Every sport has a unique way to hurt you - football can casually rip your hopes and dreams away with just a few seconds left. Cricket gives you plenty of time between balls to contemplate the void.
Netball comes at you fast. The see-sawing way it sets you up then drops you like a recycling bin after a decent party is not good for your heart.
Combine that with the endless show-downs against a Diamonds set up who've embraced professionalism like no-one else in the sport and embody the cold-eyed, cut-you-dead side of Australian sporting culture like a Steve Waugh / Incredible Hulk love child... it's fair to say this household has been badly burned by netball in recent times.
Which makes this win all the sweeter. Seeing the battle-scarred senior Silver Ferns lift that trophy in these miraculous circumstances was one of NZ's all-time great sporting moments. Obviously Netball NZ need to keep our wonder-coach (I deeply dread the backlash if that doesn't happen) and I look forward to her building up the next generation of fossils.
Sometimes the speed with which we focus on how much cash the players end up with after wins or losses feels queasy - and like all things in netball, it's complicated. This is one of our highest profile sports as the number one women's sport and a format made for heart-stopping TV drama, with the same big Aussie bank on their shirts as the BLACKCAPS on thier kit.
But - there's just not the cash to go around. World Netball simply isn't World Rugby or the ICC, which is propped up by Indian TV money. Being good at sports the rest of the world isn't that into is a blessing and a curse for this country of ours, takes the best of our resourcefulness to succeed - if it's tough for netball, imagine what it's like for other sports.
Being professional and the ability to train and play without dipping into your own pocket counts for a lot, especially in women's sport, where there's ground to make up. I don't envy those trying to come up with the answers, but I'm delighted we're starting to understand the limitations our sports people operate under, and starting down the right direction to put things right.
Thanks for reading - Richard
The week's best NZ sport content
Dana Johannsen's multimedia extravaganza has the in-depth look at Noeline Taurua's last eight months you've been waiting for [Stuff]
Ravinder Hunia was at both the cricket and netball world cup finals - here's what it was like [RNZ]
Suzanne McFadden looks at Taurua's selection of the Fossils, and how that hard-won experience helped deliver the cup [Newsroom]
2003 netball world champs winner Alice Webb-Liddall looks back at that win and how this one can help grassroots netball [The Spinoff]
Hamish Bidwell addresses the post-championship chat about why the Silver Ferns didn't have a win bonus waiting for them and Josie Campbell has some practical tips on how you can support women athletes more effectively [RNZ, Twitter]
So that's one world cup out of two. Sportsfreak has a few lessons from the netball for the rugger [Sportsfreak]
Video nasty
Bringing the family together
Long read
A grifter cons Tinder dates into paying for expensive meals out - a victim and a cop track him down [Daily Beast]
Bring back the gif
Getting familiar with normal sleep patterns once more.
