Sunshine Coast have landed a major coup ahead of next year's all-Australian netball league, snaring highly regarded coach Noeline Taurua from the Southern Steel.
The former Silver Ferns star will join the Melbourne Storm-backed club on a two-year deal, making the transition to coach an Australian team for the first time after leading a number of New Zealand based trans-Tasman sides.
"It doesn't get any more exciting than moving to a new country to coach a brand new team in a ground-breaking competition," Taurua said.
"For that I am grateful and relishing the opportunity.
"Coaching overseas has always been one of my goals and with the highly-regarded Melbourne Storm picking up the reins of the first ever national elite-level sports team to represent the Sunshine Coast, the timing was perfect to be part of a new venture and new era for netball."
Taurua coached the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic to become the only New Zealand-based team to win the trans-Tasman trophy at the club in 2012.
She guided them to the finals in each of the six seasons she was at the franchise, before taking the Steel to the top of the New Zealand conference in her only year at the club in 2016.
"With 16 years high performance experience to lead our inaugural team, she was the right person for the job," Melbourne Storm CEO Dave Donaghy said.
"With Noeline's appointment the team will now commence player recruitment as part of the free agency period as we look to assemble an exciting and talented squad for the upcoming season."
The Sunshine Coast-based outfit, who are yet to take a name, were introduced as a one of three new teams in May for next year's return to an all-Australian league.
