Already, such statements may have landed her in hot water. <\/p>\n
The New Zealand Herald<\/a> reported that \u201csome players are unhappy with Taurua\u2019s claim that she is unaware of the particulars\u201d. RNZ reported that Netball NZ is examining whether Taurua has breached the terms of her reinstatement as Silver Ferns coach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t comment on what action may be taken,\u201d said a statement given to RNZ.<\/p>\n Further muddying the waters, Taurua then told RNZ that she had in fact received a letter from Netball NZ explaining why she had been stood down, saying: \u201cI mean, the detail of the letter is very clear to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Having been stood down in September, amid complaints about the team environment from up to seven players and after failed talks with Netball NZ in the week prior, Taurua was reinstated last month but the arrangement appears incredibly fragile. <\/p>\n After a 51-day absence, she is not leading the team\u2019s current tour of the UK and has been emotional when giving her account of being exiled. When the Ferns played South Africa and Australia recently, she could not bear to watch, only tuning in for the final Test against the Diamonds.<\/p>\n She has also said that if the find the situation untenable upon her return, she will leave.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat matters to me is the legacy of the Silver Ferns and the legacy of our game and the people that I work with,\u201d Taurua told Nine to Noon.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I feel that I don\u2019t have the support of the people that I work with \u2014 and I can\u2019t tell you when that will be \u2014 I\u2019m happy to walk.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m not in that position yet. Because it\u2019s just new that I\u2019ve come back into the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to RNZ In Depth<\/a>, she twice broke down in tears when discussing her ordeal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been terrible, it\u2019s been a terrible experience,\u201d Taurua said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy name\u2019s been put out there without me being able to say anything. I\u2019ve taken it all.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I was stood down, I was just worrying about what was right in front of me. I couldn\u2019t even think about what was the next day. Couldn\u2019t eat, couldn\u2019t sleep, a lot of times…\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the 2019 World Cup winner can start afresh, and whether she can reunited the playing group, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n While Taurua has committed to resolving issues around the team environment, she has also not admitted to any fault. The players\u2019 association has been blamed for overblowing the issues, while Netball NZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie has been accused of being led by their version of events, and her leadership is under heavy scrutiny.<\/p>\n An anonymous players\u2019 representative told RNZ: \u201cI just don\u2019t know how we move on from here, I really don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE<\/p>\n \u2018Damage done\u2019: Kiwi coach\u2019s reputation takes hit as netball return remains unclear<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Netball will be better for this\u2019: CEO defends sorry saga as master coach reinstated<\/a><\/p>\n NZ star reveals backlash to emotional coach address… and ongoing quiet tribute to \u2018Noels\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Noeline Taurua has been reinstated as Silver Ferns coach.Source: AAP<\/p>\n REPORT DETAILS FINALLY EMERGE<\/p>\n While Taurua is claiming that she has been left in the dark on the details around complaints from players, and has had no direct conversations with any players about the issues, claims from a review into her tenure have now been aired.<\/p>\n The complaints stem from a training camp in Sydney during January and were made anonymously. After they were relayed by the New Zealand Netball Players\u2019 Association to Netball NZ, the governing body commissioned a review \u2014 funded by High Performance Sport New Zealand, after it was consulted on the matter \u2014 led by former New Zealand Cricket high-performance chief Bryan Stronach.<\/p>\n Findings of the review have now been outed by Newstalk ZB\u2019s Heather du Plessis-Allan, who said that \u201cfear and psychological safety\u201d headlined multiple complaints about Taurua\u2019s leadership. It is claimed that specific incidents and clearer examples are detailed in the full report, as opposed to the more general findings aired.<\/p>\n \u201cA strong theme was a sense of fear within the environment. Players talked about being scared to speak up, scared to make mistakes, scared to ask questions and scared to be themselves,\u201d said du Plessis-Allan, reading from the report.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fear was not described as one-off or occasional. It has been around for a long time.<\/p>\n \u201cSome shared that they don\u2019t feel like they can give honest feedback because it won\u2019t be received well or because it will come back on them later.<\/p>\n \u201cThe source of fear seems to come from a few things: inconsistent reactions from leaders, unclear expectations and a history of seeing others shut down or left out after speaking up. Some players describe feeling like they were always walking on eggshells.<\/p>\n \u201cMany players talked about a constant undertone of not being good enough. Even when feedback was meant to help, it often came across as negative or critical.<\/p>\n \u201cThis led to players feeling like they were always trying to avoid failure instead of reaching for their best. They described an environment where the tone can be quite intense and the feedback is more about what\u2019s wrong than what\u2019s working.<\/p>\n \u201cSome shared that they began to second-guess everything or withdraw a bit just to stay out of the firing line.\u201d<\/p>\n Noeline Taurua during a 2019 Constellation Cup game.Source: AAP<\/p>\n Still relaying the report, du Plessis-Allan said that \u201cinconsistency and shifting standards\u201d were another leadership issue, and that they fluctuated with the fortunes of the team. Contrary to Taurua\u2019s reputation of being an unerringly hardline coach on fitness, it was claimed that some players were held to different standards. <\/p>\n \u201cPlayers noticed that the behaviour and mood of the coaching and support staff can change noticeably depending on whether the team is winning or not.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen results are going well, the environment feels more relaxed and positive, but when the team is not performing, expectations shift suddenly, and the tone becomes more intense and critical.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was also a sense that individual players are treated differently. Some are held accountable for small things, while others are not challenged on bigger issues. Another example was the fitness standard and how some were held accountable to it and others not.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was clear that the players believe in the importance of high standards. Players acknowledged they don\u2019t always meet the standards and they want to be held accountable when that does happen.<\/p>\n \u201cThe concern was not about the existence of standards, but about how they are implemented and communicated. When standards feel unclear or inconsistently applied, it undermines the purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n In the failed talks that preceded Taurua being stood down, RNZ reported that: \u201cTaurua and her coaching team of Debbie Fuller and Briony Akle pushed back, forcefully rejecting the findings and the process of the review.\u201d Each side \u2014 Taurua\u2019s camp and Netball NZ \u2014 have blamed the other for an agreement not being struck on new and improved player conditions before Taurua was sensationally suspended.<\/p>\n A constant critique of the review, from Taurua and her supporters, is that it interviewed only seven aggrieved players. There seems to now be acceptance on all sides that all players and team officials should have been consulted. <\/p>\n Dame Noeline Taurua is back as Silver Ferns coach \u2014 but for how long?Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n CAN PLAYERS BE BROUGHT BACK INTO THE FOLD?<\/p>\n It remains unclear who made the complaints about Taurua. The claims were anonymous and most players have kept quiet on the matter.<\/p>\n Of the current team, only superstar shooter Grace Nweke has consistently made a point of voicing support for Taurua; or \u2018Noels\u2019, as she has referred to her in emotional public comments. Nweke has since said that she should have made clear she was speaking only for herself, not the team, as players had varying relationships with Taurua.<\/p>\n A number of players have made themselves unavailable for Silver Ferns duty over the past 18 months. They include Gina Crampton, Jane Watson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Tiana Metuarau, Maia Wilson and former captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio. That is not to suggest that they were complainants.<\/p>\n Just how broken Taurua\u2019s relationship is with certain players is unclear. A High Performance Sport New Zealand official, also speaking anonymously, made the remarkable claim to RNZ<\/a> that Taurua was not stood down as coach because of player complaints, but because of how she responded to them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really not that confusing, but all the outside noise has made it confusing. The key thing that no one seems to get is, Noeline was not stood down because of any player complaints,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was stood down because of how she responded to the issues that were raised, which was to go on the attack herself.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you refuse to accept there\u2019s problems or take any accountability, then it doesn\u2019t leave [Netball NZ] with anywhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n As aforementioned, complainants are reportedly angry that Taurua has claimed she does not know any particulars of why she was stood down. Taurua has not only seen the report of the Stronach review, she has gone through the findings with the author \u2014 but insists she has done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n While the Sydney training trip was the catalyst for a formal complaint, problems reportedly go back as far as the 2023 World Cup in which the Silver Ferns placed fourth; their worst-ever result. \u201cPrivately, players were confused and frustrated by a game plan one pundit dubbed \u2018bumper-car netball\u2019,\u201d RNZ reported.<\/p>\n In Sydney, an anonymous observer told RNZ that Taurua unleashed an \u201cemotional and overly personal\u201d outburst after losing a publicly-attended practice game against the NSW Swifts, 74-52, with Nweke in a red dress during the early stages of her stint with the Super Netball club.<\/p>\n Former New Zealand captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio and coach Noeline Taurua in 2021.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n For now, the Silver Ferns remain under caretaker coach Yvette McCausland-Durie. The reason given for Taurua not being brought back in immediately was to \u201cminimise disruption\u201d.<\/p>\n Taurua told RNZ she intends to hold a \u201chealing hui\u201d with all Silver Ferns players to address what has happened.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel it\u2019s not only for the players, the team, but you know, everybody to some degree has been hurt and we need that opportunity to come together so that we can move forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf players have concerns, 100% I want to be able to listen to those concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n A former Silver Fern \u2014 Louisa Wall, who is now chair of the T\u016bwharetoa Iwi M\u0101ori Partnership Board \u2014 said that reporting about Taurua had been biased and Netball NZ had engaged in \u201cinstitutional gaslighting\u201d by painting her as difficult for demanding to see evidence of alleged poor leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen history looks back on this period of New Zealand netball, it will not remember a difficult coach or a combative standoff. It will remember how a decorated M\u0101ori woman leader, Dame Noeline Taurua, was subjected to a flawed process and a one-sided public narrative that breached the most basic principles of fairness and natural justice,\u201d Wall wrote for Newsroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
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