Top coach Taurua joins Fuller at the Northern Mystics   11 Sep 2014

The coach behind New Zealand’s sole trans-Tasman league netball premiership is heading to the Northern Mystics next year.

Noeline Taurua, who led the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic to victory in the 2012 ANZ Championship, will assist head coach Deb Fuller at the Mystics in 2015. In a dual role, she’ll also lead the coach development programme in the Northern Zone, which takes in Auckland and Northland.

Mystics CEO Julie Paterson says the organisation is thrilled to have a coach of Taurua’s experience and calibre on board. “The value that she will add having been through six ANZ Championship campaigns will be enormous.” During Taurua’s tenure at the Magic, from 2008 to 2013, the team made three grand finals and reached the semi-finals every year.

“We are also delighted that Noeline has committed to our organisation for two years, not just at the high performance level, but also to establish and run a comprehensive coach development programme throughout our zone,” says Paterson.

The appointment comes after Fuller approached her long-time friend and former team-mate to work alongside her at the Auckland-based Mystics. And for Taurua, who is studying towards a Masters of Science in Performance Coaching with the University of Stirling in Scotland, the timing was “just right”. She’d been working with the New Zealand Sports Academy, running its netball programme in Rotorua, doing international and local netball consultancy work and felt refreshed after a season away from the ANZ Championship.

“I’m excited,” she says of her new roles in the region she hails from. She likes the look of the Mystics – “those girls can play” – and is also relishing the chance to work with coaches in Auckland and Northland.

She’s also enthusiastic about working alongside her old friend Fuller. “We go back a long way. I think it’s a fantastic combination.”

Fuller agrees, saying Taurua is an ideal fit. “We have a shared understanding of how we approach and respect the game,” she says. The Mystics had to improve their grasp of physical dominance in the modern game “so it is important to have an experienced coaching and management team to best support this”.

Taurua, she says, liked what she saw at the end of the Mystics’ 2014 season and believed it was a good time to come into the team. She also has strong connection with the athletes and the zone ­– she was born in Papakura, grew up in Albany and is of Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua descent.

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