Chance for Taurua to go out on high
SYDNEY: Smart, authentic but most of all a winner, Noeline Taurua must make any shortlist of Australasia’s finest sports coaches.
On Sunday, Taurua will attempt to guide her Sunshine Coast Lightning to a third straight Super Netball title in her farewell match — against NSW Swifts in the grand final in Brisbane.
Few would bet against it. Success follows Taurua wherever she goes and her stocks have never been higher after she masterminded New Zealand’s turnaround to topple Australia as world champions in July.
A veteran of 34 tests for New Zealand, until a knee injury ended her playing days in 1999, Taurua found her calling in coaching.
In New Zealand, she won two national championships and an ANZ Premiership with Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic — the first North Island team to win the former competition and the only Kiwi side in nine years to win the latter.
She also spent one season transforming the Southern Steel. She lifted it from a threewin 2015 ANZ Premiership season to an unbeaten 11 wins and two draws regular season in 2016, before it lost successive finals matches.
Transferring her talents across the Tasman to the Super Netball competition, she quickly turned the Lightning into a national sporting titan, taking it to the first two Super Netball titles, this year’s minor premiership and another grand final.
In between, Taurua transformed the Silver Ferns, taking over in 2018 after they missed the medals at the Commonwealth Games for the first time.
Within 10 months of her appointment, she had steered the side to a World Cup final win over the Diamonds in England. — AAP