On Sunday, Parata said she had made the \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to resign as a national selector to show her support for Taurua, and criticised how she had been treated.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, Parata said there are about 31 people in the Silver Ferns environment, including management and athletes \u2013 and claimed Netball NZ spoke to seven players who took issue with Taurua\u2019s coaching approach.<\/p>\n
Noeline Taurua has been stood down as Silver Ferns coach. Photo \/ Christine Cornege<\/p>\n
\u201cThey spoke to five Silver Ferns plus two junior Silver Ferns. Why did they not speak to everyone? That\u2019s really, really disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that she understood a formal complaint hadn\u2019t been laid against Taurua, so there had been \u201cno other process to follow\u201d.<\/p>\n
Parata said she was also \u201cin the dark\u201d about the issues players had with Taurua, but pointed to a series of training games the Silver Ferns had against Super Netball club the NSW Swifts in late January.<\/p>\n
Only the final game was open to the public, with the Silver Ferns losing 74-52 \u2013 but it\u2019s understood the national side lost all four matches.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] wasn\u2019t a good look for our national team and so they actually probably deserved to get a bit of a blast about that,\u201d Parata said.<\/p>\n
She said she had been in the Silver Ferns environment as both a coach and national selector alongside Taurua and had never seen any \u201cunsafe\u201d coaching \u2013 as it has been described by players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very scary to be a coach right now. The job is demanding, often voluntary for many, long hours and, you know, that type of thing can happen to any coach and next minute they don\u2019t have a job.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needed to be due process, they needed to be transparent, fairness in there as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should never have done a review with seven athletes. That was just wrong right from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Herald, Netball NZ said it wished to reaffirm that a confidential employment process remains ongoing between Taurua and the Netball NZ board.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny claims made from outside of these two parties are merely speculation and hold no substance,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise the deep passion of our netball community and understand the frustration that comes with limited information. While we are unable to share further details at this time, we want to reassure everyone that we are committed to upholding a fair and respectful process throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parata said her message to Netball NZ was that they need to reinstate Taurua and assistant coach Debbie Fuller.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been preparing for the last four years for the Commonwealth Games and the Netball World Cup. This is now delaying our process forward for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new coaches don\u2019t know the athletes right now. I mean, they\u2019re brand new to them and we\u2019re the ones that know exactly what the athletes can do and what our plan was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that Dame Noeline and Debbie Fuller are the best coaches to take our Silver Ferns team forward. They\u2019re visionary, they\u2019re intelligent, they\u2019re technical and smart – all the things that you need in world-class coaches, and so that\u2019s one of the key reasons why I decided to step down.\u201d<\/p>\n