Former captain Belinda Colling believes the midcourt and a lack of consistency must be addressed if the Silver Ferns are to bounce back from a series whitewash by Australia.
Wednesday night's 51-47 loss in Auckland condemned the Silver Ferns to a 4-0 series loss, the first in the Constellation Cup's four-year history.
To make matters worse, it was the ninth straight loss to the Diamonds, one short of the record set from 1995 to 1998, when Colling was part of the side.
''For me, the focus has to be sorting out the midcourt,'' Colling said yesterday.
''My preference is to see Laura [Langman] at wing defence [instead of centre], but the difficulty is, you have to have the strength ahead of her to do that.
''You need a centre that's strong enough, and I think that's another issue - there hasn't been another centre.''
Colling singled out Kayla Cullen (22), who has been recovering from a knee reconstruction, and Southern Steel centre Shannon Francois (24) as players who could fill the void.
Throughout the Constellation Cup series, the Silver Ferns midcourt struggled to get into a rhythm and feed the shooters quality ball.
As a result, the Ferns turned the ball over 89 times in four tests, nine more than the Diamonds.
While wing attack Grace Rasmussen did not have a bad series, Colling wanted the Ferns to look at other wing attack options and introduce some young blood to the midcourt, such as Francois and Cullen.
''I think there is a couple of younger players coming through. I'd start getting them in there now.
''I think teams go through cycles [of success and failure], so that's why I think it's important to get some youngsters in to go through that cycle.''
As well as introducing new blood, she thought some players were underperforming and questioned their consistency.
''[Cathrine] Latu is an example of that. She can do really great things but then we have really struggled to see her at her best.
''Laura [Langman] hasn't been at her best. We see players like Joline Henry have a really poor first test and then be great in the second.
''That happens a little bit, but I think it's happening too much, the inconsistency of performance. I don't know if some players are being honest with themselves and looking in the mirror about their performances and their own preparation ... for some reason they are not performing where they need to.''
Coaching great Lois Muir, who guided the Silver Ferns to world titles in 1979 and 1987, said people would always pick on the midcourt but the problem was a little bit of everything.
The most successful New Zealand teams had a mixture of youth and experience, and the side was trying to find the right mix, she said.
''We can finger anybody, but really, we can do better in all facets of the game,'' Muir said.
''You have to remember the two Australian shooters [Caitlin Bassett and Natalie Medhurst] are hard to manage and our defence had trouble with them.
''We are a work in progress.''
Despite an obvious need for improvement, starting with a two-match series against England later this month, Colling and Muir agreed the Silver Ferns could not be written off before next year's World Cup in Australia.
-by Robert Van Royen
