Leana de Bruin will be back wearing the purple of the Stars for the 2025 ANZ Premiership season; except she will be swapping out her playing dress for a clipboard as the new assistant coach.
The Silver Ferns great was Stars player No 1 when the franchise featured in their maiden season in 2017 and also the team’s first captain.
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De Bruin shared the court with new head coach Temepara Bailey for both the Stars and Silver Ferns and was thrilled to be working alongside her good friend in the coaching setup.
“We’ve done a lot of challenging things together and I think the cool thing about us is we can have a lot of robust and tough conversations without getting too precious, which is awesome.” de Bruin said.
“I’m so excited. I’m looking forward to learning from her as she is one of the most well-respected players and now coaches and it will be cool to team up with some of the girls that I’ve played with in the past but now in a different role.”
Stars general manager Jane Bennett was excited to add an astute netball brain like de Bruin to the Stars whānau.
“We are thrilled to see our very first Stars player coming back to us in this role. I’m personally excited about the energy she brings along with her defensive expertise and know she will compliment Temepara well.” Bennett said.
A no nonsense defender, de Bruin played 104 tests for New Zealand, 34 for South Africa and played many games for various domestic teams, with her last outing for the Stars in 2022.
Since finishing playing, de Bruin admits she still held a burning desire to be a part of a high-performance netball environment again.
“It’s such a special thing to be a part of and something I’ve really missed after playing and trying to find my feet. I’ve got so much knowledge and love for the game that I want to give back and obviously when Temepara was named as head coach, I thought this could be quite exciting.” De Bruin explains.
De Bruin played in the Stars’ first final in 2019 and has watched the Stars return to the decider in 2022 and 2023, with a maiden title still proving illusive.
She was encouraged by the make-up of the new squad and their potential.
“There are some strong older heads who have been here long enough to want to give that final push to get over the line, because they know they’re so close. We’ve also got a good mix of new players which adds a point of difference and it’s a nice mix.” De Bruin said.
“Within the community they’ve grown heaps and everybody you talk to loves the girls. It’s great to see how competitive they’ve become on the court too. We’ve become real contenders now and you can see the players really want to win, which is great.”