NETBALL Australia will support the retention of the revamped World Cup draw for the next tournament in England, despite some concerns from lower-ranked nations.
Australia's position on the draw came as NA chief executive Kate Palmer warned Africa was set to emerge "very powerfully" as a force in international netball in the future. 
The International Netball Federation will review the new-look draw after the event in Sydney to determine if it will remain in place for the next World Cup in Liverpool in 2019.
A new competition format was introduced for Sydney following an extensive review after the 2011 Singapore world championships.
Along with a name change to World Cup, the draw was changed to have the top-ranked nations face each other earlier in the event, with Australia and New Zealand placed in the same pool for the preliminary rounds for the first time.
All pools were based on each team's world ranking, while previously the top-ranked teams were all placed in different pools and other teams drawn randomly around them.
Palmer said the new draw was a topic of debate at a meeting of the INF congress last week, but Australia believed the changes had been positive.
"There's a bit of contention around the current draw ... but it can't go back to what it used to be, drawing people out of a hat and putting them in pools," Palmer said.
"The beauty of this is, we get to play all the top-ranked teams. We'll face New Zealand, England and Jamaica, so when we win the world championship, we will be the best team.
"It's about closely ranked teams playing each other across the event. We would definitely be in favour of it (staying)." Palmer said the criticism from some lower-ranked countries was a "perception they don't have a chance to win the title".
"If you were in the preliminary draw with Australia and New Zealand, you would probably feel slightly aggrieved," she said. "If I were a lowly-ranked nation, I might feel vaguely uncomfortable as well.
"The issue is around what they perceive as fairness and equal rights, and I get that.
"We all deserve to be equal ... but with that comes a responsibility to perform on the international stage."Palmer said broadcast figures - "stunning for a Tuesday night" with 170,000 viewers when the Diamonds played England - showed the change was popular with fans.