Vixens coach Simone McKinnis: world-class player to guiding light

Vixens coach Simone McKinnis finds it hard to hide her achievements when it comes to playing NSW Swifts each season.

Melbourne Vixens coach Simone McKinnis: ‘I think as a coach you want to have a really positive influence on your athletes.’ Picture: Aaron Francis

Simone McKinnis is, according to fellow Victorian netball coach Lisa Alexander, “one of the best players we’ve ever produced on the netball court, but you wouldn’t know about it”.

“Part of her charm is that she doesn’t like it to be about her … I’m surprised she even spoke to you about (her own success)!”

Unfortunately for Melbourne Vixens coach McKinnis, when her team competes for a trophy with her name on it twice a season, it’s hard to ignore her substantial resume in the sport.

The Sargeant-McKinnis Cup, held between the NSW Swifts and the Vixens, was introduced in 2004 to recognise the enormous contributions Anne Sargeant and Simone McKinnis had made to their respective states.

It will be on the line again tomorrow afternoon when the Vixens host the Swifts in a top-of-the-table clash at Margaret Court Arena.

McKinnis notched up 63 caps for the Diamonds from 1986 to 1998, and retired with three gold medals and a reputation as the best wing defender Australia has produced.

Liz Ellis, the most-capped Diamond in the team’s history, was “just a kid” when she was handed a green and gold dress in 1993, and remembers being in awe of McKinnis.

Ellis credits the work that McKinnis and long-time running mate Kathryn Harby-Williams put in upcourt for a lot of her own early success.

McKinnis’s teammates describe her as an ultimate competitor who never suffered fools, had a great sense of humour but was also often prickly towards her fellow Diamonds.

“Some of the best teams are the ones that have a bit of friction,” Ellis said.

McKinnis remembers being a player who loved training, and loved training hard. She was coached by Norma Plummer and Joyce Brown, two Victorians who laid the foundations of modern netball.

That ethos of training obsessively and relentlessly has carried through to McKinnis’s own teams. “I’m very big on … that you play the way you train. Being able to do it right, every time you need to do it,” she said.

Workrate seems to be the ultimate barometer for McKinnis. When they’re winning, she credits the work they put in, when things get wobbly it’s usually blamed on a lack of intensity.

McKinnis was interested in life beyond the court as a player, and completed a psychology degree in between world cup titles in the 1990s. But after stints in Singapore, Tanzania and the Victorian Institute of Sport, McKinnis was handed the reins at the Vixens in 2013.

Since then the Vixens have won 57 of 91 games, including a premiership in 2014. They’ve never had a losing season under her watch.

As important as those wins, though, is the crop of young talent that McKinnis has developed. Emily Mannix, Jo Weston, Kate Moloney and Liz Watson have all come up underneath McKinnis since their time in state underage squads.

All four are now entrenched starters in the Vixens, who sit on top of the ladder after four rounds, and all are in the current Diamonds squad.

Working with this group of players for such a long period has been very rewarding for the coach who no one thought would take to coaching.

“It is really special. I think as a coach you want to have a really positive influence on your athletes, and guide them and direct them. To see the growth and development in them … it’s a really big part of why you coach,” she said.