Netball: Muir there for as long as fun lasts

By JULIE ASH

Lois Muir's rocking chair will have to wait a bit longer before its owner puts her feet up and calls it a day.

After a coaching career which has spanned more than 30 years, the former national coach has no plans to give the game away just yet.

"My rocking chair is always waiting," she laughs. "I enjoy the game and I'll hang around while I still do.

"Nothing has changed. It is fun seeing people grow before your eyes, improve, try things and learn to be themselves."

Muir retired as Silver Ferns coach in 1988 after an impressive 14 years with the side.

She returned to the game in 1998 and coached Wellington's Shakers in the first three years of the franchise competition.

"Coming back to coaching has been fun for me because there were things I couldn't try as the New Zealand coach because of the risk," she said. "So I have done things I had a hankering to do back then."

The Shakers' best result under Muir's guidance was third in 2000, but for the woman who steered the Silver Ferns to 87 wins, five draws and just 10 losses in 102 tests, one of her biggest challenges came when she decided to take on a young Otago Rebels side last year.

"No one wanted to take on a team who were going to be hard work and certainly weren't going to make the top four.

"The younger coaches, who want to coach the national side, want results quickly.

"But someone has to grow players in New Zealand. These people have skills and the art of coaching is seeing what people have got and how you can add to that and help them as a group."

The Rebels finished seventh out of eight teams last year and many would not have been surprised if they finished in a similar position this year.

But with one round remaining, they are fourth. They must beat second-placed Force at the North Shore Events Centre tomorrow to secure a semifinal berth.

"I think it is exciting," Muir said. "Our first three games of the season were against the three top teams from last year [Sting, Flames and Magic] and we didn't handle that very well.

"But we got a bonus point off the Magic and it was about then we started to believe we were in for the long haul."

Muir said the league had been competitive, but she believed it would be difficult for any side to topple the Sting.

"They have quality players and experience right through. They have the home run now they have come out top of the competition, and they usually pull it out when it matters."

Muir, a goal defence in the national team in the 1960s, believes the modern game is far more demanding on the players.

"They have to be fitter and they have to use their brains more. The game itself has got pretty competitive, and it has got harder for the umpires to see who initiated what has happened."

Although many complain there is too much whistle in the game, Muir said the players determined how much the umpire was involved.

She has confidence in New Zealand's present band of top players.

"There is a good mix there. There are some young ones nipping at the heels of our top players, which we need."

But Muir believes the top players need more games together.

"We are very much inclined to select a group, train them a little bit and then put them together and say they are a team.

"I think we need all our levels to get far more competition."

Muir, who was also a New Zealand basketball representative in the 1950s and early 1960s, said she had many great sporting memories.

"I think the first time you make a New Zealand team is brilliant.

"In the years I coached the New Zealand netball team we won two world championships. "But to me the exciting thing looking back is to see all the players who were in my New Zealand teams who are still involved.

"Lynn Gunson is now coaching England, Wai Taumaunu is over there as well, Yvonne Willering has now gone to Fiji, Te Aroha Keenan is coaching the New Zealand under-21s, Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken was in there and Rita Fatialofa has done a lot for Samoa.

"I think it is sad there are not enough coaching jobs for everyone in New Zealand."

Muir said her decision to retire as national coach came naturally.

"I have never had any regrets. Lots of great memories, but no regrets."

In the other three games in the round, the Western Flyers play the Flames in Palmerston North tonight, and tomorrow the Magic host the Sting in Hamilton and the Shakers play the Cometz in Wellington.