Dame Noeline Taurua’s Silver Ferns coaching tenure looks over as player power wins out

Friday, 12 September 2025

Dame Noeline Taurua’s eight-year tenure as Silver Ferns head coach looks over.

ANALYSIS: It seems ironic Dame Noeline Taurua’s final act as Silver Ferns coach on game-day could be lifting the Constellation Cup 11 months ago.

Taurua’s eight-year tenure as national coach appears all but over after she was sensationally stood down for the Taini Jamison Trophy series against South Africa, starting next Sunday.

Things are not well in New Zealand netball.

Long-standing grievances, stemming from a nine-day training camp in Sydney in January, finally came out in the open this week. With an impasse between the Silver Ferns players and coaching staff, Netball New Zealand (NNZ) were forced to take the radical step of removing the coaches for the looming series.

Former Ferns assistant Yvette McCausland-Durie was pulled from her day job, running the reopened St Stephen’s School south of Auckland with husband Nathan, to serve as interim coach. She will be assisted by former Silver Ferns midcourter Liana Leota, a former England assistant.

Noeline Taurua and Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio in happier days after beating Australia in last year’s Constellation Cup at Auckland’s Spark Arena.

Taurua’s role as Silver Ferns head coach looks untenable. She and assistants Debbie Fuller and Australian Briony Akle have clearly lost the support and trust of the playing group.

Significant questions have been raised about player power and just how ruthless today’s sports coaches can be on the next generation of athletes. When does an irate, tough-talking coach demanding the highest standards become a so-called bully? The lines are blurry and subjective.

It is understood after the Sydney camp, two players, acting on behalf of a larger group of seven, flagged serious concerns with the New Zealand Netball Players’ Association (NZNPA) about Taurua’s leadership and communication style. Those issues were then discussed with Netball New Zealand boss Jennie Wyllie and the NNZ board, from which an independent review was conducted.

RNZ reported the environment had become “psychologically unsafe” with players claiming they were fearful of raising issues directly with Taurua.

Silver Ferns head coach Dame Noeline Taurua at a training session in Auckland last year.

The Post understands NNZ has not ruled out the prospect of Taurua, Fuller and Akle returning to coach the Silver Ferns in October’s Constellation Cup series, but it is difficult to envisage.

For that to happen, one well-placed source said they would need full backing from the players and NNZ, and an assurance they could carry out their roles without outside influences, namely the NZNPA. That seems unlikely.

Taurua is a passionate coach, who wears her heart on her sleeve. She sets impeccable standards and is never afraid to let players know when they have not been met. Fitness is one non-negotiable which saw players miss the cut for squads.

While she can sometimes be fiery on a training court, it comes from a place of wanting the best for her team and the athletes she is coaching.

Football Ferns head coach Jitka Klimkova left her job controversially following an investigation into an undisclosed employment matter.

Only those involved in the nine-day camp at Netball Central in Sydney Olympic Park will really know what went down. The truth might land somewhere in the middle between the players’ and coaches’ views.

Silver Ferns great Laura Langman, who spent most of her career under Taurua, went into bat for her long-time mentor on Thursday in an emotional Facebook post.

Even former All Blacks Sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens jumped to Taurua’s defence in a radio interview.

The ugly saga playing out between Taurua and the players is a demoralising blow for netball in this country, but not a first in New Zealand sport.

In fact, there have been several similar occurrences in recent years.

Dame Noeline Taurua’s future as Silver Ferns coach looks murky.

Black Sticks women’s hockey coach Mark Hager left in a cloud of controversy in 2019. Hager had been at the centre of a review into the environment within the national women's team.

Not everyone believed Hager was in the wrong, however. A group of seven former Black Sticks, all whom played under Hager, wrote a letter to New Zealand Hockey in support of him.

Former Black Ferns rugby coach Glenn Moore resigned in 2022 after allegations from a player, which ultimately sparked a review into the culture and environment of the New Zealand women’s rugby side. Moore rejected the “misleading” allegations and did not agree with them.

Football Ferns coach Jitka Klimkova departed last year just three years into a six-year term following an investigation into an undisclosed employment matter. Football Ferns players were reportedly unhappy with how New Zealand Football handled allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Czech Klimkova.

These instances have taught us coaches have very little to fall back on if a messy situation arises in an environment. Player power is decisive and typically wins out.

Taurua’s last act as Silver Ferns coach may well have been hoisting the Constellation Cup aloft as unhappy Aussie netball fans headed for the exits at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena last October.

At that stage, the Ferns were in a good place.

They’d captured the trans-Tasman silverware for just the third time and the second under Taurua’s tutelage. It was emphatic netball too, winning the first three matches and crushing Australia in Perth in the third test.

Fast-forward three months and things would take an alarming turn for the worse in Sydney, an ill-fated trip which marked the beginning of the end for one of New Zealand sport’s most high-profile and admired national coaches.