Netball: Coach's 'scrubbers' comment will take a while to live down

She didn't exactly get off on the right foot with New Zealanders by labelling the world champion Silver Ferns a "bunch of scrubbers".

Australian netball coach Norma Plummer pleaded ignorance on that occasion but one thing is clear - she doesn't mince her words.

Plummer replaced long-time Australian coach Jill McIntosh who retired after last year's world championships.

She is just the third Australian coach in 15 years and, with her appointment through till 2007, is charged with getting Australia back to the top of world netball.

"I said to Jill [McIntosh] you might have done me a favour ... now that we have been beaten, I can only go up from here," Plummer said.

"Nobody wants to see your team beaten but it is a fact of life. It was probably going to happen sooner or later because we were hanging on to some unbelievable games."


She played for Australia in 1975, 1977 and 1978, and led the side in the latter years.

A midcourter, she was part of the Australian team which won the world championship in 1975.

In those days there was no finals format - the winner was the team with the most points at the end of the round-robin competition.

The New Zealand side, which included players such as Lyn Parker, Maxine Munro, Yvonne Willering, Georgina Salter and Frances Grainger, lost to England in the round-robin which meant Australia only had to draw or beat New Zealand in their last match.

"We drew so we won the series outright by a point," Plummer said.

"So the games have been sensational for years. They talk about the Commonwealths and the 1999 world champs but it has been going on for years.

"Unfortunately we weren't in an indoor stadium with 10,000 people, that was the only difference."

In 1995, Plummer was appointed coach of the Australian under-21 side, and four years later took over as the head coach of netball at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

"The Australian under-21 programme is run out of the AIS and it is a full-time programme. The girls are on scholarships and are there for 9-10 months of the year."


The institute has received a lot of the credit for maintaining Australia's netball strength through the distractions of the Olympics when some players went to beach volleyball and basketball.


There had been a slight lull, but the depth of talent meant it would not last.


After almost six months in the top job, Plummer is happy with her side's progress.

"I guess we are a bit of an unknown quantity now with the newer players we have got in.

"But I still think we have got to convert ... we had six more shots last time [in the world championships final] and lost by two so we have to get those shooting percentages up.

"Our shooting stats right throughout the Commonwealth Bank trophy have been the highest they have ever been. I have also done a lot of work with the shooters and the technique of their shots.

"I am very much into putting that pressure back onto the players. They want feedback, so they are getting it not only verbally but technically in every manner."

Australia have beaten South Africa and England since she took over. But this series is the first real test.

"It is what we play for. This is the crux of everything ... This is netball. This is the pinnacle of it all."

Inside track

Born: Melbourne

Lives: Canberra

Career highlights:

2004: Australian netball coach

1999-2003: Head coach of Australian Institute of Sport.

1995-2000: Australian under-21 coach

1975, '77, '78: Member of Australian netball side.