Netball: Experienced Gibbs' arrival just the tonic for ailing Tactix

Leigh Gibbs will coach the Canterbury Tactix in next year's ANZ competition. Photo / Getty Images

The Tactix job attracted several other high-calibre applicants.Former Silver Ferns coach Leigh Gibbs is to return to fulltime coaching, taking on the top job at the struggling Canterbury Tactix franchise.

Gibbs, who will step down from her current position at Netball New Zealand as the coaching development manager, was last night named as Helen Mahon-Stroud's replacement.

The appointment of Gibbs is a major coup for the ailing franchise as they look to turn around their fortunes after finishing bottom of the table for the past two seasons.

Gibbs is widely respected in the netball community and it is thought her experience and links to Netball New Zealand's high performance programme will help attract a couple of big-name stars to Christchurch.

But Gibbs, who coached the Canterbury Flames in the now defunct National Bank Cup in 1998, 1999 and 2001, will play a key development role as well.

It is likely she will be tasked with overseeing the entire high performance programme in the region. In keeping with her current focus on coach development, it is also expected Gibbs will appoint an assistant coach with a view to grooming them to take over as head coach in a few years.

Former Silver Ferns captain and Canterbury stalwart Julie Seymour, who served as Mahon-Stroud's assistant for the past two seasons, will be highly favoured to retain her post.

Seymour was one of the names touted as a frontrunner for the head coaching role, but the Tactix board appeared reluctant to push her into the top job too soon.

The Tactix job attracted several other high-calibre applicants, including another former Flames coach, Marg Foster, and Canterbury NPC coach Tania Hoffman.

It is believed Robyn Broughton also registered her interest in the position, but was not among the official applicants.

With the Tactix job spoken for, it looks increasingly likely Broughton's distinguished top-level coaching career may have come to an end after her acrimonious split with the Southern Steel. Her contract ended this season and she opted not to reapply following a fall-out with the board.