Margaret Mary Anne Foster, MNZM

New Zealand Order of Merit

The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order established in 1996 "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."The order includes five...

 is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 netball

Netball

Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

 coach and former Silver Ferns

Silver Ferns

The New Zealand national netball team, commonly known as the Silver Ferns, represent New Zealand in international netball. The team take their nickname from the Silver Tree Fern , which is an iconic emblem for many New Zealand sports teams. The Silver Ferns were formed in 1938 as a representative...

 player. Foster played seven international matches from 1994–2001. She played domestic netball in the National Bank Cup

National Bank Cup

The National Bank Cup was the pre-eminent national netball competition in New Zealand between 1998 and 2007. From 2008, it was replaced by the ANZ Championship.-Format:...

 for the Canterbury Flames

Canterbury Flames

The Canterbury Tactix are a New Zealand netball team based in Christchurch, New Zealand that currently compete in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The team was one of the founding franchises in the National Bank Cup, formerly the premier netball competition in New Zealand , during which the team...

, playing in 1998, 1999 and 2001.

Coaching career

Foster also coached the team in 2000 and from 2002–2007. Foster took the Canterbury Flames to five final appearances, losing each time to the Southland-based Southern Sting

Southern Sting

The Southern Sting were a netball team based in Invercargill, New Zealand that competed in The National Bank Cup competition, formerly known as the Coca Cola Cup....

. She also previously coached the New Zealand A squad.

After the National Bank Cup

National Bank Cup

The National Bank Cup was the pre-eminent national netball competition in New Zealand between 1998 and 2007. From 2008, it was replaced by the ANZ Championship.-Format:...

 was replaced by the ANZ Championship

ANZ Championship

The ANZ Championship is the pre-eminent netball league in the world. The competition is held annually between April and July, comprising 69 matches played over 17 weeks. It is contested by ten teams, five from Australia and five from New Zealand...

 in April 2008, Foster was replaced as coach of the Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

-based Canterbury franchise by Helen Mahon-Stroud

Helen Mahon-Stroud

Helen Mahon-Stroud is a New Zealand netball coach. In 2008, Mahon-Stroud was appointed head coach of the Canterbury Tactix in the ANZ Championship. Canterbury finished in seventh place during the 2008 season, with five wins and eight losses. She has been retained as coach for the 2009...

. She pulled out of an offer to be head coach of the Northern Mystics

Northern Mystics

The Northern Mystics are a New Zealand netball team based in Auckland that currently compete in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The franchise was formed in 2007 as an amalgamation of two teams from the National Bank Cup – the Northern Force and the Auckland Diamonds – after the competition was...

, after Yvonne Willering was sacked from the position. Instead, Foster took up the role of assistant coach of the Southern Steel

Southern Steel

The Southern Steel are a New Zealand netball team based in Invercargill that compete in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The franchise was formed as an amalgamation of two teams from the National Bank Cup, the Dunedin-based Otago Rebels and the Invercargill-based Southern Sting...

 for the 2009 season. She subsequently signed on as assistant coach of the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic for the 2011 season.
She was also appointed head coach for the Cook Islands netball development squad for 2011.

Outside of netball

Foster was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She later wrote a book, Silver Linings, about both her career and three-year battle with cancer. In 2009, Foster was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

New Zealand Order of Merit

The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order established in 1996 "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."The order includes five...

as part of the Queen's Birthday honours list, for services to netball.