OLDHAMER Karen Greig recently celebrated a landmark 100th match as Manchester Thunder’s director or netball/head coach.
And it was a day to remember at Thunder smashed the goalscoring record in the Vitality Netball Superleague.
They hit a best-ever 88 in the resounding 88-57 victory at Wasps which maintained the club’s 100 per cent start to the season.
Greig, who lives in Chadderton, is the longest-serving head coach in Superleague and she jokes she has been in-situ longer than the current Thunder owners.
She has been involved with Thunder for 20 years as a player, assistant coach before the appointment to her current post in October 2019.
“I started at Thunder in 2001 but, taking account of one year out through injury, I have been involved with the club for 20 years,” she explained.
The 42-year-old Greig also has the distinction of winning the Superleague Grand Final for Thunder as a player, assistant and head coach.
“I won the first final in 2012 in my last-ever game as a player, in 2014 as assistant coach and 2019 as coach,” she continued.
Greig’s current team has won all 17 of its league games with only three remaining and is already guaranteed a home semi-final in the play-offs.
She also believes no team has previously gone through a league season unbeaten, though the champions are the play-off winners.
Greig believes the current side has the potential to be the best-ever team from her two decades with Thunder.
She explained: “We lost a couple of senior players pre-season and, if we still had them, I would say this was our best-ever squad. But not having them has given opportunities to youngsters which they would not have otherwise had.
“What I would say, however, is that this is the most versatile team in being able to play different styles.
“We have a blend of international players, the experienced Kerry Almond and young and up and coming players.”
Greig, who was raised in Failsworth, began at Oldham Netball Club under the tutelage of the late Mike Greenwood who propelled the town to become a major force in the sport.
The Oldham club provides a pathway to Thunder whose squad includes Saddleworth-based Almond, Yasmin Roebuck and Ruby Parker while the villages provide other girls in the Superleague club’s pathway programme.
She puts down Thunder’s success to the region being a hotbed for netball.
“We are lucky to have a very rich area for netball. There are four or five excellent clubs in the North West, including Oldham from Greater Manchester,” she explained.
“They have provided the base for a lot of athletes and coaches who have gone on to join Thunder.”
Greig also believes netball is the embodiment of a working-class sport and that probably has given Oldham an edge with a fighting spirit among players to be successful.
That was the case for Greig, a Superleague shooter for Thunder, who was capped 31 times for England.
As a club player, her highlight was captaining Thunder to a dramatic last-minute victory against Surrey Storm in the 2012 Grand Final.
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