It's been almost four years since Laura Langman wore the black dress but the 37-year-old is back in the Silver Ferns environment, offering her expertise ahead of next month's World Cup in Cape Town.
New Zealand's most-capped Silver Fern is chilly but chipper to be back in Aotearoa after joining up with the team from her home on the Sunshine Coast.
Langman told 1News it's been an honour to come back to the squad.
"I was sitting at training yesterday being like, 'man, you can't get more motivation or inspiration than watching them train,'" Langman said.
"The effort and intensity is second to none."
Langman's return, first reported by 1News last month, sees her join not as a coach but instead she'll develop the team's warm up for the World Cup, plus a bit of strategy.
Head coach Dame Noeline Taurua said it hasn’t been easy getting Langman in the fold.
"It has taken a lot of convincing since last World Cup to actually bring her back in," Taurua said.
"Sometimes it just takes her or people a while to know when they're ready."
But for Langman, a request from Taurua means more than from most with the pair going back more than two decades to win the Silver Ferns coach selected her for Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic at age 16.
"I think just her innovation and her technical and tactical savviness around the game just continues to surprise and make you go, 'oh, yeah, I never thought about looking at it like that.'"
Taurua's been hard at work planning next week's camp in the Sunshine Coast — a camp which will put players in uncomfortable situations.
"We're doing three trainings a day including the gym," she said.
"We're assimilating the last four days of Netball World Cup so it's a big camp for us, but also their ability to go back-to-back at a high level so it is going to be gruesome."
It may be gruesome but they're grateful to be learning off one of the best — and her new right-hand woman.
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