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The Queensland Firebirds have officially begun searching for their next head coach after Bec Bulley and her assistant Lauren Brown both left the club within the space of five days.
Bulley and the Firebirds split last Thursday with five rounds left to go in the Super Netball season and just two years into her four-year contract.
Meanwhile, Brown lasted one match as caretaker before stepping down on Monday.
The July 1 closing date on the Firebirds job advertisement indicates a desire to move quickly, allowing candidates less than a fortnight to submit their expressions of interest.
Now, an Australian legend has weighed in and urged Netball Queensland to appoint a more "experienced head" as a failed pattern emerges in their recruitment strategy.
Before Bulley, it was Megan Anderson, who had a pretty similar backstory.
Each coach was a former Diamonds and Firebirds player, in their 40s, had yet to gain their high-performance accreditation and largely built their resume through assistant coaching roles.
Anderson departed in 2022 after two seasons and Bulley followed almost two years to the day under more controversial circumstances, as ties were cut midway through the season.
"One of the problems I'm seeing at the moment is there are a lot of inexperienced coaches being put into high-profile Super Netball positions when they're not quite ready," former Diamonds head coach Jill McIntosh said.
"I think it is a worry, they're being thrust into a demanding environment without having the grounding of leading a full program as a head coach at a reasonably high level.
"It is a tough, full-time commitment and some of these coaches just don't have the relevant experience, yet they're still being appointed and paired with an inexperienced assistant."
If there's anyone that understands the pressures of coaching, it's McIntosh.
After captaining her country and winning the 1983 Netball World Cup as a player, McIntosh went on to guide the Diamonds to two more World Cup victories and two Commonwealth Games gold medals from the sidelines.
Of the 94 Tests she coached for the Diamonds, McIntosh had a 94 per cent win rate and that meant once she'd finished up with Australia, her passport started to get a solid workout.
Over the years, McIntosh has moonlighted as a head coach for various teams overseas, including the likes of Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Canada. If you include her work as a consultant in a less official capacity, that list of countries increases tenfold.
McIntosh has practically done it all and at 69, her biggest passion remains coaching education.
Speaking with ABC Sport from Wales, where she has not long wrapped up the UK Superleague season with the Cardiff Dragons, McIntosh expressed concern over the state of coaching progression in Australia.
Netball Australia's high-performance accreditation course previously involved a trip to the AIS in Canberra for five days, where you were tested on your ability to perform under pressure.
Now, the course is run less frequently and when it does happen, McIntosh believes it has been watered down.
"Back when I was involved, it was really tough to get and not everyone that applied got in … You still had the standard two years to complete the process, but in my opinion, it was a tougher task and not everyone got it in their first go.
"I'm concerned these days that the current course has been watered down a bit.
"Now our coaches are coming out of it not fully prepared for all of the things they encounter at the top level and call me old-fashioned, but I also think we're doing it the wrong way around.
"You should have that accreditation first before being appointed in a Super Netball position and although we have to acknowledge that COVID has played a role to hold things up, I don't like the idea of putting yourself in a learning-on-the-job [situation]."
A coach can still be hired if they only have their elite coaching accreditation, which is one tier down, with the condition that they must complete the high-performance program within two years from the day they commence their role.
It is up to the league to support them to complete that final stage of the six-tier coaching progression.
This was the case for Anderson and Bulley.
But where that plan falls down, argues McIntosh, is when their assistant is also lacking experience — as some Super Netball assistants are still trying to obtain their elite accreditation.
"I had a bit to do with Bec when she was coming through and she was well on her way, but what she probably needed to succeed was either more time on the ground before taking on that role, or an experienced coach with her," McIntosh said.
"Someone that had been there, done that, so that they could be a sounding board and give advice.
"She needed more support and yes, Bec was an assistant at the NSW Swifts, but your head is not on the chopping block in that position.
"I know Bec was also a head coach in the NSW state league but it's just not the same level, with the same kinds of pressures, it really is an almighty step up to Super Netball.
"As a head coach, it all falls back on you … You're like the conductor of an orchestra."
McIntosh also rated maintaining relationships with the players as the toughest part of the gig.
And, as reported by ABC Sport, a breakdown between the coach and playing group was the main reason Bulley and the Firebirds went their separate ways.
"Dealing with elite players can be demanding and the higher up you go, the more it's about people management than anything else," McIntosh said.
"It's a tough gig to try and manage the egos and emotions … These players are up in the big time and so they all want to be on court and achieve, but the fact is they all can't be on court.
"If they don't get on, they certainly want to know why and if they don't like your feedback, they will challenge you … If they're not in the Diamonds, they want to be a Diamond.
"So, there's a lot that goes into that and for the coach to be able to mould a talented group of individuals into a winning team, it takes time to find out how to get the best out of them."
So if assistant coaching isn't enough, the state league is still a mile off the top league and the academies don't play many games, how are you supposed to build the experience required to be a Super Netball head coach?
It seems like there is very limited opportunity for netball coaches in Australia and so we need to find a way to bridge that gap.
Super Netball Reserves is a brand-new concept that has been trialled as a pilot program this year, offering more experience to the players in academies and on the fringe of senior teams.
McIntosh hopes it will also offer a place for coaches to get runs on the board when it comes to player management and understanding what it can be like to travel week-in, week-out while experiencing the pressures of a proper high-performance environment.
This is important, because McIntosh says we need to be careful about pushing coaches too early, as a bad experience could potentially turn them away from the sport entirely.
Instead, she points out the many coaches on the older end of the scale with the right qualifications that are being cast aside because they don't have that "young" appeal.
"It seems to be the way now that you have to be a new-age coach to get a go, but there are plenty of experienced figures around Australia that I would love to see pop up," McIntosh said.
"Sometimes, when you get into your latter years of coaching, people think because you maybe haven't done it for a while, that you don't know what you're doing.
"You never lose it, and that experience counts for a lot."
McIntosh confirmed she won't be applying for the Firebirds role, but that there would still be plenty of well-versed coaches out there that would be keen and are also based in Queensland.
There are roughly 30 active Australian coaches with high-performance accreditation and the majority of those are thought to be from the Sunshine State.
"When it comes to the Firebirds, I would hope now that they go for someone like that, even if it was only one year for the 2025 season to get everything back on track … And they should look within their state first, because it's been a while since they've had a Queenslander in charge.
"Sure, there will be some coaches reading that job advertisement and saying to themselves, why would I want to go into that environment?
"But I'm also confident there'll be others who say, 'Well, give me the challenge'."
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