had elicited a similar reaction in the same venue, Glasgow's colosseum-like Hydro arena.

On Saturday, there was more royalty in the house, with Tongan Princess Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho, albeit sitting with the plebs in the stands, rather than in the royal box populated by Charles, Camilla and other dignitaries at the opening ceremony.

"I didn't expect so many Tongans to be out there but that's the crazy thing, no matter where you are in the world there's always Tongans to support and I feel like that's the best thing to have behind us," Palavi said.

And it wasn't just Tongans.

Perched in the upper decks were Diamonds reserves Amy Parmenter and Jessie Grenvold.

Rather than cheering for their girls in gold, they held a sign reading "Princess Pav", backing their Melbourne Mavericks teammate.

In the second half, Palavi clocked them and any time she managed to have a moment against the vice-like defence of Jo Weston, Courtney Bruce, Matilda Garrett or Sarah Klau, her eyes went straight up to them.

"It was good to see their faces to ground myself and remind myself that, although the loss was tough, it's great to have people around me like that," she said.

Unfortunately, there weren't many chances for those fans to get up and about.

Palavi and Lavinia Lavea got vanishingly few opportunities in the face of the locked-in, well-oiled defence of the Diamonds.

Stacey Marinkovich rolled out her first-choice seven to start the match.

By half-time, Tonga had taken 22 shots for 19 goals. Australia was 52/55, with six intercepts.

In the second half, Marinkovich rattled through different line-ups en route to a 99-38 thumping in a bit of a test case for later group matches against England, South Africa, Malawi and Northern Ireland.

For Tonga, things should only get easier.

"It wasn't the best, but to come up against the world's best it's obviously gonna be something like that," Palavi said.

"We're not a new team but we're new in this environment. I feel like it's a lot to come up against the world's best and put out what we wanted to do, but I feel like we did good regardless."