Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Should Dame Noeline Taurua bother coming back to the Ferns?

Well, I wonder how those netball players who complained about Dame Noeline feel today, because what they've done has probably, let's be honest, ended her career. And also brought out a swell of support that I can't imagine they foresaw.

Silver Ferns legend Laura Langman's gone on social media and called this 'the saddest day in New Zealand netball history'.

Gordon Tietjens, the Sevens rugby legend, called us at Newstalk ZB to convey his support for Dame Noels, and former coach Yvonne Willering says Noels is not old school at all and she does listen to her players. 

Now, the details of what has happened to get to this point are fairly sketchy.

Everybody's trying to keep things quiet, but what we know is that two players complained on behalf of a group of players and that sparked a review - and that review has led to her being stood down.

And what these players have complained about is her communication style, and that they were 'psychologically unsafe'.

Now, you can probably figure out what's going on here, can't you?

We've got a generational problem, don't we? This looks to me like a generation of young players who don't like tough feedback and hard words.

For whatever reason that is, I don't know - maybe because they are the generation raised through gentle parenting techniques where mum and dad didn't want to have to say no to them, so didn't say no to them, didn't want to tell them they're being bad kids and being naughty.

And maybe they're the generation that came through the education system, the current one, where everyone gets a pass and no one experiences failure.

They are the ones who've gone and complained because they're 'psychologically unsafe'.

To which I think most of us who've experienced a little bit of life and didn't go through this nonsense with parenting and schooling would say - do you know what you need to do?

You need to grow up, you need to get hard, life is tough. You're an elite athlete, if your welfare is getting in the way of your excellence, get out of the squad.

Unfortunately for us, the person who is out of the squad is someone who understands excellence and has actually achieved a hell of a lot of excellence.

And unfortunately, she will probably stay out of the squad, even though she's only been stood down at the moment.

I mean, think about it - I can't see her coming back in.

If they have to pick between one coach and several players, they're gonna choose the several players, aren't they?

And frankly, I don't think that Dame Noels should want to come back - because if her excellence and her skills aren't appreciated by this generation of players, why bother?

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