The Dame with the Midas touch
Who has done the most to restore the pride of New Zealand netball, rebuild a broken team and get it pointing to the future? One person, that’s who.
Dame Noeline Taurua is the Silver Ferns’ great redeemer and can have the top job for as long as she wants it.
Taurua was awarded a Damehood in the New Year’s Honours list for her stunning transformation of the Ferns and contribution to the sport in this country.
More accolades should follow at next month’s Halberg Awards with Taurua the frontrunner for coach of the year. Bizarrely, coaches aren’t eligible for the supreme Halberg, but Taurua would surely be in the discussion if they were.
When Taurua took over in August 2018 from Janine Southby, who stepped down following a damning independent review, the Ferns were at their nadir.
In the space of 17 months, Taurua has turned them from woeful to worldbeaters, guiding them to the 2019 World Cup – the Ferns’ first title in 16 years.
Monday’s Nations Cup final victory over Jamaica in London will be forgotten by the time the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 World Cup roll around.
While it’s a minor title in the grand scheme of things, the Ferns’ triumph represented just far they have evolved under Taurua’s Midas-like touch. It’s easy to forget New Zealand lost seven of their first nine games in the Taurua tenure.
Given they were at rock bottom, growing pains were inevitable. Bedding in Taurua’s philosophies, systems, and working out which players could carry the Ferns forward was always going to take time.
Since the start of the World Cup, the Ferns have regained their spark, winning 13 games and dropping just three – all against Australia.
For a team which lost three straight to Jamaica and was embarrassed by Malawi in the last chapter of the Southby era, it represents a return to respectability for the Ferns.
Winning trophies is all well and good, but the most rewarding aspect of the Nations Cup success was the way the next generation of players stepped up.
A year ago, the Ferns would have been a mess if their spine of Laura Langman, Maria Folau, Casey Kopua and Katrina Rore weren’t on court.
At the Nations Cup, they had to do it without them.
Midcourt mainstay and captain Langman and fellow centurion Rore were given a rest for the series, while Folau and Kopua are now retired.
Missing 562 caps from their World Cup winning side, it was a major test for the next wave of talent and young players.
They came through with aplomb, led by stand-in captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio and defender Jane Watson, the player of the tournament.
Goal shoot Maia Wilson is the perfect illustration of the
Ferns’ pleasing new direction under Taurua.
In and out of the Ferns since her debut in 2016, and stuck behind Folau and Ekenasio, the 22-year-old thrived in extended court time at the Nations Cup.
Fitness had previously been an issue, but Wilson’s commitment to improving her strength and conditioning was rewarded in England.
Shortly after becoming coach, Taurua realised fitness standards among New Zealand’s top netballers was unsatisfactory and implemented minimum requirements.
Not everyone was a fan, arguing it was more important shooters put the ball through the hoop accurately than registering high yoyo test numbers.
Taurua had a grand plan, refusing to select players who didn’t meet the targets, and slowly but surely it has had an impact with the bar being raised.
Wilson told Stuff she was up to 16.6 for the yoyo test, a far cry from her early years in domestic netball when she was achieving 14.5 and fading in the second half of games.
She isn’t the only one to experience a resurgence under Taurua’s tutelage.
Ekenasio, Bailey Mes, Shannon Saunders, and Gina Crampton’s international careers were at the crossroads in 2018, but they have developed a new lease of life.
One can only wonder how the Ferns interview panel got it so badly wrong in 2015 when they were searching for Wai Taumaunu’s replacement.
Without their horrible blunder, NNZ wouldn’t have had to go through the darkest period in Silver Ferns history, nor make the coaching appointment that was staring them in the face all along.
achilles injury scratched him from last year’s campaign.
The loose forwards are strong, too, with Sam Cane fit from the get-go this time after a quality comeback last year from his broken neck. Gatland has named the 28-year-old as sole skipper this year, after four years as a co-captain.
Fellow All Black Luke Jacobson will return in a couple of weeks from the concussion that cruelly ruled him out of a maiden World Cup, offering versatility and plenty of punch to a group which features several solid performers and the addition of the power-packed Dylan Nel from Otago.
If the platform can be laid up front, then the Chiefs’ backline whets the appetite as seriously potent.
Halfback Brad Weber should be buoyed by last year’s All
Blacks recall, and Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi should have a point to prove, with some snappy service on offer for Cruden at first five-eighth.
After two seasons away, Cruden returns from France for a single-season stint before heading to Japan, and his experience, game-driving knowledge and touch of class will be a boon, so long as his body holds up well, after a few injury struggles at Montpellier.
His return means fellow playmaker Damian Mckenzie can operate at fullback, where he looked outstanding on return last year before suffering the ruptured ACL knee injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.
Fit and firing, Mckenzie will lead a dangerous back-three unit, where Shaun Stevenson will be looking to continue his hot late 2019 form, Solomon
Alaimalo will be out to re-find his sublime touch from the year prior, and recent schoolboy sensation Kini Naholo – younger brother of former All Black Waisake – shapes as an electrifying prospect.
In between those halves and outside backs sits a potentially lethal midfield, where there is no shortage of options to partner the exceptional Anton Lienertbrown. Tumua Manu impressed last year, Alex Nankivell has showed good glimpses and had a strong Mitre 10 Cup, while Waikato’s Quinn Tupaea, who was absurdly overlooked last season, looks like bursting into the spotlight.
All told, it’s a strong looking squad, particularly when comparing to the other Kiwi outfits and some of the big names they go into this year without.
Throw in the coaching smarts and there is a deserved whiff of what could be.