Duncan Garner: Dame Noeline Taurua shambles is netball’s disgrace

Update: Dame Noeline Taurua has been reinstated as Silver Ferns coach with immediate effect, Netball NZ confirmed. It follows intensive negotiations after Dame Noeline was stood down in September.

The treatment of Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua is a national sporting embarrassment. Netball NZ took a world-class coach and a brilliant, proven, tenacious and talented former player, someone who received one of the highest honours our country can bestow on anyone, and systematically fed her to the hungry wolves in full view of a confused public.

Like so many, I have sat back in total disbelief and watched this car crash unfold. Dame Noeline was stood down in September following an independent review which highlighted “significant issues” within the Silver Ferns environment.

That review came on the back of concerns taken to the NZ Netball Players’ Association by a few players. We don’t know exactly what their concerns are but there’s been talk about Dame Noeline’s leadership and communication style.

Mediation has solved nothing; Yvette McCausland-Durie is interim coach and now our politicians are weighing in. Minister for Sport and Recreation Mark Mitchell wants it sorted as soon as possible while Labour MP Willie Jackson wants Netball NZ’s funding frozen (it receives around $3m each year, most from High Performance Sport NZ).

Jackson says his defence of Dame Noeline is about fairness, but I point out that she’s the daughter of the late Kingi Taurua, who was kaumātua at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae in Māngere for more than a decade. Jackson is chair of the marae; he and Kingi, a Vietnam vet, were friends. So maybe, Jackson’s playing the role of a cheesed-off uncle but he’s right about this not being fair.

For me, it raises questions about what it takes to play sport at an elite level and the support coaches can expect from administrators. Right now, it looks like the words of a few unproven precious pups – perhaps struggling with the demands, pace and skills needed at this elite level, who decided they didn’t like Dame Noeline demanding excellence or how she communicated her line in the sand – have been taken as read.

This generation wants the glory but not the grind. Dame Noeline is old-school. She believes in discipline, accountability and standards. She tells the truth – not what’s trending on TikTok. So what happens? The players turn on her, and the suits upstairs panic.

This country used to admire tough coaches. We used to celebrate winners. Now we eat them alive the minute feelings get hurt. Dame Noeline took us from fourth-place embarrassment to world champions in under a year in 2019. She could well be the greatest netball mind this country has ever produced. And how do we thank her? By allowing a clique of soft egos and bureaucrats to push her out the door. Disgraceful.