42 LISTENER AUGUST 3 2019
G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
Ferns’ triumph
restores order
The sporting gods came to
their senses in handing the
nation a netball win over
our old foe.
by Paul Thomas
SPORT
THIS LIFE
netball in this country, as reflected in
the Ferns’ proud record over many
decades; another was that the team
had become a woeful misrepresen-
tation of the sum of its parts. The
skill and athleticism were still there.
Organisation, clarity, pride, unity and
self-belief weren’t. Like Tina Turner,
the Ferns didn’t need a hero, but they
were crying out for a catalyst.
What a difference an exceptional
coach makes. Elite sport is an unfor-
giving environment in which the
critics seldom resist the temptation
to say, “I don’t want to say ‘I told you
so’, but I told you so.” Former coach
Janine Southby may have taken
some blame that should have been
allocated elsewhere but “losing the
dressing room”, as the saying goes, is
proof positive of the wrong coach in
the wrong job at the wrong time. The
achievements of her replacement,A
side from being an
effective antidote to
cricket-induced deflation,
the Silver Ferns’ 52-51
victory over the Aus-
tralian Diamonds in
the pulsating Netball
World Cup final in Liverpoolbore out several sporting truisms.
If you don’t get it right off the
court/field, it’s hard to get it right on
it. Netball New Zealand’s missteps
and self-thwarting fuelled a decline
that culminated in a 2018 Common-
wealth Games campaign that went
from bad to worse. The Ferns failed to
make the final for the first time since
netball was introduced to the Games
in 1998, rock bottom taking the form
of a 21-point loss to Australia.
Form is temporary, class is perma-
nent. As calamitous as that
campaign was, there were
always reasons to believe
it was an aberration rather
than the shape of things
to come. One was the
inherent strength ofTurnaround coach
Noeline Taurua.