Nostalgic approach for Steel coaches

7th May, 2025

History is shaping the future of the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel.

It’s a nostalgic approach fuelled by a friendship which spans over 20 years.

Wendy Frew and Liana Leota are two names synonymous with sporting success in the deep south – the dynamic midcourt duo influential players for both the Steel and its predecessor the Southern Sting, which racked up an unrivalled seven New Zealand championships.

It was a triumphant era which simply can’t, and shouldn’t, be ignored. Hence why it is being entwined masterfully into the fabric of the modern team.
Frew and Leota met in 2003 as talented teenagers selected for the New Zealand Under-21 squad. Two years later, they were boasting gold at the Netball World Youth Cup in Florida.

Fast forward 20 years and you now find them at the helm of the Steel – Frew as head coach and Leota as assistant - imparting their vast knowledge of the game.
“La knew the game inside-out and now as a coach she knows even more than she did as a player. She’s just so knowledgeable and has a great ability to communicate it. The girls will identify something they want to work on at training and next thing ‘boom’, you’re doing a really powerful drill off it she’s created. She’s always had flair that wins games,” Frew said.

Leota responded: “For me, it was Wendy’s drive and work ethic. If you sliced her up, she would bleed Southland colours. When I talk about Southland, when I talk about Steel, when I talk about Sting, there’s only two people that come to mind and it’s Wendy Frew and Robyn Broughton. For me, she’s the heartbeat of this and I think for all of us to be around that and feel that, she’s a people first person and she shows that. She’s always there for you but will also give you a kick up the arse and say ‘get on your job’. This is her home and she’s the poster girl for this place.”

There’s an element of ‘old school’ to their coaching ethos and they make no apologies for that. After all, they were mentored by the late Broughton, one of the greatest coaching masterminds the sport has ever seen.

“We wouldn’t be the people we are today, the wives and the mums we are, without Robyn’s influence on our lives. That says it all. She did so much for us and was like a second mum. You would call her a best mate and she had our back like there’s no tomorrow,” Frew said.

“She always put the person before the player and that’s definitely a big emphasis for us now at the Steel with the culture we’re trying to create.”

Leota added: “Both having that Sting/Steel background, we’ve had that culture and we know what success came from that as we lived and breathed it so that’s put us in a really good position to launch our coaching careers off.”

Half of the coaches in this year’s ANZ Premiership took the court alongside Frew and Leota, including Stars coaches Temepara Bailey and Leana de Bruin and the Tactix pairing of Donna Wilkins and Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit.

“All of us were coached by Robbie which is really special,” Leota said.

“Robyn’s legacy is the people she coached that now give back to the sport. That Robyn netball family tree is going to be huge when you take into account the people she has touched and now we are all sharing that knowledge with the next generation. It’s awesome.”

Frew said Broughton’s influence was undeniable.

“La and I haven’t coached a team together before or been near a court together but when we’re drawing up our sessions and then comparing notes, we’re like ‘that’s Robbie’s drill’. It’s a crack up. There’s still so much stuff we’re doing that she created and then we’ve added our touch to it. I’d say Robbie made up about 75 percent of all the drills anyone is doing in New Zealand – she just had that knack for it,” she said.

“One of them is called ‘the lolly drill’ because one day we were doing it and someone fired off a pass and hit the lolly jar and sent it flying. There’s just so many cool things that remind us daily of her.”

What did surprise them was the unprompted desire from the current roster to incorporate heritage into the team dynamic. In preseason, each gave a presentation on a past player of their choice.

“We’ve got people like Tania Dalton and Robyn who are no longer with us, so it has been really emotional for La and I. There have definitely been some watery eye moments.
These girls didn’t have that relationship with them but you can already see in the values and the culture we’re trying to create that they’re looking back to them and being inspired,” Frew said.

“One of our values is humble and the players all wanted to include Robyn in that which just stemmed from us telling our stories. We didn’t expect Robbie to be in our values but just from the connection we had and telling them our ‘why’. it was pretty special when they presented to us and wanted to bring her into this environment.”

Leota said: “We’ve had the presence of her with us for such a long time so we have an emotional connection to her. But these players didn’t have her as a coach so we reinforced the importance of how it has to be meaningful to them and their response was a very powerful one in that they feel like they know her, they want to keep her legacy alive and hear those incredible stories about the impact she had so she’s always at the forefront. We were choking up when they did that.”

As the opening game looms on Sunday against the Tactix in Christchurch, Frew and Leota reflected on their coaching collaboration.

“It’s been a dream result having La’s experience in there but also being good enough mates to pull each other up when we need to. There’s been times when we’ve given each other healthy feedback on how to improve or different situations and how to attack it. I’m super grateful to have her on board,” Frew said.

The athlete mindset never diminished.

“We still think as players and that’s probably our strength as a pair. That’s the beauty of it - we’ve played at this level before and we’ve been in those situations so we still draw upon that experience as to what we should do out there on court,” Leota said.

Culture was paramount.

“For me, I was a North Island girl and would never have considered coming down here but because of the culture Robbie created, this became my netball home. And that’s what we want to create here. We’ve got a community that’s obsessed with netball and it’s about bringing that pride in the Steel dress back and getting the fans more engaged and connected to this team. For me, it has always been about that community. If you look after your community, your community will back you one hundred percent,” Leota said.

“Even as netball has become more professional, those old-fashioned values still remain at the forefront. Even as I head into the coaching, that standard I will never drop and that’s what I believe to be my moral compass and that’s the vision I will follow.”

Frew knew what she wanted to inject as a coach.

“For me, it really is that ‘person first’ approach. I want these girls to feel we’ve got their back one hundred percent and to know we would go to war with them,” she said.

“I want the players to learn as much as they can and emerge from this campaign stronger. It’s balancing that fine line between caring about them as a person but pushing them as a player so their skill level continues to rise. We need to ensure we’ve giving them the netball knowledge to make them better netballers.”

For Leota, who brings international experience from her previous role with England Netball, the basics were vital.

“In some ways I think the sport is looking too much at the big picture stuff instead of upskilling the athlete with the knowledge and the tools to be able to execute on court,” she said.

“We need to harness that and get them into a position where they can make decisions on their own out there so they don’t have to look to the side at the coaches’ bench. No matter what scenario is thrown at them, they’ve got the answer and they can work it out in the moment. If they can do that, I will be very happy.”

Anticipation was building as the preseason phase comes to an end.

“There’s so much you want to jampack into preseason and we probably haven’t got in half the stuff we want to as coaches but that’s just the reality of competition. We’ve worked them as hard as we can and the players have certainly fronted up and embraced the challenge,” Frew said.

“We’re really happy with the squad. We’ve got a young team and there’s a lot of talent there, so we just need to mould them to be as one on the court.

“We’ve told the girls there is no starting seven – everyone is playing for spots and you’re not guaranteed a bib, you have to earn it.”

Every game will count in the shortened season.

“We really need to start well. We’ve got two on the road and for us that feels like a good thing. It’s nice to get away with just your squad, keep it tight, no expectations with fans and family. We just get on the road together and get our business done,” Frew said.

For the record, both have resisted the urge to take the court too often.

“We’ve really tried hard not to. As coaches we don’t want to be on the court, but the inner player still says ‘yes’ so the passion is still there. Even when you’re teaching the players stuff, it brings you back to your own playing,” Frew said.

“We’ve got to learn to coach with our words and articulate our thoughts rather than show them with our abilities,” Leota quipped.