Turbulent Taurua coaching ordeal could take years to bounce back from for netball in New Zealand

Sunday, 2 November 2025

Dame Noeline Taurua was forced to sit out the Taini Jamison Trophy and Constellation Cup after a stand-off with Netball NZ.

ANALYSIS: Dame Noeline Taurua is back as Silver Ferns coach, but the damage to netball in New Zealand could take years to recover from.

The darkest chapter in the sport’s history in this country was finally resolved last Saturday with Taurua reinstated to her role.

It brought an end to a chaotic 45-day stand-off between the decorated coach and Netball New Zealand (NNZ) around issues in the team’s high performance environment, stemming back to a January training camp in Sydney.

Lawyers became involved and for large parts it seemed a legal court, rather than netball one, was the only place it would end up. Many in the netball fraternity thought Taurua, arguably the most successful coach in Ferns’ history, had coached the team for the last time.

Taurua won’t travel with the Ferns on their Northern tour to England and Scotland this month with Yvette McCausland-Durie remaining in charge to limit disruption for the playing group. Taurua’s next game in charge looks set to be the Ferns’ opening game of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in late July next year. That will remarkably be 21 months since her last time coaching the Ferns on game-day when she hoisted aloft the Constellation Cup in Melbourne in October last year.

A disappointed Kelly Jackson thanks the Christchurch crowd after their heartbreaking extra-time loss to Australia on Wednesday.

As the dust slowly settles on the Taurua coaching saga, NNZ will ponder how this very messy situation could have been handled better and how it got to this point.

How did disagreements at an Australian training camp morph into one of the biggest controversies in New Zealand sports history? Were there micro-moments along the way where the players, NNZ, and other parties could have found middle ground or done more to prevent the situation spiralling into a train wreck.

NNZ boss Jennie Wyllie and board chair Matt Whineray walked side-by-side as they left Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch on Wednesday following the Ferns’ heart-breaking extra-time loss to Australia.

They will both know netball’s public image in New Zealand has taken a monumental hammering. The collateral damage will be felt at the grassroots with many on social media expressing their disdain with NNZ’s handling of the ordeal.

A near sell-out crowd cheer on the Silver Ferns at Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena on Wednesday.

Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast this week, Wyllie regretted how the Taurua situation had hurt the sport. She stressed they had to take players concerns seriously, then work through the complex issues before reaching a resolution.

“There’s been a lot of hurt across the system, across netball, and we’ve all felt it. None of us ever wanted that to be the case, and for that, we are apologising. We are obviously very regretful for the impact it's had on everyone. We never wanted to be here, never wanted it to play out in this way,” Wyllie said.

For much of the last seven weeks, New Zealand netball’s civil war dominated talk-back radio and led the back pages of newspapers. Netball was getting greater column inches than the All Blacks, but for all the wrong reasons.

People with limited knowledge of the sport weren’t afraid to voice their opinion on social media and in work places. Even prime minister Christopher Luxon, albeit a netball fan, was quizzed on the subject, offering his thoughts and how he would handle the feud.

Dame Noeline Taurua will be back on the sideline with the Silver Ferns next year after being reinstated.

NNZ are going to have to work extremely hard to win back the trust of netball fans. It is going to take significant time and they will have to regain their respect.

It seems nobody at NNZ will fall on their sword, despite frequent cries for somebody to be held accountable. Former Silver Fern and top-level coach Gail Parata, who stepped down as a Silver Ferns selector in a show of solidarity for Taurua, called for heads to roll at the national body.

The Silver Ferns lock arms for the national anthem in Hamilton against Australia last Sunday.

The Silver Ferns played in front of near sell-out crowds in Hamilton and Christchurch in the Constellation Cup, showing the netball community were still fully behind the embattled team.

Having been thumped by 17 goals in both of the first two matches in Australia, the Ferns showed tremendous fight to force their way back into the series in New Zealand.

Few would have predicted it leading into the series, but the Ferns came within a whisker of a barely believable series win, pipped in extra-time in Christchurch. Australia’s Sophie Garbin slotted the match-winning goal with four seconds left after the Ferns had roared back from a seven goal halftime deficit to win test four and force ‘series decider time’ – the first time it has been used to determine the series winner.

Whether netball community participation takes a hit next year in the wake of the Taurua saga remains to be seen. Some talented young sportswomen, who are weighing up a future in professional netball or another code, might be swayed in the other direction seeing what played out.

It will be fascinating to see how the Ferns’ high performance environment looks under Taurua and whether she is forced to alter her coaching style. Several leading players, including former captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio, made themselves unavailable for the Ferns this year. Ekenasio cited a desire to spend more time with her young family and have a break from the game.

With Taurua resuming as coach, will some of those players return or continue to stay away?

As the Silver Ferns fly out for the United Kingdom this week, Taurua-gate has been resolved, but there is still plenty to unpack. New Zealand netball has a long way to go to move on from a hellish seven weeks that will have ripple effects for the foreseeable future.