Tracey Neville has been appointed the interim head coach of the England netball team, only five months before the World Cup in Australia. The Manchester Thunder coach, whose team are currently undefeated in the Superleague and seeking a second consecutive league title, said she was “honoured and proud” to be given the opportunity.
Neville, who won 81 caps for England, said she was delighted to have pipped her famous brothers, Gary and Phil, to a head coach role with England. “I was surprised but they weren’t. To them it’s in their mindset that you should expect it, it was an expectation not a shock,” she said. “I’ve got one of the most biased families in the country. They’re so proud, they are honoured at what I’ve achieved – and maybe a bit jealous too!”
The 38-year-old is expected to take charge with immediate effect, combining the role with pursuing the domestic title at Manchester Thunder, a club whose winning ethos and style of play she hopes will transfer over to the national side. “I’m not a magician but my aim over the next few months is to get players – who I truly believe we have in this country – performing at their best.”
While England Netball has an existing target of winning the World Cup on home soil in four years’ time, it has an “expectation” that Neville will deliver a medal in Sydney this time around. “Our hope is we have a very successful few months and she takes us through to our home World Cup in 2019,” said Joanna Adams, the England Netball CEO.
Adams described the decision to appoint Neville as “swift”, with the former head coach Anna Mayes sacked from her position in response to a poor run of results after the world No3-ranked side failed to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games and lost a Test series in Jamaica. Neville coming on board was a no brainer. “It was just so obvious. When you look at what she’s done at Thunder. She’s our top coach why wouldn’t we have her as our England coach? We feel she can bring those moments of big tactical decisions, those in-game tactical decisions that need to be made.”
It is expected that Neville will push for her own backroom staff to join her, including her assistant coach Karen Greig – who, alongside Neville – is credited with helping to develop young talent such as the 20-year-old England starlet Helen Housby. Adams said the hope is that Neville will bring about an overarching legacy for the sport in this country. “She’s hugely important for growing talent but [it’s] also about coach development in this country, we need to breed some talented young coaches and I think her as the figurehead will help that.”
