KEY POINTS:
Newly appointed Silver Ferns assistant Waimarama Taumaunu insists she has no ambitions to take on the top coaching job for the national side.
A former Silver Ferns captain, Taumaunu previously served as an assistant coach under Yvonne Willering. She has since taken on high performance roles with the England national side, and more recently coached the Capital Shakers.
But Taumaunu said her return to the Ferns was not driven by a desire to eventually succeed Ruth Aitken as coach. The former defender is now a high flyer with the State Services Commission in Wellington and she said her career would only allow her to fit in a part-time coaching role.
"One of the reasons I was so excited that the assistant job came up was because the New Zealand netball coach is a full-time role and I don't see myself ever being in the position to be able to do that," she said.
Taumaunu has signed on only until the end of the year - a condition she said was her idea.
"I was keen that we had the end of the year to really look back and review. It's really just seeing if it can work really, particularly from Ruth and the team's point of view.
"If it's not going to be a successful combination, then they've got the end of the year to find something else."
Taumaunu worked briefly with Aitken before last year's World Championships when she was brought in to the Ferns as a defensive specialist.
"I really enjoyed working with that group of defenders and I guess it drove home to me how much I missed working with players of that ability."
Meanwhile, Netball New Zealand plans to scrap the Silver Ferns trials this year, reasoning that players will get enough exposure throughout the 17-week ANZ Championship.
The national body had planned on holding a trial weekend in August after the transtasman competition, but Aitken said it would be better using that time as a training camp.
"Certainly after watching a competition for 17 weeks, we feel we should have enough information on players to be able to select and we just want to keep the momentum going after the ANZ Championship," she said.
With the next tier of players now exposed to the Aussie style, the transtasman league is proving an excellent selection platform.
In the past, players who have performed well at National Bank Cup level have not necessarily been able to cope with the step up in speed and athleticism of the international game.
Aitken said the new competition took a lot of the guesswork out of judging whether a player could handle that added intensity.
But she said strong performances against Australian opposition would not hold more weight than those against New Zealand opposition.
"I think in the end they actually have to nail both because I do think that all Kiwi games are really good to see the match-ups and see some of the players that are in the frame up against each other."
The Silver Ferns will play a home and away series against Australia, and England will tour here in October. The international calendar has yet to be officially confirmed as Netball New Zealand is waiting for its Australian counterparts to sort out venues.
WAIMARAMA TAUMAUNU
* Silver Fern 1981-1991 (captain from 1989-1991)
* Silver Ferns assistant 1996-1997
* England National Performance Director 1998-2003
* England assistant coach 2003 World Champs
* Capital Shakers coach 2007
