Two Captains, One Vision: The Magic’s Shared Leadership Experiment That’s Already Working
Most sporting teams have one captain. The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, heading into a new netball season with an unusually young squad and a point to prove, have decided two is better. Erena Mikaere and Georgie Edgecombe were named co-captains at the start of the season in an arrangement that, by most accounts, has already begun to shape the team’s culture in tangible ways.
Shared captaincy in sport is often treated with scepticism — too many voices, the argument goes, and leadership becomes diluted. But speaking to the Waikato Times ahead of the team’s upcoming fixtures, both Mikaere and Edgecombe pushed back on that idea with a confidence that suggested they had thought carefully about how to make it work.
“We’re not the same person and we don’t lead the same way. That’s actually the point. Different players need different things from their captain.”
Mikaere brings experience and composure — a player who has been through the highs and lows of professional netball and carries that knowledge quietly but effectively. Edgecombe, by contrast, brings energy, vocal leadership, and a connection to the younger players in the squad that the coaching staff have identified as increasingly important as the team undergoes a generational transition.
Off the court, both women are navigating the demands of professional sport alongside the commitments of ordinary life — study, relationships, the effort of staying mentally fresh across a long and demanding season. The Magic’s management says the co-captaincy is not an experiment but a deliberate long-term strategy. Early signs suggest they may have got the balance exactly right.
