How Kiri Wills went from coaching the Stars to coveted Queensland Firebirds job
Sunday, 2 March 2025
Kiri Wills had barely touched down in Brisbane when the disparities between the New Zealand and Australian domestic netball competitions dawned.
Wills will step into the pressure cooker environment of Australia’s Super Netball this season, tasked with restoring respectability at the once mighty Queensland Firebirds.
A Kiwi coaching in Australia’s glitzy league, the best netball competition in the world, is a big deal. She is just the second New Zealand head coach in Super Netball after Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua, who led the Sunshine Coast Lightning to titles in the first two seasons in 2017 and 2018.
The highly-regarded Wills coached the south Auckland-based Stars for seven years in the ANZ Premiership, but could not lead them to a first title, losing finals in 2019, 2022, and 2023.
Unveiled as Firebirds head coach in late July, the vast chasm between coaching in Australia and New Zealand domestic netball quickly hit home.
For starters, the Firebirds operate under Netball Queensland and receive state government funding.
They are housed at the impressive Queensland State Netball Centre, the first dedicated home for netball in the state. The $44 million facility, which opened in 2019, has eight training courts and a 5000 seat show court, where the Firebirds play home matches.
Wills works closely with Netball Queensland’s general manager of high performance Adrian Thompson, previously at Rugby Australia. The Firebirds also have a fulltime assistant coach, strength and conditioning coach, physio, and analyst.
At the Stars, who are owned by Netball New Zealand, she was the lone fulltime employee.
“It is comparing apples with oranges in some respect. It’s quite different in terms of how you’re set up,” Wills said.
“That changes everything in terms of how deep you can dive into things like data, technology, always trying to be at the edge. For me, it’s light-years apart.”
Coaching the Firebirds was a serendipitous moment for Wills.
She had already enrolled children Grace, 15, and Charlie, 13, both talented swimmers, who also play water polo, at St Peters Lutheran College in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly for 2025. St Peters Lutheran is a noted swimming school.
When the Firebirds coaching opportunity came up she applied and was successful, informing her children mum was also coming to Queensland. “I just took a big deep breath and thought if my kids can do it, so can I.”
Wills flew back and forth between Brisbane and Auckland late last year, but has made the city home since January 4. She is in an apartment about eight minutes drive from her children, who are boarding at the school. Husband, John Wills, a prominent real estate agent, has remained in Auckland.
Wills’ contract with the Firebirds is for one year. She wants to do well with the team and is open to the family making Brisbane their long-term home.
“It’s a big step for all of us actually. It’s a lesson in being courageous and putting yourself outside your comfort zone, because even for me this is huge. We all want to do a really good job and make a go of it.”
After seven years coaching the Stars, Wills had been weighing up what she wanted to do with coaching in 2025, until the Firebirds role transpired.
She spoke to Taurua when she decided to apply for the role and the Silver Ferns coach was among those to congratulate her when she got it.
The Silver Ferns could be looking for a new head coach after the 2027 Netball World Cup with Taurua having been in the top job since 2018.
Coaching in Super Netball was another feather in Wills’ cap should the Silver Ferns position come up in the future and she be keen. A key piece of feedback she had received was she needed greater international experience, which she hoped she could grow in Australia.
“This is a way that I can show on my CV that I’ve coached against and with different players from each nation. You’ve also got different coaching styles to come up against, Tracey Neville from England coaching the [Melbourne] Mavericks.
“This competition is international, so I just think if that is the pathway for me going forward, who knows if it is or it isn’t, it has to make me a better candidate.”
New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership, which starts on May 10, moves to a new two full round format over a 10-week period (previously three rounds) this season. How the competition looks from 2026 and beyond is murky. NNZ have previously said they are open to all possibilities as they work through broadcast options.
While Wills would not have coached the Stars this season, the ambiguity around the direction of the ANZ Premiership was a factor in her heading to Australia. Not knowing what shape it would take in 2026 was unsettling, she said.
“I think that’s the reality for all of those players, all of those coaches and GMs, not having a long-term plan is difficult for anyone, so to have a big group of people sitting in this space is difficult. I know from talks over here there’s definitely an appetite for having New Zealand teams, and or players, in this competition.”
Wills has her work cut out for her with Queensland, who open their campaign against Giants Netball in Sydney on April 6.
The Firebirds are in full pre-season mode and desperate for improved results in what has been a tumultuous time for the club.
Bec Bulley departed as head coach less than halfway into her four-year contract last season after a player revolt. Caretaker coach Lauren Brown then stepped down just four days after taking over from Bulley. That left assistant Katie Walker in charge, who was supported by former Firebirds head coach Roselee Jencke.
Queensland finished seventh in the eight-team league last season with four wins from 14 games, last making the finals in 2018.
For a state steeped in netball history, who captured the trans-Tasman title in 2011, 2015, and 2016, boasting stars like Laura Geitz, Romelda Aiken, Kim Ravaillion, and Gretel Bueta, it has been grim times.
“I think it’s been too long that the Firebirds haven’t been anywhere near the top. It’s definitely a responsibility that weighs heavily on all of us.
“But that’s what we’re here for. We’re not here to come down in the back-blocks any more. I really want to make sure we reward those people [in Queensland netball] for their loyalty and their support.”
Getting her big break in Super Netball has been some journey for Wills, who was raised in Kaitaia before moving to Ahipara (15km drive away) when she was eight.
A New Zealand under-21 international she played as a goal attack-wing attack for the Auckland Diamonds, then the Magic.
Wills has gradually worked her way through the coaching ranks, starting as an assistant at the Mystics under Ruth Aitken in 2012. She was named Silver Ferns development squad coach in 2014 and coached the New Zealand under-21s, leading them to the Netball World Youth Cup title in 2017.
Aside from coaching the Stars, she has guided the New Zealand Fast5 Ferns.
“I’ve been coaching since 1998, since I came out of Phys Ed school [at Otago University]. I think you need the time under your belt to know what that looks like, to be honest, and I do worry about coaches who come in without that length of tenure.”
Wills had already been thinking hard about tactics around Super Netball’s controversial ‘Super Shot’, where shooters can score two goals by shooting from a 1.9m designated zone in the goal circle in the last five minutes of each quarter.
A showdown with New Zealand’s best netballer, Grace Nweke, who will play for the NSW Swifts this season, making her ineligible for the Silver Ferns, also looms. The Firebirds meet Nweke in round four on May 4.
Like all netball tragics, Wills is intrigued to see how Nweke fares in Australia. Nweke scores all her goals under the hoop, so how she is used with the ‘Super Shot’ will be fascinating.
“What I know will be around her in terms of support and access to people, she is only going to get bigger, better, stronger [in Super Netball]. I’m really excited for her and I think this is great for her entire career, internationally or club level. She’s going to fly.”