Netball: Taurua returns as Magic coach

1.00pm

Noeline Taurua was confirmed today as coach of the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic team for next year's National Bank Cup netball competition.

Magic coach for the 2002 and 2003 campaigns, Taurua said she was delighted to be back after taking time out this year for the birth of her son Matauri.

"I'm very pleased to be back with the Magic," the Rotorua-based Taurua said.

"I'm very loyal to the (Magic) area. I know all the girls and when the opportunity came up I was really pleased to get back in the frame."

Taurua replaces Nicole Dryden, who guided the Magic to fourth this year in her first year as a coach at National Bank Cup level. There were four applicants for the job.

Chair of the Magic board Jos McEntee said the franchise was delighted with Taurua's appointment.

"We appreciate the efforts Nicole Dryden put into the season 2004 and we hope she continues to develop her coaching skills with a view to the future," McEntee said.

"We are grateful for the good work Nicole did but also delighted to have Noeline back on board."

Dryden said she was disappointed not to be retained as Magic coach but was hopeful of another opportunity in the future.

"I'm very keen to have another go in the future and I will create some opportunities to do that," she said.

"I am developing as a coach after my first year at that level and I know there's definitely more to come. It takes that first year to get an idea of the length of the competition and how that length requires a programme that can maintain the intensity for something like eight months from when we first selected them in squads, which is a long time."

Dryden will coach Waikato for the third successive season at the NPC championships in Palmerston North in September, the priority being to defend the New Zealand Cup they won as the top provincial team last year.

Taurua, a former Silver Fern, is viewed as having a bright coaching career, her pedigree being enhanced this year when she was assistant coach for the New Zealand A and New Zealand under-21 teams.

She said the change from a franchise to national teams had been a breath of fresh air and helped further develop her coaching repertoire.

"I learned quite a bit from those experiences and what I want to do is transfer that to the Magic team," she said.

"It means I will take more of a higher level approach than I would have in the past and from that perspective I can't wait to get out there and see how it pans out."

- NZPA