Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Plummer still thriving on the highs and lows of netball
Sports writer LIAM MOSES chats to Proteas netball coach Norma Plummer about her successful career. IT’S the soaring highs and crashing lows which make netball meaningful to Proteas coach Norma Plummer.
The 71-year-old Australian has experienced countless victories and defeats during her 63-year career and while she believes the triumphs would be meaningless without the failures, Plummer is definitely a winner.
The Melbourne native has an extensive list of titles to her name; she won the 1975 World Cup as a player, coached the Australian Under-21 team to consecutive victories at the 1996 and 2000 World Youth Netball Championships, and then guided the senior team to the same feat at the 2007 and 2011 World Championships.
Plummer has been at the helm of the Proteas exactly a year, taking charge in June 2015 and leading the side to fifth place at the World Championships with just six weeks to prepare.
In her second assignment last week, Plummer guided the Proteas to three victories (64-50, 64-45 and 63-43) against Wales in the space of three days. Where in Australia are you from? Carlton, Melbourne. When and how did you start playing netball? I started when I was eight, at primary school. I have been in the game all of my life. I went on to play for one of the best clubs, the Melbourne Netball Club, the state team Victoria and the Australian national team. What is it about the game that you love? I love the competition for a start. I loved being able to test myself against everybody else. But it’s also the interaction with people and the relationships that grow out of this game over many, many years.
After playing international netball, you have people all over the world that you stay in contact with who you played or coached against.
Sport is a great leveller because you have some fantastic highs, but you can certainly have disappointing lows. In the Commonwealth Games final against New Zealand in 2010, Australia lost even after triple overtime, but then came back and beat them in overtime at the World Cup the next year.
There are the highs and lows. Unless you experience the lows, you don’t really appreciate the highs as much. What made you decide to go into coaching? When I was with Melbourne Netball Club, we had a figurehead who was about 17. If you were appointed captain of the team, you were literally in charge. There was no coach on the sidelines. People weren’t coaching much back then.
When you’re that young, you don’t realise that you’re actually learning your craft (as a coach). I think that was the best teaching I had ever had, because I had to play and think about other people positions.
I won the National Championships as a player-coach. It wasn’t designed that I went out to be a coach, it’s just the way it fell for me. I was 14 (when she was named captain for the first time) so I was basically coaching all the way through. Times were different back then. The sport is very professional now.
You have coaches and all of the sports science and all the service providers around you, but back then you didn’t have it. You just did what you thought was right, but it was a great lesson. You co-wrote a book called Netball:SelectaSkill with Mary Carroll that was published in 1980. What was it about? It was just a skills-based book that I did with another player who I played with. It was just about basic skills and we literally had it in just about in every primary and secondary school in Australia. The book was rather good, but I just ran out of time. I seem to always be too busy to write another one. You won the World Cup as a player in 1975 and twice as a coach in 2007 and 2011. Which meant more to you, and why? I don’t think you could ever replace being a player. I much preferred being a player. Being a player would be first and coaching would be second. I also coached Australia Under21s and won two major world titles with them and those were special. When I played, in those days you didn’t have finals at the World Championships. It used to be that you played everybody and the team with the most points won. On the last day of the 1975 tournament in New Zealand, we had to win or draw to take home the title and we drew it. That was an extremely exciting game to play in, and it was very special. Why didn’t you stay on with Australia and try to win a third consecutive World Cup title? Most of the terms for the Australian coaches are two to four years. That’s pretty normal all the way through. Afterwards you move out and let somebody have a go then. What was it about South African netball that made you want to take up this position? I didn’t plan to come to South Africa. South Africa had been contacting me since 2001, after the World Cup in Singapore, but I had gone over to Perth to help them build up the (ANZ Championship) franchise, the West Coast Fever. I was there for three years and when I came back home, South Africa kept ringing me and that’s how it turned out.
Now, I’m really enjoying it and loving working with your athletes. They’re fantastic athletes. I think South Africa, given the opportunity to be out in the international scene a lot more and with some high-quality coaching, can definitely improve. It’s definitely not going to happen overnight, but we will certainly try and close the gap very strongly. Thinking back to your first training session, what was your first impression of the South African players? I played against South Africa in the 70s before they were banned from international competition because of apartheid. South Africa were always good, I think they were third in the world then, but while South Africa were out of the picture for all of those years the game changed a lot.
What we’re trying to fasttrack now, (to get the players and coaches up to speed with) what has changed in the game. Why are Australia and New Zealand so much better than South Africa? It’s not that South African coaches are not good. I think it’s just that they haven’t had the opportunity to be out in the international arena as long as we have.
What we bring is the tactical and technical experience. We want to bring them up to speed and we are coaching and mentoring three South African coaches so that at some stage along the track, in the not-too distant future, they will be able to take over.
It’s also the level of competition. When you play a domestic competition which involves Australia and New Zealand against each other weekly, the standard of netball is far higher than anywhere else in the world. The level of competition is what lifts the players up because they’re under pressure on a weekly basis, in every game. That’s the difference at the moment. What are your impressions of the Netball Premier League in SA? It was my recommendation to South African Netball to expand the tournament. I said “you have a good competition, but you’re not letting the players play in it for long enough”. They did that, and this year the Premier League was extended. Hopefully, down the track, it becomes even more competitive. I watched some exciting matches where the girls really had to dig in. The athletes are there and the standard is not far behind ours, it’s just that the players need to learn to consistently handle the pressure of when you go out on the main arena. Will you still be with South Africa for the 2019 World Cup in England? I will leave that up to South Africa. I’m eager to assist and help mentor your coaches. The organisation needs to make a decision as to when your coaches are ready ( to take over), but my aim is to try and get them prepared and ready for the next Commonwealth Games and World Championships. Could SA potentially challenge for the title or a medal position? I was very pleased that South Africa picked up the opportunity to play in the Quad-Series, because they’ll be playing Australia, New Zealand and England (ranked first, second and third in the world respectively).
You have to be up against those teams all the time, so that your players understand how much harder they have to keep working if they have to get across the line. With Jamaica (ranked fourth in the world) coming in for the Diamond Series, that will mean South Africa will have played the four top teams in the world.
We have a lot of hard work to do. South Africa were getting beaten by 20 to 30 goals when they previously played Australia and New Zealand. So if I can even the scorelines lower, and have Australia really running to try and beat us, then we know we will be making big inroads. That will be great opportunity for us to improve. Anything else you’d like to add? I think Netball South Africa is doing an absolute marvellous job. I think they are working hard and they have transformation going. They’re doing everything in their power to make sure that it’s an even playing field for everyone, and I think that is terrific.