voiced their concerns to the NZ Herald about the workplace culture<\/a>, calling for a leadership change.<\/p>\nWhat about the wider netball community? Has this catalogue of missteps tarnished the sport\u2019s status \u2013 and Taurua\u2019s reputation \u2013 in their eyes? After asking a range of netball supporters to weigh in on the ugliest debacle the sport has faced, their answers reveal a mix of frustration, disbelief, and cautious optimism that good things could still emerge from this. Current players can\u2019t or won\u2019t talk on this, so \u2026<\/p>\n
A high-performance coach<\/p>\n
Marianne Delaney-Hoshek, the Tactix coach for seven seasons, is pleased the impasse between Taurua and Netball NZ has been resolved. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s still so much grey area around what we don\u2019t know, and wondering how we got to this point,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs coaches we get reviewed all the time, and there are things that you\u2019ll agree to work on. But is that where the misunderstanding has come from?<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there something to work on and they couldn\u2019t agree, that crossed values? Could this have been resolved while Noels was still in the job?\u201d<\/p>\n
Delaney-Hoshek has worked with Taurua on the Silver Ferns bench and believes the head coach should be at the five tests against Scotland and England. And changes to the high performance environment that must be implemented \u2013 \u2018enhancements to support wellbeing and performance, including strengthening the player voice\u2019 \u2013 could be worked out on tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a coach, we have to evolve,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut there are certain things that are authentic to you as a coach as well. That\u2019s where you stand your ground, on things that are core to you.<\/p>\n
\u201cMental skills is a difficult space because you\u2019re constantly trying to push to get things out of people, and every individual is different. Most coaches, including myself, have made a player cry, or vomit, at some stage. So it\u2019s a fine line.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tactix]()
Tactix coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Delaney-Hoshek doubts the repercussions from this situation will filter down to grassroots coaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s definitely more about high performance, although sometimes you\u2019re down at the courts and the way some young athletes are spoken to isn\u2019t right. But there will be things we can learn from,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
With so many other sports demanding attention, Delaney-Hoshek hopes fans will stick with netball. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut on the positive side, I think the netball community has really banded together over this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost top-level coaches get roasted on social media. So although the situation was horrible, it was great to hear so much support with people getting right behind Noels.\u201d<\/p>\n
And those who threatened to turn their backs on netball would\u2019ve been drawn back by the Silver Ferns\u2019 massive turnaround to win two tests at home over the Diamonds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response the girls made out on court was really cool \u2013 they dispelled the public assumptions around their fitness and working hard. It told a story of mindset under the pressure of all the stuff going on. And suddenly, everyone was a fan again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delaney-Hoshek hopes from the turmoil will rise success \u2013 as it did when the Ferns won the 2019 Netball World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big believer that sometimes when things like this happen, massive growth comes out of it. It\u2019s been a bad period, but I think it will hold us in better stead for next year\u2019s Commonwealth Games,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
A school coach<\/p>\n
At the grassroots of netball, people are concerned, says Pam Smith, a school coach in Christchurch. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think people are going to be quiet now, and nor should they. I just wish there was more we could do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoels has taken netball to another level in New Zealand, and it feels like she\u2019s been treated poorly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetball has been under so much pressure this year, with the loss of their [Sky] broadcast deal, we\u2019re seeing a domino effect at the top of the organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Next]()
Next year\u2019s ANZ Premiership will be broadcast free-to-air on TVNZ after NNZ\u2019s long-term deal with Sky ended. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
As a businesswoman looking in, Smith believes the entire process has been handled poorly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a total erosion of trust \u2013 with the public, with coaches and with players,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe information that\u2019s come out has been relayed poorly \u2013 bringing the keyboard warriors out to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public aren\u2019t happy. Netball NZ might have thought reinstating Noels would clean it all up, but I don\u2019t think it will. People don\u2019t think it\u2019s transparent, they don\u2019t trust the process, and it feels like a bit of a patch-up job. There needs to be some accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith doubts the teenagers she coaches will be impacted by the saga. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something they\u2019re talking about. But my workmates and coaches, we talk about it daily.\u201d<\/p>\n
She worries this could hamper players raising legitimate issues in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow would a player feel comfortable raising a concern now, if it goes from zero to 100 \u2013 with all the speculation that\u2019s gone on, and the backlash players have had, even when they aren\u2019t involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s impressed by how Taurua has stuck to her guns. \u201cMost people wouldn\u2019t show the integrity and the fight she has,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she\u2019s always been of growth mindset where she wants to fix things. She\u2019s always been player-centred, which is part of the reason the public doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith hopes this won\u2019t stop young people pursuing coaching, but it will make coaches \u201csit up and take notice\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think coaches everywhere \u2013 especially high performance coaches and not just in netball \u2013would have to be thinking, \u2018Is this what I\u2019m putting myself up for if I go to coach at a high level?\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have reviews and discussions with players at the end of the season, but even at our level of netball, there\u2019s a high level of trust, it\u2019s confidential and there are actionables that come from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d certainly need to know within any organisation that you\u2019ve got their support and guidance if they want you to change things, and the privacy that you can work that out between you, without everybody knowing about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the [Netball NZ] board have netball\u2019s best interests at heart, they need to take a deeper look at how they\u2019ve handled things.\u201d<\/p>\n
A netball fan<\/p>\n
Debbie Rennie is a former player who coached her daughters\u2019 netball teams and is now more invested in the game as a fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think where netball is going is phenomenally exciting \u2013 as long as our governing body can sit down and reflect on this and ask themselves some really hard questions about the role they played in it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t do that, they have nobbled our international netball.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Netball]()
Netball fans filled Hamilton\u2019s Globox Arena to watch the Silver Ferns beat Australia in test three last weekend. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
As someone who\u2019s worked as a staffer in nursing, and management and education, Rennie says Netball NZ needs \u201ca good kick in the behind\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was their manager, I\u2019d be very disappointed in the way they\u2019ve handled their HR processes,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen organisations go through acute periods of chaos and unrest, if the resolution is managed efficiently and effectively, you often come out with some good stuff to move forward with.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetball NZ\u2019s management could have put it into a very different frame at the get-go when this issue first came about. Instead, they announced it in the public arena, without giving any details about what had gone on. Then the blame game starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if things weren\u2019t right in January, why did it take six months [to be raised]? How come Noeline was blindsided? My heart goes out to her \u2013 she didn\u2019t deserve this. But she\u2019s the one person who will take this and make something really successful from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players have every right to raise their concerns, Rennie believes, and they shouldn\u2019t be critiqued for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut their speciality isn\u2019t managing process and form around HR, so why hasn\u2019t that been wrapped into the players\u2019 package of care? That\u2019s where both the Netball Players\u2019 Association, the mentors of young women in elite sport and the governing body have to step up now, because they can\u2019t let this happen again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Netball NZ can\u2019t provide a better system to handle these ups and downs more efficiently, players could vote with their feet and go to Australia. No player or coach wants to work for an incompetent employer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does Rennie see any shockwaves shuddering down to grassroots and the fan base? \u201cNot immediately. What gets lost in this is people at the grassroots will still support their team,\u201d she says. \u201cThe third test in Hamilton was electric \u2013 all these beautiful young ones there with their families who still view the Silver Ferns as goddesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
A netball mum<\/p>\n
Jane has an 11-year-old daughter playing club netball in the Waikato. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a handy little netballer and she loves playing the game. But she\u2019s more interested in watching NRL, tennis or rugby than the Silver Ferns,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids are obsessed with the NRL, even though there\u2019s no rugby league club where we live.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing our netballers as heroes \u2013 I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve cracked that yet. Our household needs to get to know these players more.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Netball]()
Netball remains the most popular secondary school sport in the country. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
The Silver Ferns coaching saga has been \u201cprime dinner table chat\u201d for the last few weeks, but only among the adults in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think young girls are talking about it \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t feature in their thoughts,\u201d Jane says. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think the media coverage around Noeline has been super damaging. Netball New Zealand haven\u2019t front-footed this, and the general public see the players [who made complaints] as whiny, overprivileged girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this news will all be fish and chip wrappers soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding coaches for junior teams, and keeping kids in the game, remains a problem, Jane says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI coached for three years but I wasn\u2019t a stellar netballer, so once my daughter was beyond 10 years old, I didn\u2019t have a lot more to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe volunteers in our sport are wonderful, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot of investment at grassroots level to keep kids playing. It\u2019s a real shame kids are dropping out. My daughter is the only one in her friend group still playing \u2013 I find that astonishing.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of young girls are more worried about their eyelash extensions, rather than being out there playing sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz<\/a> and is republished with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who will make up her coaching team? It seems unlikely her long-time assistant, Deb Fuller, will return, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3471,1259,14719,14721,27878,16762,63560,111,139,69,29432,16348,213,14720,223,61],"class_list":["post-110678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-among","tag-community","tag-lockerroom","tag-mcfadden","tag-mood","tag-netball","tag-netballs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-optimism","tag-outrage","tag-sports","tag-suzanne","tag-the","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}