Fresh from their one-goal grand final triumph, Melbourne Vixens have appointed their new head coach, who beat ‘world-class candidates’ to the role to lead their title defence.
Melbourne Vixens’ long-time assistant coach Di Honey has vowed to put her own stamp on the premiership-winning team and keep the off-court laughs after being named the coaching successor to her former bridesmaid Simone McKinnis.
Less than a month after the Vixens’ thrilling Super Netball grand final win, Honey has been confirmed as the club’s new head coach – only the third in the team’s history.
The former Diamond has been a key figure in the Vixens’ coaching team for more than a decade, serving as McKinnis’ assistant since 2014 and playing a part in three title wins.
The Vixens said Honey had beaten a short-list of “world-class” candidates from Australia and overseas to the appointment, which is for an initial two years with a further one-year option, to fulfil her senior coaching ambition in Super Netball.
“I am just so excited. I have been waiting in the wings for probably 12 years now and it’s always been my aspiration to be a head coach,” Honey said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have loved being an assistant and I have really enjoyed it, but now I’m really looking forward to taking the reins and working with this group because they are just a fantastic team to now be mine, I suppose.
“Obviously I am very lucky to have been given this opportunity, so I’m rapt.”
McKinnis made the shock announcement in May she would be stepping down at the end of the season after 13 years as Vixens’ head coach.
In her final year in charge, the former Diamonds star steered the team from a 2-4 start to the 2025 grand final and a one-goal premiership win over the West Coast Fever.
Honey, 61, acknowledged she was taking over a netball program which didn’t need fixing, but she was determined to add her “own flavour” to the role.
“It’s not broken, this program, it’s fantastic and I’ve been so lucky to walk into a program like this,” said Honey, who played 17 Tests for the Diamonds in the mid-late 1980s.
“But I will change things up, I will put my stamp on it and there are things training wise, there might be more variety in it, we might just change things up the way that we play and different things like that to bring my own flavour into the program.
“I don’t feel pressure because I have been involved in those three premierships and had my own input as well with Simone obviously making final decisions on court.
“I’m pretty confident of taking the reins and keeping it very similar, but working with the players different ways to do things.
“(My style) will still be the Victorian way, which is low and hard and fast and direct, but I’m just going to bring in different ways to bring that ball down.”
Honey’s coaching resume includes stints as a specialist coach with the Diamonds, head coach of Super Netball development team Victorian Fury and a development coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport.
The former Australian midcourter, whose daughter, Tayla, once played for the Vixens, said she would miss having her “old mate” McKinnis alongside her on the coaching bench, but wanted to keep their off-court fun.
“We go way back, she was actually one of my bridesmaids (in 1989). We worked very well together and I will miss being on the bench with her,” Honey said.
“She taught me how to coach and coach calmly and think about things. I will miss her dearly, but at the same time I am excited to go ahead and be a head coach as well.
“We didn’t take ourselves too seriously. We were still serious on the court and what we wanted and demanded excellence, but we had a laugh.
“I’ll be the same, I’ll still be having a laugh, I just won’t have my old mate next to me.”
The Vixens have retained all their premiership players for 2026 with the only change to the line-up being the return of defensive stalwart Emily Mannix, who missed this year after the birth of her first child, Mabel.
Honey backed the team’s chances of going back-to-back.
“They can do it, I believe in them, they are great athletes,” Honey said.
“I feel it’s a bonus that I’ve got the same group because they’re already gelled, they know each other, there is that connection there that I don’t really have to work too hard on.
“I look at it that it will make the job easier.”
Netball Victoria chief executive Andrea Pearman said Honey had already made a “significant and positive contribution to the Vixens” and had emerged as the best person to guide the team forward.
“What became increasingly apparent through a thorough recruitment process is that she is also the right person to lead the next phase of success at the Vixens, starting with their title defence in 2026,” Pearman said.
The Vixens’ appointment leaves just the Melbourne Mavericks now on the look out for a new head coach following the departure of Tracey Neville.
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