ANZ Premiership netball: Age just a number for youthful Central Pulse

Kelly Jury was named co-captain for the Central Pulse this season. Photo / Photosport

They're the youngest team in the competition this year with an average age of 22-and-a-half, but incoming Central Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie is ready to harness the power that comes with that.

McCausland-Durie returns to the helm of the Central Pulse for the 2022 season after stepping away at the end of 2020, during which she had led her Wellington-based side to a second consecutive ANZ Premiership title.

And it's not the first time she's been drawn back by the labour of love that is coaching elite netball - this will be her third tenure at the Pulse, her first stint being between 2009-2011.

"I left loving it. I really enjoyed it, I had some really great experiences, and as importantly, lots of learning. And so I found that it's a challenging job and I really enjoyed that about it, that I'm always finding things that I can be better at. So that hasn't changed," McCausland-Durie explains.

"I've found it a really empowering environment where there's an expectation about excellence, there's an expectation that we're pushing ourselves to be better every day, but there's also a huge amount of support. I've really enjoyed that."

Although the team that McCausland-Durie returns to looks significantly different from the one she left, she's not one to shy away from getting the best out of her young players.
"I'm really confident in the group that we've got, they've got a huge amount of talent. I've never been afraid of the fact that young people, I think, have the ability to do things sometimes we underestimate and I have huge faith in them.

"You always have a weight of expectation in high performance sport, every team sets the goal of wanting to be in the grand final and ultimately taking out the premiership and of course we're no different."

And while youth is often associated with inexperience, that's not exactly the case within the Pulse squad.

Co-captains Tiana Metuarau and Kelly Jury are seasoned campaigners at both the domestic and international levels. Metuarau is entering her fifth ANZ Premiership season, while Jury kicks off her sixth in 2022.

With the Pulse's two previous captains, Claire Kersten and Katrina Rore, departing to join the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic this season, selecting new leaders was something incredibly important in maintaining value within the team environment.

"I decided on Tiana and Kelly because I felt they had complementary skills," McCausland-Durie explains.

"Tiana, hers you see more in game mode, just that real flamboyance, the ability to play what she sees, she brings really massive energy. She's got a really enthusiastic personality and I think that's a really nice type of energy to have around the space.

"And what we have in Kelly, she's an experienced Silver Fern, she has been led by a number of really strong leaders - Casey Kopua, Katrina Rore - so she's seen leadership before. She's got a very calm, mature way about her so she knows the game well."

Both were also members of the Silver Ferns squad that went to England for the Quad Series this year, and Metuarau had a memorable Ferns debut last year against England in an MVP-winning performance.

With the Birmingham Commonwealth Games to kick off in July, McCausland-Durie is looking to harness the drive and tenacity that the potential for Ferns selection brings to the minds of players.

"It's a by-product and a commitment of being in the ANZ Premiership," she says.
"I'm really aware and we're really upfront with the players that we know for the team to perform well, individuals have to perform well and when individuals perform well, and a team, then there is a higher likelihood of selection beyond that.

"We don't shy away from that conversation with them, we're really aware that part of our commitment is to prepare people for international play and to prepare them in a way that they can compete successfully on an international stage but as importantly, add value to that environment."

Amongst that Ferns conversation will be three newcomers to the Pulse side who have been plying their trade in Australia: defenders Kristiana Manu'a and Courtney Elliot and attacker Binnian Hunt.

McCausland-Durie is excited to see them out on court in this weekend's double-header against the Northern Mystics and Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic on Saturday and Sunday, after a first-round postponement due to Covid cases within the squad.

While the team are back to full strength, McCausland-Durie kicks off her first game back with the Pulse under less than ideal circumstances after she tested positive for Covid-19 during the week.

Pulse specialist coach and former Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu steps in to lead the team courtside.

"Covid was going to play a part at some stage in the season and it's kind of played out for us a lot earlier than maybe anticipated but we put quite a few strategies in place.

"I think that was the first thing, planning for eventualities, you hope they don't happen but there we go - they do."

Despite early setbacks, McCausland-Durie is excited to see her new-look Pulse team out on court this weekend.

"I expect there will be some moments of brilliance and there will be some errors that we'll be thinking 'oh my goodness, really? We know better than that!' But that's the nature of the game and I think what's so great about it is it will be competitive."