Meet the Whanganui netballer coaching Singapore at the World Cup

Former Whanganui Pirates player Annette Bishop has been coaching Singapore at the Netball World Cup in South Africa.

Netball Singapore head coach Annette Bishop says she hasn’t forgotten where she comes from.

“Growing up in Whanganui and playing netball there and moving into coaching was fantastic, that’s where it all started.”

Coaching the national Singapore side at the Netball World Cup in South Africa had been “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for Bishop.

Her team even faced off against the Silver Ferns squad in what was a thorough 80-19 defeat but, despite the result, Bishop said it had been an invaluable experience for her players.

“I’ll admit it’s been surreal,” she said.

“I mean, to be able to play against one of the best teams in the world, it was huge for the girls.

“You go in there and say to the team, ‘It’s just another competition’. But it is hard to believe that because it’s just another step up.”

The Singaporean squad was the lowest-ranked and shortest of all the teams at the World Cup. It was also the least experienced side Singapore had ever put forward.

“This team is the youngest team to ever come from Singapore into a World Cup, and that’s simply because there’s been so many retirements from older players before I arrived.”

Bishop said they had some positive results, such as close games against Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

This was rewarding considering the team was working on a new style of play at the World Cup.

“For Singapore, we don’t have a lot of height, so we’ve had to work really hard on a flat, fast and short game so we can actually hang on to the ball, because once we start to put the ball in the air against taller players, we don’t have success.”

Bishop said the players had gained some much-needed experience to take into the upcoming Nations Cup and Asian Indoor Championships.

Despite concerns expressed by Jamaican netball players about security in Cape Town, Bishop said there had been no difficulties for the Singapore team.

“For us, we have felt totally secure and safe, and we’ve actually had the local police and security on the buses wherever we’ve travelled.”

Bishop said as a young Pirates netball player in Whanganui, she was exposed to a variety of coaches whose different styles impacted her career.

“That grounding there when I was a player helped me to grow and meant I learned different ways of coaching; my career blossomed from there.”

She had also drawn on “the wealth of experience” of former Silver Ferns coach Dame Ruth Aitken, who was a mentor to Bishop in her current role.

For now, Bishop’s plans were to remain with Singapore until her coaching contract ended after the 2024 season.

“I’ll see where it takes me, we’ve still got a lot of competitions ahead of us, but I’ve always planned to come back to New Zealand.

“New Zealand will always be home.”

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.