A faltering domestic league, a rise in competition for talent, a debate around offshore player selection and a failure for a once-dominant sport to keep pace with the times. No, I’m not talking about rugby. But not unlike rugby, Netball New Zealand has decided that the cause and solution for all the current woes is who they select as the head coach.
Asking Dame Noeline Taurua to reapply for her job is messy. If Netball New Zealand is taking its lead from rugby, it only needs to look at Wayne Smith’s coaching career to see how this plays out. Asked to reapply, rugby’s “Professor” was overlooked in favour of John Mitchell. Only for Smith to then be brought back as part of the cleanup crew, first for the All Blacks rebuild and then for the Black Ferns’ World Cup campaign.
Smith is well regarded as one of the coaching greats but, then again, so was Taurua until five minutes ago. So great was her ability, she could turn a team’s fortunes around in just 11 months to secure an improbable World Cup win. But even the best coach can only do so much if the problems extend well beyond your current squad.
Netball has a vibe problem. Just like rugby and its appeal towards traditional notions of manhood, netball’s culture is rooted in old gender stereotypes. Uniforms and rules were designed within the limits of patriarchal thinking. If rugby is your dad’s game, netball is your mum’s, neither of which are as popular with the younger generation. You only need to take one look around the court at your next game to see that reflected in the stands.
The sport at large is yet to break free of its colonial ties. Mirroring rugby’s inability to move beyond members of the Commonwealth, it has struggled to become a truly global game. New Zealand’s regular test schedule consists of a handful of nations on loop. There is fear that the potential collapse of the Commonwealth Games could only intensify the insular nature of the international scene.