Taurua eyes bringing Magic to top

She's known for her unorthodox training methods, but Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic coach Noeline Taurua admits even she is nervous about a new regime she hopes will end four years of transtasman title misery.

Last year, Taurua had her squad canoeing 86km down the Whanganui River. This season she overhauled her methods, putting a heavy emphasis on players taking personal responsibility to lift Magic to the top of the ANZ Championship.

Taurua is eager to spy Magic's rivals at this weekend's pre-season tournament at Mount Maunganui's TECT Arena, the first time since the the competition began, in 2008, that all 10 teams have contested the lead-in event. Taurua's also keen to see how her players respond to the new system. Rotorua-based Taurua's impression after a three-month buildup - two weeks without Silver Ferns while they were in camp in Auckland - was the First Windows-sponsored side was better prepared than ever.

"But I'll only be able to gauge that this weekend, seeing how the changes we've implemented have paid off ... we've raised our standards and are higher than we've ever been in terms of on and off-court discipline and what we expect of each other."

In her fifth season in charge, Taurua has raised the intensity at trainings and put the heat on her players to fend for themselves more off the court and to be more accountable.

"Our whole training routine has been flipped upside down. We've added so much more intensity and are way ahead of where we'd usually be at this time.

"Ed [Goldsmith], my partner, asked me why I have to keep changing things rather than just doing what we've always done - but the point is we've been there, done that and while we've accumulated some really good stats, when you look back over four years, when it comes down to it we haven't done the business.

"We've got a good foundation of players who've been with the Magic for such a long time and are very loyal but, unless I provide freshness to the whole thing, then we're doing things for no particular reason.

"We have to move and be open to what we've been doing off the court and why we've been doing it, as well as expecting and demanding a better performance when we're training, not just doing it because that's the way we've always done it if it hasn't been performance based or getting a winning culture."

Rather than incorporating them in the training schedule, warmups are organised by the players before training starts, with the expectation they'll be ready to go when Taurua steps on court. Consequences have been added for any breaches.

"We've yet to see how it translates to on court, but if we went along the same lines how can we expect anything different than what we have already produced? Right now we're challenging ourselves and training new things because we're not happy with below-par."

This weekend will be Magic's first outing in their new team uniform, which was launched and blessed at a dawn ceremony at the base of Mauao. The new design incorporates yellow, red, blue and black and draws on the heart of Maori mythology and the story of fire goddess Mahuika, which is integral to Waiariki (Bay of Plenty) and Waikato.

"It's got substance behind it which I quite like and all together the girls look quite striking in it," Taurua said of the new uniform. "Because there's a story or message behind it, it adds a bit of bone and is something we buy into."

ANZ Championship pre-season schedule

Session 1, Friday: 4pm-10pm

Session 2, Saturday: 9am-5pm

Session 3, Saturday: 7pm-10pm

Session 4, Sunday (finals): 9am-1pm

Pool A: Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, Southern Steel, NSW Swifts, West Coast Fever, Queensland Firebirds.

Pool B: Canterbury Tactix, Northern Mystics, Central Pulse, Adelaide Thunderbirds, Melbourne Vixens.

-Teams within each pool play each other once over sessions 1-3. In Sunday's final session, teams from opposing pools will play off, with the pool winners playing at 11.20am.