Over to you, Noeline
The Sunshine Coast Lightning’s prolonged finals run in Australia’s Super Netball is delaying the Silver Ferns’ coaching announcement.
Netball New Zealand and Lightning coach Noeline Taurua are understood to have reached a deal for her to be the 11th coach in Silver Ferns history. No announcement on Taurua is expected to be made until the Lightning season is over.
Taurua is fully committed to Sunshine Coast’s finals run and doesn’t want the Silver Ferns’ appointment to be a distraction for her or the team.
The Lightning’s success will have implications for tomorrow’s 2018-19 Silver Ferns squad announcement in Auckland. An update on the coaching situation will be given then.
NNZ could call on an esteemed Kiwi coach to prepare the Silver Ferns for their next international assignment, next month’s Quad Series against Australia, England, and South Africa. Their opening game is against England on September 15 at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Former Ferns coach and captain Wai Taumaunu is understood to be the frontrunner for any potential interim role.
Taurua is in her second season coaching the Lightning, after guiding them to the inaugural Super Netball title last year.
She is contracted through to the end of 2019, but NNZ, Taurua and the club appear to have come to an agreement. Long-time Australian domestic coach Jane Woodlands-Thompson is tipped to be an attack coach under Taurua with the Ferns.
The Lightning pipped the Queensland Firebirds 57-56 in the minor semifinal in Brisbane on Sunday to survive for at least another week.
They will face Sydney-based Giants Netball in the elimination final on Sunday with the victor moving onto the grand final against the West Coast Fever in Perth on August 26.
NNZ has been on the hunt for a new coach after Janine Southby resigned on July 20, following the first stage of a damning independent review into the team’s downward spiral over the past 10 months.
The Silver Ferns turned in a dire showing at April’s Commonwealth Games, failing to medal for the first time and finishing fourth. They lost to Malawi for the first time in group play and ended the tournament with consecutive losses to England, Australia and Jamaica.
Taurua looks set for redemption three years after she failed to be shortlisted for the final two in the Ferns’ coaching search in 2015.
Southby won out over Australian Julie Fitzgerald for the top job, but the team went backwards at an alarming run under her stewardship.
New Zealand won just 20 of 39 matches during Southby’s tenure and lost 11 straight matches to tier one nations (Australia, England and Jamaica) since last October.
Taurua played 34 tests for the Silver Ferns from 1994 to 1999 as a goal attack-wing attack.
She has carved out a fine coaching record, becoming the only Kiwi coach to lead a side to the former trans-Tasman competition title in 2012 with the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic.
In her one season as Southern Steel head coach in 2016, Taurua mentored the side to an unbeaten record in round play and a semifinal finish.