Mike's Minute: Noeline Taurua has been badly treated

Noeline Taurua isn't the first coach to be badly treated.

But she might be the most successful and well regarded.

Sport is a funny thing, especially nowadays where it seems to want to walk a line between being successful and being modern, or dare I suggest the word "woke"?

Last week when reports of players feeling unsafe emerged I didn’t even know what they meant by that.

"Unsafe" is something that might happen in the dark, in an alley. It’s a physical danger thing, as opposed to an emotional state on a court.

On a court you can be exhausted, or exhilarated, or furious, or elated. I just can't work out how you are "unsafe".

Which in part is the problem. It's an invention or a new derivation of the word. Your “environment” has been interfered with.

Even if you accept its new usage it’s the sort of thing you might find on a university campus among the angsty.

On a sports field or court it has no place. Even less so if that court is at the elite level.

Cycling had a horrible time, but that was abuse. Is netball talking about abuse? Does Taurua abuse people? That doesn’t seem to be the suggestion.

Next problem is the lack of clarity, if not honesty. All reports seem to indicate "unsafe" is code for the coach being old fashioned, demanding high standards and not putting up with slackness.

We used to like that approach. That approach was the norm.

The only purpose of elite sport is victory. It exists for no other reason than to let a chosen few express themselves in a way where they win and others can piggyback by way of TV licensing and ticket sales.

Unless Noeline Taurua has had a personality transformation and they are all wandering around at Netball NZ going "what happened to Noels, man she's changed", which I suspect hasn’t happened, then what we are left with is the inescapable conclusion that Taurua is the victim of soft management in a world where every crybaby is “heard” and the ultimate victim, in an irony of irony's, is one of the sport's greatest exponents.

She is benched while the woke in the boardroom wreck the national women's sport.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Noel in Tarua. I mean it isn't the first coach
to be badly treated, of course, but she might actually
be the most successful and well regarded and sport I
was thinking to himself over the week. It's funny, old thing,
isn't it? These days and these it sort of seems
to want to walk a line between being successful and
being modern or dare I suggest the word woke? See
last week when reports of players feeling unsafe emerged, I

(00:23):
didn't even know what that actually meant. Unsafe to me anyway,
Unsafe for something that might happen in the dark in
an alley. It's a physical danger thing, as opposed to
an emotional state on a court. On a court, you
can be exhausted or exhilarated or furious or related. I
just can't work out how you are unsafe, which in
part is the problem. I think it's an invention or

(00:44):
a new derivation of the word. Your environment has been
interfered with, even if you accept its new usage. It's
the sort of thing you might find on a university
campus among the angsty. On a sport field or a court,
it's got no place, even less so if that court
is at the elect level. I mean cycling had a
horrible time if you remember that. But that was abuse?

(01:04):
Is Netbull talking about abuse? Does Tarua abuse people? That
doesn't seem to be the suggestion. Next problem is the
lack of clarity, if not honesty, all reports seem to
indicate unsafe is code for the coach being a bit
old fashioned, demanding high standards, not putting up with slackness. See,
we used to like that approach. That approach was the norm.
The only purpose of elite sport, if you think about it,

(01:25):
the only purpose is victory. It exists for no other
reason than to let a chosen few express themselves in
a way where they win and others can piggyback by
way of television licensing or ticket sales or just being
a fan. Unless Nolan Tarua has had a personality transformation
and they're all wandering around netball in New Zealand going, oh,
what happened to Nole's man? That Knowles has changed, hasn't she?

(01:47):
Which I suspect hasn't happened. Then what we are left
with is the inescapable conclusion that Tarua is the victim
of soft management in a world where every cry baby
is heard and the ultimate victim. Irony of Ironies is
one of the best and one of the sport's greatest
ever exponents. She is benched while the woke in the
boardroom wreck the national women's sport. For more from the

(02:10):
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