Veteran captain Liz Ellis hailed Australia's fighting spirit after it held off a plucky New Zealand 42-38 to win the world netball championship for a ninth time in Auckland on Saturday night.
Australia took it to the defending champion from the opening whistle and had opened up a seven-goal advantage by the half-time break.
But matches between the two nations inevitably end up being nail-biters and it was no surprise when the Silver Ferns won the third term 12-8 and then pulled to within a goal in the final term.
However a tenacious Australia, led by Ellis's stellar defensive work on gun New Zealand goal shooter Irene van Dyk, held on for a memorable victory.
"What a fight, the Silver Ferns were always going to be a super opponent tonight," a visibly spent and emotional Ellis told ABC TV.
"They fought back and fought back and at no stage of that game did we feel safe.
"But this team here, we have worked incredibly hard. The heart and the soul and the fight of this team is just unbelievable."
Ellis is now a three-time world champion but refused to confirm whether this was her last game for Australia.
"I haven't decided my future yet and tonight I want to keep playing netball forever and ever and ever!" she said.
"We just kept fighting, at times it wasn't pretty. I think both teams probably had lapses and didn't do pretty things but it was desperation, both teams were desperate, but perhaps we just had the edge."
Aussies 'relentless'
Australia coach Norma Plummer was almost lost for words.
"I feel sick, I can't say anything else, my stomach's in a knot," she said.
"I just think this team has worked so hard together, they're so united and they're relentless and they were there to play the game and give it the biggest go."
New Zealand captain Adine Wilson said she could not have been prouder of her troops.
"To my team, we asked you to leave your guts out there and I think it's all over the court," she said.
"The girls kept fighting, you've got to give them them that.
"We kept going at it, there was opportunities in the game that we could have had it and it just wasn't meant to be tonight.
"But we've got our shoulders back, we can stand strong because I think we did ourselves proud."
Jamaica beat England 53-52 to win the third place play-off.
