How ‘we kept all of our power’ for final

When the Silver Ferns took to the court in the Netball World Cup final, everything just clicked.

Head coach Noeline Taurua’s 11-month master plan to netball domination had finally come to fruition and Kiwi fans were left stunned by the Silver Ferns’ thrilling 52-51 win over Australia in Liverpool.

With so many odds stacked against them, it’s not difficult to understand why New Zealand winning the Netball World Cup was deemed the unlikely outcome.

But arriving at Auckland Airport yesterday, Silver Ferns shooter Ameliranne Ekenasio revealed they didn’t once feel on the back foot heading into the final — a mindset she credited as the secret to their success.

“We knew we had so much more to give and nobody else really knew that,” Ekenasio said. “It was cool we kind of kept all of our power to us.

“Every single game we were chipping away, working on different

To see what Noeline can do in 12 months, can you imagine what she could do in four years?

Ameliranne Ekenasio

things, even on the earlier on games we were just working on ourselves. It was just us against us so we really wanted to be our own measure.

“When it got to the final few games, we were just so proud of what we had already put out on court and knowing that we still had more.”

Much of the Silver Ferns’ thrilling success has been credited to the confidence and belief the side carried out on court.

It was a stark contrast to what was witnessed during last year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games when the Ferns went down to the likes of Malawi and returned home without a medal for the first time in history.

Silver Ferns defender Jane Watson described the fresh environment in the New Zealand camp as “outstanding”, praising the efforts of their influential head coach.

“The preparation that was done has been really good and credit to Noeline and Debbie [Fuller], they’ve worked so hard in getting the people they thought were right for the job,” Watson said. “Everyone just had a feeling of confidence which is good because we needed to have that within ourselves to believe that we could go all the way. It was very cool.”

Taurua’s future with the Silver Ferns remains unclear and will likely only be revealed later in the year following the conclusion of the Super Netball competition.

Already being hailed as “the best netball coach in the world”, fans and players are rallying for her to stay on.

“I can’t even put into words how much she’s done but she is absolutely it,” Ekenasio said.

“To see what Noeline can do in 12 months, can you imagine what she could do in four years?”