Coach Noeline Taurua filled with emotion at the Netball World Cup presentation. Photo / Gettys Images
Noeline Taurua is the embodiment of a kumara that never boasts of itself. Such was her surprise when she was named Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
“It’s really uncomfortable,” but it was her whānau who reassured her what she needs to do to honour it.
It was the triumphant Silver Fern win over Australia at the Netball World Cup in Liverpool this year that gave Dame Noeline the recognition of the mana she carries.
“It doesn’t sit well with me mainly because I know there’s so many amazing people in our sports."
Dame Noeline arrived in her new role at a time when NZ netball had hit an all-time low. It was only 11 months before the Netball World Cup when former national head coach Janine Southby resigned. The Ferns faced an independent review after failing to medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Dame Noeline then faced the monumental task of coaching two different netball teams in two different countries at once. She was living with whānau on Australia’s Sunshine Coast coaching the Lightning franchise, when she was asked by Netball NZ to save their team.
“Maybe my work is just beginning.”
Critics believe she saved the game with New Zealand languishing in third place in world netball rankings.
This is part of a movement where women’s sport has been on the rise in Aotearoa. For example, current world rugby champions the Black Ferns Sevens team have won the world series five times, with the Black Ferns 15s following closely, winning five world cups.
Dame Noeline is no stranger to loss. She was part of the infamous 1995 world cup tournament where then South African shooter Irene van Dyk slam-dunked the Ferns into a semi-final loss against Australia.
She would end up coaching her former adversary, when van Dyk made her famous exodus to New Zealand, representing the Waikato BOP Magic. The Magic squad would eventually nab two National Bank Cup titles and a Trans-Tasman ANZ Championship premier title.
Coaching the Silver Ferns was seen as her next career move. However, when Netball NZ failed to shortlist her, she then crossed the ditch to help the newly formed Sunshine Coast Lightning. The Suncorp Super Netball competition brings the world’s best netballers to Australian courts to vie for supremacy.
Dame Noeline was the only rāwaho in an all-Aussie coaching ring. Perhaps it was her points of difference from the Aussie norms that helped her take the Lightning team to two consecutive championships. No other Australian sports club has achieved that in their first two years.
Within a matter of weeks of winning the Suncorp competition for the second time, Netball NZ would let the cat out of the bag, revealing what Dame Noeline called “the worst kept secret”.
Assistant Coach Debbie Fuller standing next Head Coach Noeline Taurua for trophy ceremony at Parliament. Photo / Gettys Images
Dame Noeline was asked to bring her championship-winning magic back home to the Silver Ferns. Her first call was to appoint Debbie Fuller as assistant coach. The dynamic duo would then take the Ferns to world cup supremacy after a 16-year travail in the wilderness.
“To some respect, if that’s the kick that I need to keep in the sport and keep going then that’s the pathway that I got to take,” she says.
Aotearoa netballers dominate in the 2020 New Years honours list, with current Silver Fern captain Laura Langman being named with former World Cup champion Margaret Forsyth as well.
“There’s so many amazing people in our sports who have been involved with our sport who get no accolade but they’ve kept the wheel of our sport moving,” Dame Noeline says.