Silver Ferns great Temepara Bailey will come out of retirement to play for the Northern Stars in the 2019 ANZ Premiership season in a player-coaching role.
The 43-year-old will replace captain Grace Kara, missing the next season due to pregnancy, to go along with significant injuries to Tori Kolose and Chrissy Oscar.
Bailey has been an assistant coach with the franchise for the last two seasons, but is often used as an extra training partner with the Stars.
"South Auckland is home for me and I'm looking forward to preseason with the team and getting out on court in the purple colours of the Stars next year," she said.
Coach Kiri Willis it will be great to have Bailey out on the court.
"The decision was a relatively easy one from my point of view. We have a number of young, driven players in our team and for us to win, we need to have on-court leadership and experience, there is no doubt Temepara will bring these qualities," says Wills.
"One of Temepara's great strengths is her capacity to direct players on court and drive on court team strategy, whilst still doing her job to a very high standard. She and Leana [de Bruin] are the players we are looking to lead the on-court performance of our team. They both know how and what it takes to win, and you will see the young players in our squad flourish under their leadership."
Bailey won two Commonwealth Games medals with the Silver Ferns in 2006 and 2010. She retired from netball in 2012, but came out of retirement briefly in 2014 to help the Northern Mystics.
Newshub.
