She was named New Zealand's dream player of 75 years of netball at the turn of the millennium but Joan Harnett-Kindley says she would give her "eye teeth" to have played today's game.
Joan Harnett on tour for the Silver Ferns, holding the team's mascot. Photo: Netball New Zealand
The 34th Silver Fern has been appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit - for services to netball and the real estate industry, in the Queen's birthday honours.
Harnett-Kindley's international career spanned from 1963 to 1971.
She follows the modern game and said she would have loved the opportunity to play in this era.
"The game is more aggressive, we had to have skills but today you have to be skillful in order to win and you've got to be aggressive, and you've got to think and you've got to play as a team," said Harnett-Kindley.
"We couldn't play as fast as they do now because we had to make the ball work for us because we played on those asphalt surfaces. So it would be too dangerous to allow the amount of aggressiveness that there is in contention in play that there is today you couldn't do it on the asphalt courts, there would be too many injuries."
While so much has changed, history also keeps repeating.
Harnett-Kindley played at the inaugural World Championships in England in 1963, when they finished second behind Australia, after losing to their rivals by just one goal in pool play.
Incredibly that's happened a few times since then - the latest at the World Cup in Liverpool last year when the Ferns prevailed over Australia by a single goal in the final.
"There's very little between us, although Australia have beaten us more times than we've beaten them. We had a spell there for a while where we just didn't have that aggressiveness - that do or die attitude that Australia has, so we needed to get that back into our game and it is there now so it's remained as close as it always was."
Joan Harnett was Silver Fern number 34. Photo: Netball New Zealand
Harnett-Kindley said she was delighted to receive an honour and felt very lucky.
"I think of all the other players that I played with, I couldn't do it on my own, and I played with some very good players."
Harnett-Kindley is credited with changing the public perception of netball in New Zealand, with her mix of athleticism and grace.
She's said to have redefined the scope and skill of the shooting positions, with her ability to read the game and instinctive play.
She had an eight year international career that included three World Cups, which was a long stint back then.
"Women really didn't play as long as what they do now. Now of course they can perhaps afford to keep going when they have a family because they're paid.
"Also it was sort of like there was always some young people coming up behind you, once you sort of reached 21, 22, it was sort of like 'you should be retired'. Now they're into their 30s and sometimes 40s which is fantastic because you are at your best, I mean you've had all that experience."
Harnett-Kindley finished her career with just 26 Test Caps because they had far fewer fixtures back then.
"There wasn't so much competition against other countries as there is now. So you didn't play as many games, you only had your World Tournament every four years. We had the odd few games against England, South Africa, and Australia so we didn't get the amount of play in those days that they do now, it's very competitive now."
Joan Harnett shoots a goal for the Silver Ferns. Harnett played for New Zealand between 1963 and 1971. Photo: Netball New Zealand
It also took a huge effort to get anywhere; in 1963 they had to travel six weeks each way to England by ship.
"It wasn't very good for your fitness really because it's very difficult to run around a deck and we were right down the bowls of the ship of course ... you had to raise a certain amount of money yourself if you were going to play in the World Tournament."
Harnett-Kindley said the game has a far bigger following today.
"You didn't get the crowds because you didn't get the media ...you got very little TV if you got any."
Despite that, she was often recognised on the street, particularly where she was based in Christchurch.
"The Christchurch Press actually gave the Canterbury team, and then the New Zealand team a lot of coverage. They were right behind us whereas perhaps a lot of the other papers didn't really pick up on netball in those days."
Unlike many current Silver Ferns, Harnett and her team-mates didn't feature in the Woman's Weekly.
But Harnett-Kindley made the spotlight in England during the World Champs.
"I appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror with our Māori mascot ...it was quite something because netball wasn't that well known then."
She said men were considered "a bit odd" if they turned up to watch a game.
But towards the end of her career they actually started playing against rugby players.
"Because they learnt a lot of skills from us for their rugby. I can remember the late Laurie O'Reilly [the first Black Ferns Selector, coach and stalwart of women's rugby] got his rugby team to come and play against us. He could see the skills that we had with the ball and the vision that you had to have so I think that he thought this was going to rub off on the guys and I think to a certain extent it did."
When Harnett-Kindley started playing netball in primary school, it was just after the sport had gone from 9-aside basketball to 7-aside.
"I remember watching the 9-aside and thinking you know 'everybody cramped up into that little space and only allowed to go into one third' ...it's a much better game now."
Harnett-Kindley was named as the Player of the Tournament at the 1967 Netball World Cup in Perth, won by New Zealand, before captaining New Zealand at the 1971 champs in Jamaica.
NZ Sports Hall of Fame inductee Beatrice Faumuina with Joan Harnett, at the 56th Halberg Awards in 2019. Harnett was an inaugural inductee into the NZ Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. Photo: Photosport
She served as a provincial netball coach and administrator in Canterbury.
Harnett-Kindley, who is now retired in Wanaka, had a long career in real estate and was the first woman awarded both a Fellowship and Life Membership to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
Former Silver Ferns physiotherapist Sharon Kearney was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
for services to physiotherapy and netball.
Mary Thompson received the same honour for services to netball administration.
