How Pulse boss bounced back to become champion netball coach

Yvette McCausland-Durie talks to about the disappointment of 2018, the fastest players in New Zealand netball and what it’s like to coach from the TV.

YPhillip Rollo

vette McCausland-Durie overcame one of the toughest periods of her coaching career to lead the Central Pulse to consecutive ANZ Premiership netball titles in 2019 and 2020.

The Pulse were on track to win their first title in 2018 when they held a six-goal lead over the Southern Steel with less than four minutes left in the decider, only to concede the final seven shots and lose.

McCausland-Durie explains how she was able to pick the group back up and lead them to their first championship the following season and reveals why she came back to the Pulse after taking a year off.

You stepped down from your role as Pulse coach after winning your second consecutive title in 2020, so what brought you back?

I loved the job and there had been lots of learning which I really enjoyed but the big one [for leaving] was getting back home to Palmerston North. I wanted to get back home and get back teaching and invest in Manukura [School], which is something my husband Nathan and I set up years ago. I wanted to spend time there and reconnect and I really enjoyed that. But I missed it [coaching], so back I came. There were some changes in personnel and I think that’s a really good challenge to rebuild a group and start again.

Do you still live in Palmerston North and commute down to Wellington throughout the week?

No. I was doing a lot of driving last time and going back two or three times a week, and that was pretty exhausting. This time around I’m staying down here and I don’t head back as much, which has made it a lot easier. I can be here and be present for longer. With Transmission Gully it’s certainly sped things up, but generally it was taking me two hours and I was doing that two or three times a week . . .

You tested positive for Covid-19 in the days leading up to the first game of the 2022 season. How was coaching from the couch?

I was attending training via Zoom. I’d run what we were doing off the TV and one of the players, Binnian Hunt, who had done her ACL, was moving me around and I’d say ‘can you take me over there so I can have a look at what’s going on?’.

It is really hard though, finding that balance between being engaged but not wanting to feel like you need it more than they need you. Then we got to the game and even though there were no crowds I couldn’t hear a thing. I went into the huddle and I ended up hanging up.

I had Sky set up and just left them during the game, let them do what they needed to do, and I would re-engage at the end of the game . . . it was bizarre. I couldn’t wait to get back.

You were a promising track athlete before you found a love for netball, who do you think is the fastest player in the Premiership right now and does speed actually matter when you can’t run with the ball?

When I watch Maddy [Gordon] and people like Kimiora [Poi] and Elisapeta [Toeva], they’re all really quick and cover bigger distances, but then you watch a couple of defenders, and one of our training partners in particularly, they’re deceptively quick.

Depending on what you need them for they have different strengths and skills but if you are quick enough to get past the shoulder of one person then you’re free. You don’t have to be super quick for a long period of time, but timing is the bit that has to be so immaculate.

How tough was the 2018 decider against the Southern Steel, when the Pulse held a six-goal lead with less than four minutes, only to lose the game 54-53?

I remember it vividly. Katrina [Rore] had been sick during the week and could hardly speak so I ended up having to deliver her finals speech, but that was actually really helpful, just to be able to say how we were feeling at the time. I remember seeing the players’ faces and thinking,

‘oh my gosh they are so disappointed that they have let so many people down’, but you realise actually, endeavour was huge and to get there was still an achievement.

How did you bounce back from that and win the next two

Premiership titles?

We started working with the Police and looked what our decision-making was under pressure and asked as a coaching unit and as a programme, are we really doing enough to develop people around their mental skills?

There was a lot of work done on us as individuals and getting to know each other better. We didn’t want to change people but we wanted a better idea of how people responded under pressure and I think that made a really big difference. We had developed a really strong group of athletes, they were fitter and they were better at their jobs, they understood their roles, but equally also understood each other better.

You were an assistant coach during the Silver Ferns’ ill-fated Commonwealth Games campaign in 2018 where New Zealand finished outside the medals. Do you still aspire to coach the Silver Ferns one day?

Just being at an event like that is a real privilege, so I loved it. But it was, absolutely, as everyone saw, fraught with challenges and I learned a lot and the lessons I got from that, that I was able to bring to the ANZ Premiership, they have never left me.

I didn’t choose to be let down by the experience, I chose to find the lessons, of which there were many. I wasn’t experienced as a coach, but I knew that going in, and you only get experience through continued engagement.

But I still know I’ve got heaps to learn and I’d love the opportunity.

That said, Noeline [Taurua] is doing a great job and I see my role as bringing more people to the forefront that are options for the Silver Ferns and developing people that

have got a readiness.

Your daughter Atareta played for Central Manawa in this year’s National Netball League. Could we see you coaching her at the Pulse in the future?

I’ve just encouraged her to do what she wants to do. She’s got some talent in netball and like I tell her I’m probably her harshest critic. When you truly want to be at that level you’ve got to make that shift and if she chooses to do that then so be it.

‘We started working with the New Zealand Police and looked what our decision-making was under pressure and asked as a coaching unit, and as a programme, are we really doing enough to develop people around their mental skills?’ YVETTE MCCAUSLAND-DURIE