"If you do the grind every year, by the time you get to year three and four, you should be in a better position anyway."
Thursday 2 April 2020 10:26, UK
As Super Club arrives in New Zealand, Noeline Taurua is getting ready to assess the talent available to her and has highlighted her vision for the Silver Ferns moving forwards.
It's been an exceptional year for Taurua, whose coaching prowess led New Zealand to a stunning Netball World Cup gold in July and then helped to deliver a drawn Constellation Cup series in October.
After deciding to step away from coaching at Sunshine Coast Lightning in Australia, Taurua is moving back to New Zealand with her family however hasn't decided on her international future beyond January.
Regardless of that fact, the head coach is very clear about how she believes the Silver Ferns need to approach the coming weeks, months and years.
"How I would like to take it, or where I think it should go, is year-by-year," she said to LockerRoom in New Zealand.
"If you do the grind every year, by the time you get to year three and four, you should be in a better position anyway."
After Taurua took charge of the Silver Ferns in September 2018, the former international immediately set out her stall when it came to her players' fitness levels.
If individuals didn't make the grade, they knew about it. Taurua remained firm in her stance and her perspective on that aspect of the game remains.
"Overall that [fitness] really showed at the worlds, and then in the Constellation Cup," she reflected.
"Our ability to perform at a high level, but also to increase our workload as the game went on into the third and fourth quarters, showed everyone why our fitness base needed to be at international standard.
"Now the players are becoming accustomed to when you represent your country, that's the expectation. It shouldn't be anything less. We are in the business of being high-performance athletes."
Starting on Sunday, Super Club is a six-day tournament in Nelson which features all of the ANZ Premiership teams, Collingwood Magpies and Wasps Netball.
For Taurua, the competition is effectively a trial for her Vitality Nations Cup squad, which she will announce shortly after the tournament's conclusion.
Of her World Cup-winning squad, her captain Laura Langman won't be in Nelson as she has returned back to Australia for training with Sunshine Coast Lightning.
Casey Kopau retired from netball after the World Cup, Jane Watson is recovering from an ankle injury and Maria Folau hasn't put pen to paper on a club contract for next season so isn't involved either.
After a whirlwind period, Taurua herself is feeling just slightly more relaxed going into the next few weeks. But, at the same time, she knows that being the reigning world champions creates its own dimension too.
"For me, the pressures certainly aren't the same now," she noted.
"In saying that, coming out of the worlds, the expectation on the Silver Ferns has definitely increased, and the profile of our sport has definitely gone to another level.
"With that comes our own ability to be able to deliver, even without the same pressure. And to get ready for the future, which is another step in the planning."
Sky Sports is your home of netball and live action returns with the Vitality Nations Cup in January 2020. The four-nation competition starts on January 19 with England taking on the world champions New Zealand.
