The Netball Show
S7 Ep70: Paul Dring (Part 02) (22nd Sept 2024)
The net will show with Flyhawk, raising the bar for netball and winning sports. It's a netball show with Flyhawk and we're speaking to England netball team manager Paul Dring. Paul, how often are you able to look back and reflect on the England of Dunnet? England of Dunnet, I simply have no words. Commentry from Caroline and Sara. Yeah, I can't say this to Jess because apparently I talk about it too much. But I do live in the past a little bit about that. I mean, it's hard not to reflect on it. I mean, there's absolutely no doubt in my mind. It was the greatest moment of my life, you know, not just career, but of my life, like being involved in that and being there on the Gold Coast. When we won, I mean, it was, I mean, we went into that tournament with the belief that we could do something quite special in this tournament. You know, who knows? We could win this thing. I don't think anybody else probably would believe that outside of the team, maybe. But it was something that built as we went through that tournament. And we all just had such a great time, like the whole experience, you know, like for the, I'm going to say it was about five weeks that we were away. From the first couple of games were quite interesting. But once we kind of got into the tour, everybody just loved being there and just loved being in that environment. And we just excelled in that environment. And I think the, you know, the culmination of that weekend, I'll just never forget thinking about that weekend and kind of saying back to people at home, like, this is the biggest weekend of my life. Like, there's something quite big could happen here. And knowing that we were going into that semifinal. And yeah, then to win the final was just, yeah, beyond beyond wildest dreams, really. I mean, just to be there in the final was one thing. But then to win it in the way that we did it was just kind of crazy. And I mean, I remember after the semifinal, we kind of went back and had a staff meeting that night. And at the end of the staff meeting, we kind of watched back the footage of the kind of celebrations and we all kind of looked at each other and went, we're absolutely loons the way we celebrate against against Jamaica. Like, I can't believe that. And then, you know, it's just one of those things that you don't have a script. But I remember sitting around talking about it. And then the next day, we do the same kind of thing happens in the same sort of style we win again. And the celebrations are even more wild. You know, you just can't prepare for anything like that. I'll just know how you're going to react in that moment. But it was, yeah, it was, it was incredibly special. And it was just really nice as well to see not just what it meant to everybody, you know, the players and how much work they put in. But that was one thing. But then when we came home and to get the reaction that we had, and, you know, there is a reality, you do live in a bubble. You know, it's a cliche that everyone says, but you don't quite realise the impact that it's having at home until you get back. And, you know, I think it was, it was on the flight on the way home that it really dawned on me what had happened, because I was starting to get messages. I was on the Wi-Fi on the flight and I was starting to get a message from our comms team with this request for the girls when they came back. You know, the one show breakfast, literally every show you could think of. Yeah, we're just getting in touch. And I remember we got to Abu Dhabi Airport. And I think only six of the girls had come back because of the six were out in Australia. And I remember kind of getting them around and saying, I've got to need to ask you about this before we get on the next flight. But we've had a few requests coming. And normally that's quite a hard thing to put, you know, to ask because you're thinking of just going to get off the flight. They're going to want to go home, see friends and family. And I said, look, these requests have come in and we need to kind of move on these quite quickly. And every single one of them was like, I want to do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. And it was like all six of them. Well, then the next day, we're just going straight off to BBC and whatever. And it was it was incredible. Yeah. And it was incredible then to watch them all and see see how much that was celebrated when we got back and and how much it changed, you know, not just netball, but British sport as well. And that was that was really special. What about things that netball will come in Liverpool, Birmingham 2022? Anything in particular that you take from those events? Yeah, I mean, it's it's difficult, isn't it? Because naturally you're going to you're going to go to 2018 because we won and off to the World Cup last year was incredible to make that final. We know that was equally as special in many ways. But I think you look back on 2019 and 2022 as an incredible experience, but obviously not the results that we wanted. And a couple of very disappointing semifinals. You know, we came away from those and everybody was completely flat and deflated and naturally you will be after you've kind of gone in with such high hopes and being at home. But I think that the takeaways without a doubt were the crowds and the interactions. I mean, in Liverpool, like one of the things that we didn't plan for and you know, in kind of my planning that and it's one thing that we've had to plan for senses that we didn't expect the reaction of the public to be the players to almost be like rock stars. And that they got to the point where they if they went out the hotel, they had to like wear hoods up and caps and disguise it as because if they just want to go and grab a quick coffee, they were literally getting hounded by people. So and as great as that is. And you know, the players give so much time to fans and stuff, but when they need to grab a quick coffee before training session, they don't always have a lot of time. So we found things like that quite challenging. But then also we had to harness that like on game day, what people started to realise is when they knew where we were staying, that they started to gather when they knew we'd be leaving for a game. And I remember the first couple of times we went out to the car park and literally were getting mobbed by people and we couldn't drive off because we were worried about running people over. To the point we worked with the hotels and put barriers up all around the car park area so people could be at a good safe distance. But then it created this incredible atmosphere. And I remember saying to the girls before the semi final, like just just be ready for this. It's going to be a bit different to what you've experienced before because I've kind of seen it building and we all met in the team room and walked down and it was incredible. Like the noise, there must have been a couple of thousand people outside the hotel. It was just fantastic. And when they got in the cars, we were playing some music. I think it was Vindaloo we were playing. And the girls just said to me, like, we feel like rock stars. This is just crazy. So that reaction, that public support and seeing the pictures of the fan parks looking like, you know, England were playing football in a World Cup final or something. We're just stuff that you haven't seen in netball, I guess. And I know I haven't been around for that long, but the girls were telling me that that just didn't happen before or wasn't what they were used to. So that was quite special to be a part of without a doubt. And the same with Birmingham, you know, the crowds there and the support we had was just phenomenal. Unfortunately, because of the COVID restrictions that were on, we didn't really get to interact with them in the same way. You know, we were kind of shut away in the village, but and we couldn't really go out and engage with it so much. But it still felt pretty powerful when you got to Gamebend. You could hear the fan park outside the hotel and stuff. It was pretty special. Just the growth of home fans in over the past couple of years as well. And tournaments as well, but just in general, that's really nice to see as the sport moves forward. Yeah, massively. Yeah, I think we've seen that grow, haven't we? To the point where we're outgrowing venues like the couple box now, which is which is really exciting. When you've got that kind of support, it feels incredible, you know, to have 8,000 people around a court screaming. It's great for the team. It's great for the players. And when the team's playing well, you know, you really feed off that as well. And there's been some some great moments and having that crowd behind it. It's just it's just phenomenal as well. But you know, it wasn't like that when I started back in 2016. Yeah, I remember some of the games in Liverpool. We might have had like 1,500, 2,000 people there. And then to see it grow the way it's done is just, yeah, just being phenomenal. And and I think even sometimes I would say we've had bigger crowds at home than we've had when we've been overseas. You know, with the exception of the kudos that we played in Sydney or we had like 13,000 in, you know, most most of the venues have only got five or 6,000 in Australia and New Zealand a lot of the time. So we seem to be playing to bigger crowds here, which is just, which is just fantastic. Do you get to see as many NSO games as you'd like? I try to. Yeah, because I because I live in Worcester. So the stars are on my doorstep. So I do try and get down to most of those games. I mean, as I said before, I have my going kind of racing commitments in these kind of months. So I do try and race on Sundays where I can. So if they can fit around my own, getting away from that ball, you know, part of my job is I do try and get away from it a little bit. But no, I always try and get to season open or try and get to the ground final and then try and get to as many sort of stars games as I can, particularly really where our players are coming in. So if the stars are playing left, bro, or Manchester or, you know, the teams or polls or where we've got most of our players, it's always quite nice to sort of go and show my face and then just have a little chat with some of the girls after the game and just to be around it really. But I do enjoy it. I do enjoy going to the games and seeing the girls performing for their clubs. It's fun and it's not. I really like about it. It's walking in and sitting in the stands and having no responsibility whatsoever. That's what a nice feeling on a match day. And big plans for the league in 2025, NSL 2.0. Everybody needs to buy into the season and do what they can buy in extra tickets, get along and really show their support. 100% Yeah, I mean, yeah, showing up as the campaign's been and being there. And but also also watching it and engaging with it, like watching, downloading and watching the games on YouTube, whatever, those those figures are huge for us because those are the figures that we present to broadcast and we're trying to get broadcast deals, which which have ultimately bringing money into the sport. So the more people watching and engaging with it, then the easier it is for us to sell it, you know, as a marketable thing, which is obviously what the objective is going forward and to get more sponsors coming in to support the sport. And obviously that's going to, you know, when we if we can professionalise the league, which is the intention that we're working towards, then that's only going to push the standards up all around the clubs and that's going to support us as a team without a doubt going forward. I mean, we've definitely seen that the benefits that we get from our players playing out in Australia and New Zealand in those professional leagues and what they bring back to our environment. So if we can we can get leagues on a pile with those or better than those in the UK, then there's absolutely no doubt it's going to have an impact on on the roses and make us a better, a better team going forward. So yeah, we'd certainly encourage everybody and that's why I try and play my part as much as I can as well. So watching it, watching NSL and trying to get along when I can, then it's all going to help, isn't it? As we celebrate your 100 games at the recent Nations Cup, it's not really about the numbers. It's more about Jess on the early honor and every one of the players really, isn't it, both of the girls? Oh, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just it was a nice, I have to say for me, it was it's a nice little milestone to reach 100 games that like, I'd never thought I'd get that far. So after the first two, I didn't think I'd get past three. So it's just nice to be, you know, to be in the sport for so long into seeing so much. And when you get to 100, it's quite a special moment. It's quite a proud thing to do. And I think what makes it more special is the fact that the players and the stuff make you feel special, which which was just it was overwhelming, to be honest, like the support and stuff I had from the players and we got back to the hotel was just was just, yeah, it was quite emotional and a lot of the players that hadn't had worked with over the years, but weren't with the team anymore. He gave us it, Layla's, Joe, Serena, Jade, Beth, for example, they'd all sent like really nice messages as well. So it was just, you know, it was just, it made you realise that you kind of had an impact and that people have appreciated working with you and that was really quite special. So, but yeah, it's not about me. It's about it's about the players. It's about the coaches. It's about us doing the best we can on court. But at the same time, yeah, it's always, it's nice. It's a proud moment for me to wreck, you know, to have been around for so long and to be part of such a, I guess, such a successful part of England netball history. Well, thank you for your time and good luck for the next eight years. Yeah, that's, yeah, well, see, maybe I'll still be here in eight years time. Who knows? The netball show is now also available via Sky HD, Sky Q and Sky Glass, select sports and we're on the podcast rail. (upbeat music)
We spoke to Paul Dring, The England Netball team manager about his role back in Feb 2024