Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Author: Newstalk ZB

Every weekday join the new voice of local issues on Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald, 9am-12pm weekdays.Its all about the conversation with John, as he gets right into the things that get our community talking.If its news youre after, backing John is the combined power of the Newstalk ZB and New Zealand Herald news teams. Meaning when it comes to covering breaking news you will not beat local radio.With two decades experience in communications based in Christchurch, John also has a deep understanding of and connections to the Christchurch and Canterbury commercial sector.Newstalk ZB Canterbury Mornings9am-12pm withJohn MacDonald on100.1FM and iHeartRadio.
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John MacDonald: Netball's woes are more than just hoopla
Sunday, 2 November, 2025

Mike Hosking’s interview this morning with reinstated Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua could only have gone one of two ways. She could have spilled the beans. Or she could have danced around the legalities of a gagging order. She could have spilled the beans and made Netball NZ look like a bunch of incompetents. Or she could have played it safe. Funny thing is, she didn’t spill the beans - but still managed to make Netball NZ look like a bunch of incompetents, when she said she was never informed why she was stood down and that there was no investigation into the claims made about her. That was the point where the interview was getting really curious and then, bang, she was being ushered away to a TV interview and had to end the call - promising to call back later. It was probably the point too where text messages full of exclamation marks started flying between the honchos at Netball NZ. Prior to that, Dame Noeline had said to Mike that she felt somewhat vindicated being reinstated. She said she was elated to be back but described the last few months as being “very horriffic”. Dame Noeline also confired to Mike that she was constrained in terms of what she could say. She said she could have taken legal action to get her job back - because she believes most of the players support her - but she didn’t want Netball NZ money and taxpayer money being blown on lawyers. If I was a suspicious person, I would say that Dame Noeline and her PR minder realised she might have crossed the line talking about the lack of an explanation and the lack of an investigation, and that’s why she ended the call. But I did check the TV and she was on-screen a short time after she spoke with Mike. Either way, I think Netball NZ is looking worse today than it has during this whole saga. To stand down its head coach without telling her why and without conducting any sort of investigation screams “Mickey Mouse” to me. And shows why chief executive Jennie Wyllie couldn’t explain last week why Dame Noeline was back. This has turned out to be more of a cluster than we thought. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.