It has been only a month since Netball New Zealand overlooked her in favour of former Steel coach Janine Southby, but Noeline Taurua is "totally over'' missing out on the Silver Ferns coaching job.
Taurua (47) worked her first day as Southern Steel head coach yesterday, after being named as the franchise's third head coach on Sunday.
Southby was co-coach with Natalie Avellino in 2012, before taking over the past three seasons.
However, she vacated the job when she perhaps surprisingly beat Taurua for the national job.
Taurua admitted it took a short time to get over missing out on the Silver Ferns job, but was now "excited'' about leading the Steel.
"Once you get over things, you start looking at planning and where you head to follow that,'' she said.
"I've really treated it quite separately in regards to everything, and I'm totally over the Silver Ferns and not getting into that role.
"This is an opportunity for me to take that head coach role, and in New Zealand that's very limited.''
Taurua served as an assistant coach with the Northern Mystics last year, and coached the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic for six years from 2008 to 2013.
She guided the Magic to the ANZ Championship title in 2012, the only occasion a New Zealand team has won the competition since its inception in 2008.
Taurua lives in Mount Maunganui but will commute from there to Dunedin and Invercargill.
The Steel squad is split between Dunedin and Invercargill, and generally trains once a week in both cities during the ANZ Championship competition.
Five of the Steel's home games next year will be played in Invercargill, while the other two will be at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin.
Taurua, who has five children, said the logistics had not yet been worked out, but there would be periods of time when she would be living in either Dunedin or Invercargill.
"I haven't really studied the games, but it depends if there are back-to-back games and how close that timing is,'' she said.
"I really want to make it work and make it positive for all concerned. We will do whatever is needed.''
While Taurua has not looked too closely at the schedule, she is aware the Steel's first opponent is the team she assisted last year.
"I tell you what, we have already started giving each other flack,'' she said.
"I've still got really strong relationships with those girls. I'm very fond of seeing their development and was probably fortunate last year to have the opportunity to work with them. But when you're in opposition, you know where your camp lies. It's a big game for us to start with.''
Taurua said starting the job before Christmas was about making up for lost time, and conceded the Steel was behind the other franchises in terms of preparation for next season.
"We need to get cracking into the job and get a move on,'' she said.
Southby has put together a handover document the past couple of weeks to help with the transition, and is also available to personally assist Taurua up until Christmas.
Taurua and Netball South are working "very fast'' to put a support team together, including appointing an assistant coach.
The Steel won only three of its 13 games last season - strangely, good enough to make the playoffs - Taurua believes the youthful roster will only get better with time.
"There were probably four or five games where they lost in the last five minutes against some real powerhouse teams,'' she said.
"So that's quite heartening. The big thing is they are developing and they are quite young. When you're dealing with young players, they are short of experience. So we have got a lot of work to do, and the faster we can get out on court and start doing work the better.''
