Hong Kong
INF World Ranking: 24th
The hosts are certainly relishing the prospect of going head to head with this year's lineup of opponents, with the 2018 edition of the Four Nations Cup spiced up by the outcome of December's Nations Cup in which they were bested by Ireland and Singapore.
While the Hong Kong Netball Association have been busy developing the youth and grassroots side of the sport as it looks to popularise netball in the city, the senior squad remains firmly in the spotlight as they look to emerge victorious in the Four Nations for the first time since 2011.
That being said, there will be a different look to the Hong Kong side taking the court on Thursday; they famously bid a fond adieu to Hong Kong Football Club defender Victoria Smith last year, while familiar faces such as Jess McCauley and Stephanie Cuvelier are notable absentees from the team sheet.
In their stead, the stage is set for fresher faces who played a part in the 2017 Tri-Nations squad, such as Gessy Li Ka-wing and Mandy Tai Ka-yan, to establish themselves in more prominent roles this time around.
Led by co-captains Connie Wong and Kate Jolly, Hong Kong will look to press home their home advantage and if the support turns out to be as vociferous as last year, there is no telling what the ladies in red can accomplish this weekend.
Interview with Connie Wong, Hong Kong Captain.
Q: How much are you looking forward to it? After the Nations Cup recently hosted by Singapore, we had tough battles against two of the teams coming, Singapore and Ireland.
We've taken away a lot from that experience and we really looking forward to playing them again at 4 Nations on our home turf.
Also this is the first time that Singapore, Ireland and Grenada has played in this international event, so I think the crowd will have a lot of good matches to look forward to in these 4 days. Q: What do you know about the teams you will be playing against and how much of a challenge do you think it will be? Well, we played Singapore and Ireland recently so we have a good understanding of their playing style and structure. Grenada, we do not know as much but we have watched some video clips and they seems to be quite tall, physical and play an unique style of netball.
All three teams will be a challenge as they are all quality teams, and they are higher ranked than us.
However, the strength of our team is our versatility and the ability to produce different tactics and strategies against our opponents.
Q: What would it mean for your team to take the Cup home? To play at home in front of our home crowd in itself is hugely exciting. What is important to us is that we have learnt from our previous experiences and are ready to step and take on this challenge... head on!
Having that home support will give us that extra bit of energy when our legs are getting heavy and that extra spark we need when we really need to dig in and do the work. They really pulled us through last year when we won the close encounter against Malaysia, so we hope to see the netball community coming down again to support us!