Netball: Coach who started out as a novelty factor makes netball history

This weekend, NSW Swifts mentor Rob Wright will be the first male head coach to take the reins in an ANZ Championship match. Photo / Getty Images

There are few sports where male coaches are in the minority, let alone the sole figure on the sidelines with a 'Y' chromosome.

This weekend, NSW Swifts mentor Rob Wright will be the first male head coach to take the reins in an ANZ Championship match, when his Sydney side meet Norma Plummer's West Coast Fever in Perth.

But Wright, who has served as assistant coach at the franchise for the past four years, said making history has never been his motivation.

"It's not really something that I think too much about to be honest because I have been around for a while now, but when I reflect on it, it is pretty cool and if there has to be a first I'm proud that it can be me." he said.

"I guess the position that I'm in now reflects that the coaching pathways really do work. I've come through the system, and spent the past four years as assistant coach at the Swifts."

It was a near-fatal accident that set Wright on the pathway to being a netball coach. In his final year of high school Wright was hit by a car while riding his bike and received a shattered knee and ankle, and cognitive injuries.

"I couldn't really do anything in terms of my own sport, I was pretty rubbish at everything, so I thought coaching was something that I could do to keep myself busy and involved in sport."

Spending much of his childhood on the side of netball courts watching his mother and sister, both of whom he says are "absolute netball nuts" it seemed the obvious choice.

While he encountered "little to nil" resistance by females in the sport as he made his way through the various tiers, Wright admits his presence in coaching clinics and on the sidelines drew plenty of raised eyebrows to begin with.

"In those days it was a bit of a novelty. There weren't a lot of males involved in netball. So I think the overwhelming feeling was more a surprise than anything else," the 45-year-old said.

Having coached for over two decades, these days Wright is pretty much part of the NSW netball landscape. Swifts captain Kim Green said given that Wright has been involved with the franchise, his gender is not something the team even notices.

"Rob is really different to any other coach I've had. ... he sits back and watches quite a bit - he doesn't say a whole lot, but when he does talk everyone sits and listens. He has so much respect from the girls," she said.

"The things that he does and the structure he makes up is always a little bit quirky, a little bit different, but when you do it you think 'why haven't I been doing it this way earlier?"'