Dame Lois on tour - yet again

Lois Muir is off to Sydney today for her 12th Netball World Cup. Fat Cat will stay home. Photo / Otago Daily Times

She was the star player in the Silver Ferns side that competed in the first Netball World Cup back in 1963 in Eastborne, England. Now, over half a century on, Dame Lois Muir will fly out to Sydney today for her 12th World Cup.

In the intervening years, she has attended as a coach, Netball NZ delegate, ambassador and, more recently, leading organised tours for Silver Ferns' supporters groups.

At 80 years old, Dame Lois will lead her biggest group yet in Sydney alongside fellow New Zealand netball legend Irene van Dyk, with 155 people signing on - many of them repeat customers from previous years who insisted on being in Dame Lois' group.

She's not just there to make a few appearances at the group functions to keep the punters happy, either. The way Dame Lois sees it, if you take on a job, you've got to do it properly.

"I've got it all planned. I'll put them into smaller groups and give them chores and stuff to do. There'll be lots of fun stuff - sweepstakes and lucky draws and things," said Dame Lois, who remains the Ferns' longest-serving coach, having led the side from 1974 to 1988.

If you were to suggest to Dame Lois it sounds like a big job for an octogenarian to take on, you will get a terse response. "I'm not quite on my walking frame yet." However, she does expect the Sydney tournament, which begins tomorrow, will be her last World Cup. Mind you, she said that in Singapore four years ago as well.

"I actually said after Singapore that I wouldn't do another tour group, but then I got my arm twisted.

"But I think I'll be pushing it to make it to the next one [in Liverpool, England in 2019]."

Despite having been to so many World Cups, Dame Lois says she still gets a buzz walking into the stadium on the opening day of a tournament.

Her most memorable World Cup remains the 1987 event in Glasgow, where she coached her side to victory in what remains the most dominant showing by a Silver Ferns team.

But the matriarch of New Zealand netball admits the Ferns will be up against it in Sydney, given the team are a relatively new group, with many key members largely untested on the big stage.