The Silver Ferns suffered their worst World Cup finish, failing to win a medal after a 52-45 loss to Jamaica in the third-fourth playoff yesterday.
While many have labelled the campaign a disappointment, former Silver Ferns coach Lois Muir described their finish as a "hiccup".
"People see fourth as very, very sad, and sure, no-one likes to be there," Muir said.
"But I have to think back to my first year in 1975 coaching the New Zealand team."
That year, the Silver Ferns lost to England, drew with Australia and finished third at the World Cup, leaving Muir devastated and thinking her coaching career was over. But she bounced back to win the World Cup in 1979 and 1987.
Muir felt the Silver Ferns played well throughout the tournament, but lacked experience and game awareness in critical moments, starting in the 48-48 draw against hosts South Africa.
"You cannot afford to make mistakes.
"If you look at Australia and England, particularly, they don’t turn over their own ball.
"We had sections under stress in our group that couldn’t cope quite as well with that. That’s the difference between them.
"They put in the hard yards, they worked hard, they sweated away just the same, but those crucial moments when you turn the ball over — you turn it over three times, that’s six goals."
The Ferns suffered a setback when star shooter Grace Nweke was ruled out through injury, and while that was a contributing factor to the Ferns’ woes, it was not the only reason.
Midcourters did their best to feed their shooters under "aggressive defence", but the Ferns struggled to maintain possession and regain it on defence, Muir said.
"On defence, you want to cut the blood supply off to that ball and we couldn’t quite do that as well as we could.
"Likewise, we didn’t cherish our own possession and people didn’t read spaces.
"When you get a little bit stressed, people go and help out, and that’s where the demise happens."
The Ferns developed plenty of young players throughout the tournament, boding well for the future, and their game just needed fine-tuning.
"We are a smaller population than England and Australia sure, but that doesn’t mean to say we’re going to dwell on it.
"We always punch above our weight — business as usual.
"The top four teams were disciplined, worked hard and New Zealand has to be proud to be in that.
"It’s tough at the top and it’s much tougher than it used to be."
