All you need to know about the new Ferns coach
Noeline Taurua is the 11th head coach in Silver Ferns history. Here’s 10 things you need to know about Taurua.
1. Former Fern.
Taurua was Silver Fern No.108, debuting in 1994 against Australia. She played 34 tests between 1994-1999 as a goal attack-wing attack before a knee injury brought a close to her elite career.
2. Controversial snub.
When Wai Taumaunu stepped down as Silver Ferns coach in 2015, Taurua registered her interest in the role. She failed to be shortlisted for the final two by the interview panel with Janine Southby winning out over Australian Julie Fitzgerald for the job. After being overlooked, Taurua, who has a reputation as a straight shooter, thought she’d never be considered for the position. She told Stuff, her face didn’t ‘‘fit’’ at Netball New Zealand and doubted it ever would.
New Zealand teams struggled in the former trans-Tasman competition, but Taurua can lay claim to a unique piece of history. She was the only
3. Trailblazer.
netball. Like any job, when you do go for a job and you miss out, you’ve got to reflect on the things that you could do better.
‘‘It didn’t influence who I am or what I needed to do and that was probably the best thing – it made me think about me as a coach and why I coach, and if it’s coach to lead a Kiwi side to the title, guiding the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic to the title in 2012.
Few coaches in New Zealand netball know returning Silver Fern centurions Casey Kopua and Laura Langman better than Taurua. She coached the star duo in their early years with the Magic and both were in the team in the trans-Tasman league when they won the title in 2012. Langman and Taurua teamed up together last year at the Sunshine Coast Lightning in the first season of Australia’s Super Netball competition.
4. Star connections. 5. Steely edge.
Taurua’s reputation as an outstanding coach was further underlined when she took charge of the Southern Steel in the final year of the trans-Tasman league in 2016. Replacing Southby, who had stepped up to the Silver Ferns job, Taurua excelled with the southern outfit. The Steel took it to Australian opposition, winning the minor premiership before faltering in the finals.
one of those moments in life, then so be it.’’
In that sense, this is another one of those moments in life. The Ferns job became available in the wake of the team’s failure to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games and the resignation of Southby; the Lightning went on a
6. Lightning strikes twice.
With Australia and New Zealand going their separate ways in netball for 2017, Taurua crossed the ditch taking charge of new side, the Sunshine Coast Lightning. Under Taurua’s tutelage, the Lightning have enjoyed phenomenal success in the first two years of Super Netball, emerging as champions both times.
Taurua’s coaching record speaks for itself. She’s captured five elite titles – two in Australia with the Lightning, a trans-Tasman title with the Magic in 2012, and two others with the Magic in the former Kiwi domestic competition in 2005 and 2006. In her two seasons with the Lightning in Australia, she’s never lost a playoff game. Taurua led the Magic to the finals every year as coach in that competition between 2008-13.
This won’t be the first time Taurua has been involved with the Silver Ferns coaching setup. She had a brief stint as the team’s assistant coach under Taumaunu in 2011.
7. Proven winner. 8. Ferns assistant.
storming run to defend their Super Netball title; then Taurua was at Netball NZ’s offices in Auckland, looking forward to her first test in charge, against England two weeks from Saturday.
Taurua wasn’t keen to use the word rebuild to describe the task in front of her, and shied away
9. Famous family.
Taurua is the daughter of Kingi Taurua, who died, aged 80, in May from cancer. Nga¯puhi tribal leader Kingi, was a broadcaster, a Vietnam war veteran and a Ma¯ori adviser to prime ministers. He was also the first Ma¯ori guard at Buckingham Palace. Noeline is one of Taurua’s 10 children. Noeline Taurua is a mother to five and has three grandchildren.
How closely did Taurua follow the New Zealand domestic competition while working with the Lightning in Australia? One source close to the new Silver Ferns coach told Stuff she watched video footage of every game this season. While the selectors ultimately named the 17-strong 2018-19 Silver Ferns squad and team for September’s Quad Series, it’s clear Taurua would have had a massive say in who made it. Langman and Kopua wouldn’t have decided to return to international netball for just any head coach. They adore Taurua and have huge respect for her.
10. Meticulous planner.
from suggestions that she is here to save New Zealand netball. Her focus is on the World Cup in England next July, and what it will take to win there, a cause boosted by the recent return of Casey Kopua and Laura Langman – two of her proteges – to international action.