Taurua top contender for Ferns job
OPINION: NNZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie has previously told Stuff there is no policy around future Silver Fern coaches having to be New Zealanders. The best person for the job, regardless of nationality, is paramount.
Noeline Taurua
Taurua is the standout candidate and leading option among New Zealand coaches.
The situation is slightly complicated given she is contracted to Australian champions, the Sunshine Coast Lightning, through to the end of 2019, and hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with NNZ due to her outspoken nature.
Relations weren’t helped when she wasn’t shortlisted for the final two for the Ferns’ coaching job in 2015, despite being the best name available.
NNZ must put politics and petty past issues aside and do everything in their power to lure Taurua back home and organise an early release from the Lightning.
A proven winner, who commands respect, Taurua was the only coach to guide a Kiwi team to the former transTasman title with the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic in 2012.
With a dearth of homegrown coaches who are ready for the Ferns job, Taurua would be the ideal choice and a popular one.
Julie Fitzgerald
The veteran Australian was in a headto-head battle for the Silver Ferns’ job in 2015, but missed out to Southby.
Has a wealth of experience and a strong track record of results.
Fitzgerald steered first-year franchise, Sydney-based Giants Netball, into the final of the new Australian competition last season, but they came up short against the Lightning.
She knows plenty of the players and key people in New Zealand netball from her time coaching the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic from 2014-16.
Guided the New South Wales Swifts to the inaugural trans-Tasman title in 2008 as their head coach.
Norma Plummer
The Silver Ferns job could hold intrigue for ‘No-nonsense Norma’.
Famously called the Ferns a ‘‘bunch of scrubbers’’ when she was in charge of the Australian Diamonds in 2003 and is known for wearing her heart on her sleeve.
Plummer coached Australia from 2003-11, winning 67 of 89 matches, a success rate of 75 per cent.
Since 2015, she has been coach of the South African Proteas and instrumental to their improvement over the past year.
At 73, Plummer has seen it all in the sport. She remains sprightly and possesses one of the sharpest netball brains in the business.
Her age would surely be a detractor if the Ferns were looking at a long-term option to carry them through to the 2023 World Cup.
Jane Woodlands-Thompson
Woodlands-Thompson could loom as a wildcard.
The Australian carved out a stellar record as Adelaide Thunderbirds coach in the trans-Tasman league, coaching them from 2008-15, claiming championships in 2010 and 2013.
Well-prepared, innovative and a proven winner, Woodlands-Thompson has spent time in New Zealand and might offer appeal.
Rob Wright
The Sydneysider made headlines in 2014 as the first male head coach in the trans-Tasman competition with the Swifts.
Wright helped lead the Swifts to grand final appearances in 2015 and 2016, but they were pipped by archrivals, the Queensland Firebirds, in both deciders.
In his three years with the Swifts in the trans-Tasman league, the side flourished, winning 31 matches, drawing four games, and losing 13.
A deep thinker of the game, he’s held a single-minded vision to be an elite netball coach since a near-fatal bike accident in his last year of high school.