Netball New Zealand denies that the relationship between the players and Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua has completely broken down.
That's despite the national body's shock move to stand Dame Noeline down for the upcoming Taini Jamison Series against South Africa.
The national body said discussions are ongoing between Netball New Zealand (NNZ), Dame Noeline and the Silver Ferns management team concerning proposed changes to the Silver Ferns High Performance programme and environment.
NNZ said it had been unable to the resolve issues in time for the Taini Jamison Series, which starts on September 21 in Auckland.
"In these circumstances, Netball NZ have decided to stand Dame Noeline down for the upcoming Taini Jamison Series."
Netball NZ board chairman Matt Whineray said all parties remained hopeful of a resolution.
"We have a long relationship with Dame Noeline and her record with successive Silver Ferns teams speaks for itself. At this time, however, we need to focus on supporting players on the immediate challenge of playing South Africa."
Former Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie has been brought in as interim coach for the Taini Jamison Series and will be supported by Liana Leota as assistant coach.
RNZ understands the issues in the Silver Ferns stem back to the team's nine-day training camp in Sydney earlier this year.
During the tour, the Ferns played two matches against Super Netball side the NSW Swifts, losing both games heavily.
Following the tour, two players approached the NZ Netball Players Association on behalf of a larger group of up to seven players, who raised concerns about Dame Noeline's communication style.
The Players Association later formally raised the players' concerns with Netball NZ management.
After unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issues "in-house", the players requested an independent review be carried out.
It is understood Dame Noeline was unhappy with the findings of the review, and efforts to mediate the differences between the playing group and management staff were unsuccessful.
Several players, including captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio, made themselves unavailable for Silver Ferns selection this season.
Whineray told RNZ's Checkpoint that discussions had been going on for the last couple of months.
"We've been having some discussions with Dame Noeline and the management team for a little while about the high performance programme, the environment, we've had some issues in there that we've been seeking to resolve," Whineray said.
He said it got to a point with the Taini Jamison series less than two weeks ago, that they had to put in interim measures.
As to what are the issues in the environment, Whineray would not provide any details.
"We've just got some things in the environment that we think are preventing it from being the high performance environment that we want so we're just working on those."
Asked about the findings of the independent review, Whineray said they would not comment "on the nature of any conversations".
Whineray said no players had threatened a boycott and there was "not a culture of bullying" in the team.
Whineray told Checkpoint that Dame Noeline had not been asked to resign and denied that the relationship between the players and coach had completely broken down.
"We've got some issues in the environment and we want to resolve those and hopefully we can get there ... We are hopeful that we can resolve it, we think that's a definite outcome but we haven't got there at the moment."
Dame Noeline was re-appointed Silver Ferns coach at the start of 2024 but Whineray said he was not aware that any issues were raised then.
The highly respected coach was appointed Silver Ferns coach in 2018 and led the team to victory at the 2019 Netball World Cup.
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