^{Stand-in Tall Ferns manager Julie Blake (left) celebrates a three-point shot with the Tall Ferns during the trans-Tasman series in Hamilton. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography}

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It was the kind of babysitting role Julie Blake couldn’t say no to.

When Tall Ferns manager Lisa Wallbutton prepared to take maternity leave for her first child, she reached out to fellow female team managers across New Zealand sport for someone who could temporarily fill her shoes.

Blake manages New Zealand’s bowls team, the Blackjacks, and had played basketball at school and knew the rules. But she’d never managed the sport before.

Still, in a show of cross-code camaraderie, Blake swapped jacks for jump shots – taking care of the Tall Ferns in Australia, then China.

“How cool it was for me as a mum to provide assistance to another new mum, in a sporting crossover that only came about because the stars aligned,” says Blake, who’s mum to nine-year-old Pixie.

Blake was thrown a whole new set of logistical challenges in Shenzhen, China, last month – two typhoons, a different language, and an unfamiliar sport. And she came through it with a fresh appreciation for managing a high-energy sport, where she needed to stay switched on every minute.

“With bowls, once the team is out on the green, I can sit back and watch, meet people, talk with sponsors or take photos,” says Blake, who also manages Bowls New Zealand’s social media.

“But with basketball, you have to be on your game the whole time they’re on court. Filling the drink bottles might seem mundane, but it’s super important. If you don’t have those bottles ready when they come off the court, those girls could pass out.”

Wallbutton understood those demands well before she became Tall Ferns manager in 2019. A 12-year veteran of the national side for 12 years – a Commonwealth Games silver medallist and Beijing Olympian – she came home from Perth and rejoined the team, this time on the sideline.

Now living in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, Wallbutton is running after the needs of her baby daughter, Aria. “It’s an adventure every day. She’s doing all the good baby things, so we’ve been super lucky so far,” she says.

Watching the Tall Ferns at the Trans-Tasman Throwdown and the Asia Cup with a newborn on her shoulder was a “different experience”, Olympian Wallbutton laughs. “But I was so exhausted, just the thought of being on tour – I couldn’t fathom it.”

But Blake made sure Wallbutton still had a presence in the team. When Tall Ferns debutants Rebecca Pizzey and Olivia Williams received their playing jerseys in China, Blake arranged for their regular manager to record a video congratulating them.

“In the video, Lisa panned down to Aria, and it was so cool to see how connected the girls felt with this little baby,” Blake says. “I’m so glad Lisa got to be part of the tour with us.”

Being braver and bolder

Blake first crossed paths with Wallbutton through the Women in High Performance Sport residency programme, where both had been appointed as high performance managers in their respective codes. They got to know each other better through a forum for women’s team managers, created by Silver Ferns manager Esther Molloy.

Blake’s path to helping the Tall Ferns began when she bumped into Dee Leggat, manager of the Black Sticks women’s hockey side, soon after Blake had become bowls manager for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“Dee invited me to be part of a group chat talking to other women about how they manage their sports teams,” Blake says.

The group holds online forums every three weeks and meets face-to-face once a year. It’s created a network of women who face similar challenges in their roles – regardless of funding levels – who share their experiences and resources.

In January this year, Wallbutton messaged the group chat to see if anyone was interested in a “personal development opportunity” to travel with the Tall Ferns to Adelaide, the Sunshine Coast and Hamilton for three tests against the Australian Opals – followed by the Asia Cup in July.

It piqued the interest of Blake, who was with the Blackjacks for their trans-Tasman series in Wellington at the time. She told Wallbutton she’d be keen to chat.

“It was great, having this network of women to call on,” Wallbutton says. “The difficulty for us was the timing of the Asia Cup – that July window is when a lot of other team sports have their own campaigns. But it aligned nicely with the bowls schedule, and Julie happened to be available for both tours, which was great for continuity for the girls.”

First, Blake had to check she had the support of her boss and her family.

Blake lives in Hamilton with her husband, Graeme, where they run an advertising agency and a software platform, Blutui, for creative agencies. Her parents, who live 10 minutes away, often help collect Pixie from school and take her to sport – the nine-year-old recently made history as the youngest winner of a Waikato championship in indoor bowls.

“Knowing everything was all good back at home meant I could go and just focus on the Tall Ferns, and what they needed to achieve,” Blake says.

Her boss, Bowls NZ CEO Mark Cameron, was fully behind the unique idea. “He’s been a real champion of me in this role – he’s pushed me to be braver, bolder and to speak up,” says Blake, who took both professional development and annual leave.

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I get support from my boss, I get to test out a whole new sport in an entirely new team and get paid, learn and travel.’ It was just the best opportunity – ‘20 years ago Julie’ would never have known that was be something you could do,” she says. “Back then there would have only been male coaches and female volunteer managers.

“I really believe if you say yes to something, doors will open for you.”

Not dropping the ball

Before she went on maternity leave, Wallbutton took Blake to watch the Tall Blacks play the Philippines in Auckland. “I probably bored her senseless asking her questions the entire game,” Blake says. “I barely looked at the court – I was watching what their manager was doing in the background.”

Wallbutton created the plan for each tour. “She did the hard yards beforehand, so I got to do the glory stuff,” Blake says.

“While basketball and bowls are at completely different ends of the spectrum as far as energies go, there are lots of similarities, too. The key for me was trying to be prepared, to be ahead of what was needed.

“It was super full-on. But it’s a special kind of privilege to be part of a national team, especially a team of women – and be part of the team huddles and special moments in the locker room.”