The Australian now calls Auckland home, spending all but three months of the year here. The rest of the time he\u2019s in the Caribbean helping Jamaica\u2019s Sunshine Girls.<\/p>\n
He lives in a granny flat in Onehunga. Bill, the 90-year-old homeowner upstairs, had never watched a netball match before Wright moved in, in 2021. \u201cNow he never misses a Mystics game and gives me advice on how the team could do better,\u201d his tenant says.<\/p>\n
Wright has also found a home at the Mystics. \u201cEveryone knows I\u2019m a bit odd,\u201d he says, though others use the word \u201cquirky\u201d. \u201cBut at the Mystics, people just accept you for who you are. We want our people to be themselves, then the magic happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s become deeply invested in New Zealand netball. Coming here, he says, was the best decision he\u2019s ever made. That\u2019s why he\u2019s speaking out now, urging Netball New Zealand to salvage the national domestic competition before it ceases to exist.<\/p>\n
On Saturday night at a heaving Trusts Stadium in West Auckland, there was an underlying dread this could be the end of an era. After the game, and in the days since, players and coaches have voiced fears there may not be a professional league next season \u2013 left in the dark by Netball New Zealand. Without a broadcast deal for 2027, the sports body has yet to decide the competition\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Wright is shocked by the lack of communication from netball\u2019s leadership and worries the competition will become entirely amateur or simply collapse \u2013 leaving players and coaches, including himself, jobless.<\/p>\n
Mystics head coach Tia Winikerei, captain Michaela Sokolich-Beatson and assistant coach Rob Wright with the ANZ Premiership trophy. Photo \/ Michael Bradley<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be shattered. Absolutely shattered,\u201d he says. \u201cSelfishly for myself, but also for all the players, all the people working in the six franchises. People have mortgages to pay and need to put food on the table. Life is hard enough right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have to look overseas because I want to continue coaching. I\u2019ve done it fulltime since 2008 and I want to do what I love, helping people to be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the Mystics are like family to me. The players I\u2019ve worked with over the last six seasons have been phenomenal. I feel like this is home.\u201d<\/p>\n
A push for private ownership<\/p>\n
Wright has ideas on how the premiership could be transformed \u2013 from a different competition structure (returning to three rounds, and a top four finals series) to new owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit controversial, but I think we need private ownership. I\u2019d love to see someone come in and take over the league and take it to the stratosphere,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome people might think that\u2019s a disaster. But we\u2019ve got to do something with these magnificent athletes, to take the next step in netball\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor three years in a row we keep asking, \u2018What\u2019s the future hold?\u2019 And this year things feel even less certain. We cannot allow this game to wither and die \u2013 especially with a World Cup next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rob Wright beams into a Mystics training from Sydney in 2021. Photo \/ Suzanne McFadden<\/p>\n
Wright first coached the Mystics through a laptop screen, stuck in Australia during New Zealand\u2019s 2021 Covid lockdown. The then head coach, Helene Wilson, brought him in after he lost his job as head coach of the Collingwood Magpies, who finished bottom of the 2020 Suncorp Super Netball season.<\/p>\n
He arrived with an intriguing resume, as the first male coach in the transtasman ANZ Championship, taking the NSW Swifts to the grand finals in 2015 and 2016. <\/p>\n
\u201cI loved coming here during the ANZ Championships and the New Zealand teams really interested me \u2013 especially the Mystics, who I always thought had underperformed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelene was gutsy enough to take me on when she didn\u2019t know me from a bar of soap, and we got on like a house on fire. It\u2019s honestly been the best thing I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The detailed eye of a world-class assistant<\/p>\n
Sulu Fitzpatrick, a former Mystics captain who played three seasons under Wright, sensed something special about him from their first meeting. \u201cHe was the right mix of quirky, strange and loveable,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat most people don\u2019t see in Rob is how in-depth his analysis of the game is \u2013 right down to the way your foot is placed in the first step of your movement, or the little intricacies of every player.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though he\u2019s so detailed, his ability to refine his messaging to be really simple, clear and to the point has been integral to the development of young defenders like Carys Stythe and Catherine Hall, and older ones like Phoenix Karaka, Michaela Sokolich-Beatson and myself. He\u2019s world class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright and Winikerei have worked together since 2021 (she was the Mystics apprentice coach), and have grown into a tight coaching unit. During a game, he takes care of the defence, while she looks after the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither of us want to talk a lot because we\u2019re obviously into the game, but we\u2019ll communicate things we\u2019re seeing. I might say, \u2018We\u2019re not letting the ball go, we could change this a little bit\u2019,\u201d Wright says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were times in the grand final where we thought we needed to make a change, but all of a sudden, they\u2019d get themselves good again and we\u2019d go, \u2018Nah we need to stick with what we\u2019re doing\u2019.\u201d The Mystics stuck with their starting seven throughout the 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
At halftime, the two coaches will stay on the sideline bench for a few minutes after the team heads to the locker room to discuss what they\u2019ll tell the players. \u201cIt also allows the players to have time together, to chat through things themselves. They have as much \u2013 or more \u2013 input than we do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Rob Wright has fun with the kids in the aftermath of the Mystics v Steel ANZ Premiership grand final on Saturday. Photo \/ Michael Bradley<\/p>\n
He has huge respect for Winikerei, a former police detective. \u201cDuring halftime in the grand final Tia told the team she expected the Steel defence to change, which they did. So, in the first half Filda [Vui] did most of our scoring, then in the second half, Maia [Wilson] took over. That was real cool,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn four years as head coach, Tia\u2019s made four grand finals and won three of them. We keep talking about how no one wants us to win because we say we\u2019re both \u2018Neville Nobodies\u2019 \u2013 we\u2019re not ex-Silver Ferns, we\u2019re not famous. But the people who come to our games support us and care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright is comfortable being Winikerei\u2019s wingman, taking more reward from being an assistant coach these days. \u201cMy work on the floor is where I think I\u2019m best. It\u2019s the part I absolutely love,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a head coach, there\u2019s 80% more stuff you have to do besides the actual coaching bit. That 20% is why I get up every day to try to make people better.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean he hasn\u2019t thought about becoming a head coach again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy where I\u2019m at, but if the opportunity came up, it would have to be the right environment with the right people, because the people are everything,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of what we have at the Mystics \u2013 the organisation looks after its people. Tia\u2019s really big on that, if you take care of your people, you can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
That ethos appears to have rubbed off on the players, who headed north after the final for a few days of R&R together.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of their real strengths is they\u2019re really happy for others in the team to shine. They\u2019re happy for other people to have success, and that\u2019s powerful,\u201d Wright says.<\/p>\n
Leaping over hurdles<\/p>\n
The 2026 season started on the wrong foot for a Mystics side determined to erase memories of their grand final loss to the Tactix the previous season. Experienced midcourters Taylor Earle and Katie Te Ao were sidelined by leg injuries before the competition started, then midway through Catherine Hall \u2013 the stand-out defender of the league \u2013 jammed her foot against the goalpost and needed surgery.<\/p>\n
That gave the coaching staff a new challenge. \u201cOur defence is based on our entire back four, so when Taylor and Katie were out, it showed how important they are to our team,\u201d says Wright. \u201cWe had to keep finding ways to get better, a little bit better than our opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d already decided before the season to make two improvements to the way he communicated with his players. The first was to make the training activities he devised more specific to the game; the second to make his coaching \u201cmore actionable and seeable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to be more succinct \u2013 so everything I wanted to get across, the player should be able to see it as a picture in their mind, making it easier to do,\u201d says Wright, who reckons he succeeded.<\/p>\n
Rob Wright believes he\u2019s a better coach after overcoming the challenges of the 2026 ANZP. Photo \/ Northern Mystics<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite weird, my favourite part of coaching is actually the training sessions not the game \u2013 so to see the stuff we\u2019ve done in training play out in a game is magical for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright is about to head to England and join the Jamaican team ahead of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He\u2019s been their specialist defensive coach since 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted to get into international netball and this has allowed me to do that for a few months of the year, then coach day in, day out in a league. I haven\u2019t really wanted to do anything else,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now I\u2019m worried, not knowing what 2027 holds for any of us. I\u2019d love to stay here, but it actually may not be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Says Fitzpatrick, who\u2019s now on the Mystics board: \u201cWe all love him and hope he is in New Zealand for a long time to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eyeing a transtasman exit strategy<\/p>\n
The Mystics confirmed last week they had launched a bid in February to enter a team in the 2028 expansion of Super Netball. They\u2019re still waiting to hear the outcome from Netball Australia.<\/p>\n
Before coming to New Zealand, Wright spent most of his life on the sidelines of netball courts in Australia \u2013 first watching his mum and sisters, then taking up coaching after a near-fatal accident as a teen, hit by a car while riding his bike, ended his own athletic ambitions.<\/p>\n
Since the ANZ Championship was dissolved in 2016, the Aussies have created the world\u2019s strongest franchise competition.<\/p>\n
Wright believes entry into the SSN would expand the popularity of the Mystics, as it has with the Breakers, the Warriors, the Phoenix and Auckland FC in their respective Australian leagues. \u201cWe would all of a sudden become New Zealand\u2019s team,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe salary caps over there are obviously much bigger than ours and the transtasman connection could open up new doors for commercial partners. It would also open up pathways for young players, who could imagine themselves playing in the world\u2019s best competition, and be a stepping stone for players to become fulltime athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mystics would need private investment to be able to take a team across the Tasman. And it also begs the question: would Australia want a New Zealand team in their league?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve never made it a secret that they wanted SSN to become the best domestic competition in the world,\u201d Wright says. \u201cEven though there were five current Silver Ferns playing there this year, having a New Zealand team would make it the ultimate global competition. It expands their uptake, audience and commercial partners over there as well. Then it will truly rival the WNBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetball has been my entire life. I want to see a day when our netballers are earning a genuine fulltime wage from the game. It\u2019s still the biggest female sport in our country, so we\u2019ve got to continue to sell our wonderful sport and make it bigger and better. We can\u2019t let this comp fall over.\u201d<\/p>\n