Netball: Broughton to be out of coaching next season

Robyn Broughton. Photo / Getty Images

It seems hard to believe that Robyn Broughton will not be involved in coaching at the top level next year. She will still be guiding her beloved team at Invercargill's Verdon High School but this was not how it was supposed to end.

Despite being one of the top three or four netball coaches in the country, it appears the popular Southlander will find herself without a position next season. She has chosen not to re-apply for her position at the Steel, and the Tactix's appointment of Leigh Gibbs on Friday has closed that door. The Pulse also have a coaching vacancy, but current assistant Gail Parata is believed to be the favourite.

Broughton's credentials are hard to top. She took a fairly unheralded Steel side to the final four of the ANZ Championship on two occasions. Only Noeline Taurua has a better New Zealand coaching record in the competition.

She also coached a rookie New Zealand team - missing their entire complement of Silver Ferns - to a memorable triumph in last year's Fastnet tournament in England.

Before that, she carved out an unparalleled record with the Southern Sting in the National Bank Cup between 1998 and 2007, winning seven titles in 10 years. Broughton has probably been underused at international level (she was assistant Silver Ferns coach from 2000-2002) , though possibly her greatest achievement was guiding the World Seven to victories over New Zealand and Australia in 2009.

The scratch team shocked the Silver Ferns to win the series. With the surprise factor gone, Broughton's mix of retired or former Ferns plus some Samoan, Jamaican and English stars then beat the world champion Diamonds in Adelaide. Across all sports, perhaps only the World XV's win over the All Blacks in 1992, after the team had spent more time in the bar than in training, could be comparable.

Privately, members of the Fastnet team will say the 10 days spent with Broughton last year were the best of their netballing lives and there is no doubt that some of her Steel players would have followed her to another franchise.

But Broughton has not always seen eye to eye with those in the corridors of power. She has been a national selector but her insistence on doing things her way has sometimes ruffled feathers within Netball New Zealand.

The Steel are planning for the future, and obviously did not see the 63-year-old Broughton as part of that. Maybe they felt that her message was wearing a little thin, and the 2011 season record of just four wins has been a disappointment.

But there were mitigating factors. Broughton was privately concerned at the start of the year, especially after losing captain Megan Dehn to the Mystics and the promising Juliana Naoupu to the Magic. Injury compounded the situation, and only in the last few games of the season did the Steel start to play to potential.

Meanwhile, Gibbs has a huge task to resurrect the Tactix, who have won just two games (of 26) in the past two seasons. Her national high performance background will attract players to the franchise, but the former Ferns coach has been away from the coaching coalface for a considerable amount of time.

Like the Steel, the Tactix have put a long-term plan in place, with Gibbs expected to help to groom her eventual successor.