'Stressful, awful time': Private netball league comes too late to retain champion netball coach

Four-time ANZ Premiership-winning coach Rob Wright has revealed he would have stayed if Netball New Zealand’s private domestic competition had been confirmed sooner.

The former Northern Mystics assistant is joining the Queensland Firebirds in Australia’s Super Netball, led by Kiwi coach Kiri Wills.

The announcement came the same morning that Netball New Zealand (NNZ) confirmed a partnership with Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams to establish a private domestic competition from next year.

During months of uncertainty leading up to the decision, 18 Kiwi players signed contracts in Australia and the UK’s Netball Super League.

As an assistant coach, Wright helped steer the Mystics to five grand finals in six years, the latest of which they won in June.

Since 2022, the Australian has also been a defensive specialist for the Jamaica Sunshine Girls, who claimed silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Wright was also the first male head coach in the transtasman ANZ Championship, leading the New South Wales Swifts to consecutive grand final appearances in 2015 and 2016.

Wright is not the only coach New Zealand is set to lose, with the Southern Steel refusing to deny a report Wendy Frew has departed for good.

Mystics assistant coach Rob Wright, listening to veteran defender Phoenix Karaka, is always open to taking player perspectives on board, says former captain Sulu Fitzpatrick. Photo / Northern Mystics

Wright told the Herald if the privatisation bid had been confirmed two weeks ago, he would have stayed in Auckland.

“If there was detail, like real detail around what that was like, I probably would have. But I unfortunately just couldn’t risk waiting in the hope something was going to come through. When this opportunity came up, in reality it became a no-brainer.

“I’m real excited about the Mowbrays coming in and what it might look like moving forward. I feel like netball in this country is on life support. And that’s awful.

“The number two country in the world, and we’re in a situation where we know nothing, there’s nothing happening, we don’t know what the future looks like. That’s just so sad.”

Despite the recent success with the Mystics and Jamaica, the 58-year-old said the last few months have been dreadful.

“It’s been really, really stressful ever since that [ANZ Premiership] grand final because even when we won it, it was really hard to fully enjoy it because of the impending uncertainty that was coming.

“It’s truly been awful because you don’t know what’s happening. From my point of view, you’re thinking there’s not a lot of jobs anywhere as a coach. And that feeling continued all through the Commonwealth Games as well. It just takes away from those wonderful experiences.

Mystics head coach Tia Winikerei, captain Michaela Sokolich-Beatson and assistant coach Rob Wright with the ANZ Premiership trophy. Photo / Michael Bradley

“Netball New Zealand say, ‘oh yeah, we understand, we understand’, but there was nothing coming from them. And you’re going, ‘this is rough’. So it’s been really tough; it’s been tough financially, it’s been really tough mentally.

“I feel like no one’s talked about all the management or the staff of all those teams. We’re in absolutely the same boat as the players. All of a sudden everyone’s lost their jobs, and there’s nothing saying, ‘look there’s light at the end of the tunnel’. It’s been horrible.”

Wright has a one-month contract with Netball Northern and is currently scouting for players and coaches at the Upper North Island Secondary Schools tournament in Hamilton.

Wright is incredibly grateful to Netball Northern chief executive Phil Vyver for giving him some work while they waited on NNZ.

“I’ve just been unemployed with no money coming in. Unfortunately, bills and everything else keep going out. It’s been a really stressful, awful time.”

Wright said the Firebirds opportunity only appeared in the last week or two, when Wills reached out.

“Up until then I was wanting to stay. In reality, I would love to be involved with the Silver Ferns because I truly see this as home. I’ve been here since ’21, I love our organisation where I work, I love the team that I work with. It’s just brilliant. But I’ve also got to go, unfortunately; I need to work.”

The Firebirds Kiri Wills, who formerly coached the Stars, contacted Rob Wright in the last two weeks. Photo / Getty Images

Wright said there is one Silver Fern he is particularly keen to work with in Queensland.

“I really want to coach Kelly Jackson. I think I can do a whole lot with her. So that’s really cool that opportunity’s actually going to eventuate. And obviously I’ve coached Kimmy Poi; I think she’s brilliant. I just think she’s so underrated, so undervalued, so I’m absolutely thrilled to be coaching her again. And TPSR [Te Paea Selby-Rickit], I’ve never coached, but again I would love to coach her.”

Wright said he is open to returning to New Zealand in the future.

“If an opportunity came up in the Silver Ferns environment, because I still consider this home. But you’ve just sometimes got to go where the jobs are. Even though I’m Australian, I really feel like I’ve been welcomed here”

Rob Wright is particularly excited to work with Silver Ferns defender Kelly Jackson at the Firebirds. Photo / Photosport.

Yesterday, Mystics skipper Michaela Sokolich-Beatson broke down in tears over the announcement of a private league in 2027.

The veteran defender has worked extensively with Wright, and said his departure is a massive loss.

“He is one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met, and I’ve never been coached by someone like him. The way he can coach with his skills and his analytical brain, he is incredible. So it’s a massive loss for our team.

“Me and him have a really close relationship. He was just asking me a couple of times where everything’s at because he’s in the same position as the players; this is his job. All our management, it’s their job. They love netball just as much as we do, and he’s too good a coach to not be coaching.

“He has to do what’s right for him, and I back him 100%. I’m just proud of him for putting himself in a position where he can keep coaching.”

Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.