It’s been quite the week for Netball New Zealand. The walls came crashing in on Wednesday when it was announced that super coach Noeline Taurua was stood down in the shadow of an investigation into the Silver Ferns high performance programme and environment.
The statement was as abrupt as it was unexpected.
Netball went into a tailspin as the whole sport, from deep inside to the exterior, flailed about trying to make sense of what had just happened.
And we couldn’t.
It was a mess. It was clumsy at best, although negligent would be a better description of the handling of the situation. I will give them this though, the lid was well and truly sealed on this chaos. Short of those deep in the interior of this schism, no one knew, or at least no one leaked anything. Then the can sprang open, and the snake popped out to everyone's shock.
I understand that at the heart of this issue is an employment tussle, making it difficult to share details of the rupture, but the lack of any detail surrounding the slow collapse of the relationship between the coach, the players, and the administration, leaves huge holes in the narrative. The executive team should’ve done better. They’ve given themselves a black eye.
What happens in a vacuum such this? People build their own story. They take loose ends and string them together, creating a macramé mess that ties the sport in knots.
There are reckons everywhere. Outrage in some quarters, confusion in others. That the CEO Jenny Wylie was on leave and the chair Matt Whinery was left to face the music created more angst.
The whole process was, and still is, being poorly managed.
Netball NZ has taken a number of body blows over the past few months, is this the one that will floor the organisation, leaving them prone on the canvas?
Only time will tell.
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