If you thought things couldn't get much worse for the Silver Ferns, think again.
2018 lurches from bad to worse for the struggling netballers, culminating in a humiliating 57-53 defeat by African minnows Malawi at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
A comfortable 32-25 half-time lead evaporated in the space of 15 minutes, the vibrant and up-tempo Malawi side outscoring their more illustrious opponents 17-9 in the third quarter.
Once in the ascendancy by a single goal at three-quarter time, they never looked like dropping their advantage, running out hugely deserved 57-53 winners to earn their first victory over New Zealand in 10 matches.
It probably ranks as the worst result in the team's history, and put coach Janine Southby's job under even more pressure, coming after two recent defeats by Jamaica and a string of losses against Australia.
She rung plenty of changes once the Kiwis hit the lead, but that completely stalled the momentum in a match where they were not completely dominant, but comfortable.
Mwai Kumwenda was dominant in the attacking zone for Malawi, and as the Ferns started chasing the game, their defence stepped up to deny them time and space.
"Pretty gutted, it's one of those things you never want to do, we're really disappointed with the product we put out there today and we got punished for it," she told reporters shortly after the final whistle.
"We were guilty of not really punishing them when we had that lead just before half-time and letting them back into it, and in the third quarter we just took the foot off, we didn't do out jobs.
"We weren't available on attack at times, we made it hard for ourselves."
The Ferns are now in a battle just to make it out of their pool. They play Scotland tomorrow, before a must-win clash with England on Wednesday.
Only the top two teams from the group progress to the final four.
"It's not ideal, it's certainly not what we planned, what we prepared to do, but we've got to pick ourselves up, it's a tournament and you've got to keep going," Southby said.
"I don't think it's over. We've got two games left in our pool and we've got to focus on one game at a time, that's all we can do."
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