It’s easy to look back from this moment – the Silver Ferns winning Commonwealth gold after a 16-year wait – to the past 12 torrid months that hung over this team, and netball in New Zealand.
It’s just as easy to look forward, for a relatively young Ferns team who’ve shown remarkable resilience and self-belief, to next year’s World Cup.
The medal podium told its own story: three of the Sunshine Girls were cradling their young children after the Ferns’ decisive 56-48 final victory over Jamaica. There are no mums yet in this Silver Ferns side.
That’s no slight on the Ferns – or netball mums. But many of this squad could still be around for at least two more World Cup cycles, head coach Dame Noeline Taurua reckoned after their against-the-odds win.
The real challenge may be keeping them in the game at all – with the ANZ Premiership’s future hanging by a thread. This victory is a reminder of how crucial it is to save that competition.
But captain Karin Burger, who backed Taurua when she was first stood down as coach last October, wanted to stay in the golden moment.
“The way netball’s been going over the last year for this group – and looking at what the future of netball in New Zealand looks like – this win wasn’t just for us. It was for the future of the sport and for females in netball – and the males coming through as well,” she said.
“We want to show we’re a quality side regardless of what’s thrown our way, regardless of all the adversity we’ve gone through. So, yeah, it’s for all of that because it’s not just for the here and now.”
The Silver Ferns’ gold on the final day of the successful Glasgow Games brought the New Zealand team’s gold tally to 10, alongside 14 silver and 12 bronze medals.
Many thought Taurua wouldn’t coach the Ferns again after players raised concerns about the team’s high-performance environment last October. There’s no certainty, though, she’ll continue in the role; her contract ends once this campaign has been wrapped up.
But with the squad she’s helped develop into Commonwealth champions for only the third time in netball history, it would seem madness not to keep her in charge for next year’s pinnacle event.
It’s hard to overstate how far this team has come. Taurua hadn’t worked directly with the Ferns for almost two years before this tournament, and she had just three weeks to mould a team for these Games. Credit must also go to Yvette McCausland-Durie, who stepped in to coach the Ferns last year and led them to a Constellation Cup victory over world No 1 side Australia – who, incidentally, settled for bronze in Glasgow.
But it’s clear the players hold huge respect for what Taurua has done for this team.
“Noels carries so much mana, and so much love not just for the sport, but for every single player,” Burger said. “The way she’s carrying herself, especially throughout this campaign connecting really well with every single individual, shows the players she feels so much love for us. It makes you drive to want to play your best netball for her.”
Ferns midcourter Kate Heffernan, arguably the strongest netballer in the world right now, backed that up.
“Noeline has been incredible this whole time. She’s kept it simple and had so much belief in us from the start, so we backed ourselves from the start, and we fully did it for her and for everyone in New Zealand,” Heffernan said.
It was a massive victory, in a final few would have predicted. For a Silver Ferns team who’ve ridden out a year of confusion, disruption and uncertainty. For netball in New Zealand, still mired in crisis and doubt around the future of its elite competition.
The majority of the nation’s top players will head overseas to the super leagues next year – as five of this gold-medal side did this season. But for those staying behind, there must be a domestic competition to prepare them for the world championship in Sydney next August.
But back to the Commonwealth Games final.
The Silver Ferns last stood on the top step of the Commonwealth podium in 2010, beating Australia in an extra double time ultramarathon, when Dame Ruth Aitken was coach. The Ferns last made a final in 2014, and have finished fourth and third since then.
A 16-year jinx seems to have hung over the Ferns in recent history. Their last three World Cup victories were 16 years apart, too.
Jamaica, silver medallists in 2022, went toe-to-toe with the Ferns through most of the first half of the game, both sides employing similar tactics to bomb the ball into their tall shooters – Ferns talisman Grace Nweke at one end, Sunshine Girls veteran Romelda Aiken-George at the other.
The Ferns held the upper hand by three goals at the first two breaks, but were on the verge of losing the third quarter for the first time all tournament – until back-to-back intercepts from goal keep Kelly Jackson swung the momentum New Zealand’s way. The Jamaicans never recovered – the gap widening to 11 goals with four minutes left on the clock.
Two of the Kiwi standouts in the game were the Heffernan twins – 26 years after their mum, Annette, played in the very first netball match at a Commonwealth Games. She was in the “pocket of black” supporters in The Hydro stands in Glasgow.
Georgia Heffernan lifted her game for the final, bravely playing on a bothersome ankle injury suffered earlier in the tournament. Her precision feeding into Nweke – who shot 48 from 54 – her back-up shooting and a little cheekiness went a long way to getting the better of Jamaica’s famed defenders, Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Latanya Wilson.
“There were a couple of moves from Georgia which I thought were quite funny – but very courageous,” Taurua said. “Throwing the ball in to herself off the post – that’s confidence.”
Taurua’s punt to play attacking midcourter Mila Reuelu-Buchanan at wing defence for the first time, right through this tournament, was an example of her out-of-the box strategies.
“That’s who Noels is,” Burger said. “She has a vision and she’s very specific about how to put that plan in place, then it’s about instilling that belief in every single player around how she sees that happening.
“A prime example of that was Mila playing wing defence – and she smoked it. Nobody would have expected that, but that’s the vision Noels has. When she has a great idea, it works really well 99 percent of the time.”
The importance of this victory showed in the moments after the final whistle. The Heffernan sisters in a long hug; Nweke in tears; Catherine Hall – her Games ended by a knee injury just days earlier – hobbling onto the court in a brace to celebrate with her teammates.
In the crowd was Chelsea Lane, the Kiwi who won two NBA championships and has worked with the Ferns this year as head of performance. She also helped out sprinter Zoe Hobbs, who won gold in Glasgow, too.
Taurua steered well clear of the issues that have shadowed her most recent tenure.
“I don’t think [the victory] is any more special just because of what happened,” Taurua said. “Even if it didn’t happen, it would still be special.
“Look, it’s always an honour for me to be able to coach the Silver Ferns. It’s something I don’t take lightly.
“It might be a cliche but the team on the court, the team on the bench, and obviously our staff have done a phenomenal job to get everything right. It’s just so pleasing to be part of a real cool group, and to be able to put out a performance that we’re proud to end the tournament on.”
- For the first time in seven editions of the Games, Australia’s Diamonds were not in the final. Australians were so certain they’d be there, the Sunday Mail proclaimed in yesterday’s 5 Events To Watch: “The Diamonds’ campaign culminates in a play-off for gold in their seventh game in nine days, the Diamonds’ depth as well as their skill will come to the fore. Expect them to outlast their rivals in the back half of the game to repeat their Birmingham heroics.” Instead they outlasted England, 68-50, in the play-off for bronze.
