KEY POINTS:
She faces plenty of challenges, but newly reappointed Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken is brimming with excitement ahead of her next four years in charge of the national team.
"I feel like a first year coach again," she said with her trademark chuckle.
Certainly there are parallels between
when Aitken took over as Ferns coach in 2002 and her reappointment last weekend. Both times controversy surrounded her appointment.
"Ruth who?" the critics said back in 2002, when the then Magic coach took over the Ferns role. Now it seems the critics believe after six years at the helm of the Ferns, she has had too much exposure.
"Well obviously everyone's welcome to their opinion," Aitken responds. "But I can assure them that we're looking at the very, very best way of going forward.
"Probably in a lot of other jobs after you've been there five or six years you've really gone in to the next level so I'd really like to think we can take it up another level."
Aitken knows the best way to answer her critics is through performance. She said after finishing runner-up at the World Championship there was some "business that needs to be attended to".
The Ferns will take on Australia in a home and away series before hosting England later this year and the introduction of the IFNA world rankings has given the Ferns the opportunity to exact some revenge on their Australian rivals.
The key goals for Aitken's upcoming four-year reign include the Commonwealth Games in 2010 followed by the World Championships in Singapore eight months later. But the Halberg award-winning coach's immediate challenge will be re-building a team that has lost a great deal of depth over the past 12 months.
The most recent loss is Jodi Brown (nee Te Huna), who has made herself unavailable for international duty so she can travel overseas.
With Temepara George also confirming her unavailability and world championship captain Adine Wilson pregnant, there are suddenly a lot of vacancies to fill.
Aitken said the nature of the four-year cycle between World Champs means this is a time when typically a lot of players retire or choose to focus on other aspects of their lives.
"It always is a challenge especially in women's sport to find time for life as well as their sport. I think this is a great opportunity for some of the young ones knocking on the door or wanting more court time to really make the most of the openings."
With George and Wilson lost to the national team for the time being at least, the biggest area of concern for the Ferns is in the midcourt.
"It's interesting because the midcourt has always been an area where we've had so much more talent than we could ever put in and the vacancies come along few and far between. But probably looking at it, I think there's going to be healthy competition in all three areas of the court."
The 17-week ANZ Championship will provide ample opportunity to see potential Ferns in action. Aitken said being able to see how the players cope under the tight man-on defence of the Australians should be of great assistance to the selectors.
"For us to be able to see New Zealand players in that level dealing with the challenge from across the Tasman I think will be an awesome selection platform to choose our team from."
