Basketball: Yes, it's still a man's world

Former Tall Ferns captain Kirstin Daly has turned down the Wellington Saints coaching job for next season, and with it the opportunity to be the first woman in Australasia to coach a men's national league team.

Daly, aged 32, said the timing was wrong.

"I definitely thought about it and it is something I want to do eventually," she said.

"The whole excitement of being the first woman and the attention that would get is not why I would want to do it.

"The reason I want to coach is because I love the game. I'd want to do it because I was the best person for the job and not because I'd look good in a short skirt on the sideline on television."

Saints are scouting for a new coach after co-owner Mike Ogilvie-Lee led the side to this season's final against Waikato. He stated from the outset that he would do the job only for one year.

At the same time the Saints job was offered, Daly also had the option of taking up an assistant principal's position with a Hawkes Bay school.

"When I first got the offer I was so excited and was just whoa, whoa, whoa, yes," Daly said. "But when I sat down and thought about it, it was easy to say no.

"The interesting thing would have been had I not got the assistant principal's job I would probably be coming to Wellington, and who knows ... "

Daly said she had no anxiety about coaching men at national league level, but to do justice to the job she felt the need to coach lower men's grade teams first.

"Teaching and coaching men is very different from women.

"There's a lot of philosophies and concepts I'd have to learn with boys and men before jumping into it [the national league].

"The style of the game, egos, personalities, the way you deal with guys is very different, and it's too soon for me to transfer the social skills and personal skills I've got of being a female captain to being a coach of males.

"And I couldn't refuse the assistant principal's position and get involved in a situation that is an absolute gamble with no stability and security."

Saints spokesman Rob Virtue said he was disappointed.

"I think it would have been a challenge for her, and from the meeting I had with her I thought it was something she was capable of doing."

Virtue admitted Saints also saw the added value of having a female coach.

"Saints have always been innovative and that was certainly part of it, and she was a candidate who certainly fitted the bill."

- NZPA