Will to Win

Insights and revelations from some of the legends of New Zealand netball. This book is a fascinating deep-dive into the development of the Silver Ferns’ traditions, the evolution of team culture and the nuts-and-bolts of leadership at an elite level. Legendary players and coaches ― including Lois Muir, Leigh Gibbs, Bernice Mene, Ruth Aitken and Casey Kopua ― candidly discuss the highs and lows of their careers, and of the Silver Ferns, the effect of the intense rivalry with Australia, coping with gut-wrenching losses, and the resilience of players and coaches. For the first time the perspective of these key actors is the subject of serious analysis, and Will to Win offers a real insight into the psychology of a women’s high-performance team. As such, it provides a practical guide for developing team culture and leadership for netball coaches at all levels. It also includes comments from Farah Palmer on women in sport and leadership, and a brief history of New Zealand netball, including the gains and losses as netball moved into a semi-professional era, and the struggles for sponsorship and for media recognition, despite it being New Zealand’s most popular team sport. 

Dr Lana McCarthy is a lecturer in teacher education at Charles Sturt University. She completed her doctoral thesis, ‘Coaches, Captains and Constructing Culture: A Case Study of the Silver Ferns’, at Massey University in 2019. Lana has a background as a physical education and health teacher at Freyberg High School, a netball development officer at Netball Manawatū, a regional sport advisor at Sport Manawatū, and a senior tutor and assistant lecturer in physical education at Massey University.

Dr Andy Martin is a professor of sport management and physical education in the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, Massey University. His research focus is on sport-related experiential learning settings and he has undertaken a number of studies on Outward Bound, including his PhD. In 2014, he was co-author of Legends in Black, a bestselling book about why the All Blacks win. His career began in the United Kingdom teaching mathematics and coaching football at Millfield, a top public school. Following on from his master’s degree at Loughborough University, he managed programmes and events for a leading health-club facility near London. After moving to New Zealand in 1993 he worked as event manager for the Hillary Commission Big Coast series of mountain-bike treks. In 1994 he took up his current position at Massey University and now manages a successful series of children’s triathlon events in Manawatū. He has participated in the New Zealand Ironman and most recently for New Zealand at the age group World Triathlon Championships. He holds professional coaching qualifications in football and tennis, and has been actively involved in coaching at both junior and senior level.

Dr Geoff Watson is a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Massey University. His research focus is sports history. He is the principal author of Seasons of Honour: A Centennial History of New Zealand Hockey 1902–2002 (2002) and Sporting Foundations of New Zealand Indians: A Fifty-year History of the New Zealand Indian Sports Association (2012). He is co-author of Sport and the New Zealanders: A History (2018), Sport Development in Action: Plan, Programme, Practice (2019) and Legends in Black: New Zealand Rugby Greats on Why We Win (2014). He teaches a paper in sports history at Massey University and takes an interest in most sports. He has been extensively involved in sport at grass-roots level, including coaching Massey University hockey teams and participating in long-distance running.