Norma Plummer
Norma Plummer is an Australian netball coach, and the current coach of the Australian national netball team.
She had a long and successful career as an Australian representative netballer, including a four-Test stint as national captain in 1968. After some time as playing coach of her state league team, Plummer successfully embarked on a successful coaching career, coaching the Victorian state team to several victories at the national netball championships and coaching the Melbourne Pumas in the Esso Superleague (later Mobil League).
After the Mobil League was disbanded in favour of the new Commonwealth Bank Trophy, Plummer became the founding coach of the new Melbourne Phoenix team, which took many of the players from the former Pumas, and successfully coached them to the inaugural premiership. She was also appointed coach of the Australian youth team, and took them to several successes. She subsequently resigned as coach of the Phoenix at the beginning of the 1999 season in order to take up a position as head netball coach at the Australian Institute of Sport. While in this role, she was integral in the campaign to add the AIS Canberra Darters to the national competition.
After several years as coach of the national youth team, and having been rumored for the head national coach position since the late 1980s, Plummer was the obvious favourite when Jill McIntosh resigned in July 2003, and subsequently took the reins of the national team in late August. In her nearly three years as coach for the Australian team, she has retained her prior reputation as a hard coach willing to axe even star players if not performing, and remains widely respected, even with a downturn in the team's fortunes during 2005.