Poole, who will leave hockey in early October, said she was excited by the new challenge that awaits her but is sad to leave behind her team.

"I am hugely excited to be given the opportunity to lead netball as it is such an important sport for New Zealand, and I look forward to the challenges this will bring," she said.

"The tough part is that I am very sad to leave my team at Hockey New Zealand who are an amazingly talented and committed group of people and my respective boards who I respect hugely.

"However, I won't be far away, and I have every confidence hockey will continue to go from strength to strength."

New Zealand's women finished just outside of the medals at the London 2012 Olympics, sitting in fourth place behind bronze medallists Britain, while their male counterparts came ninth in the final rankings.


"While we are very sad to see Hilary go, this is a career progression for her and she leaves with our very best wishes and huge appreciation of what she has done to lead the development and expansion of our sport at both community and high performance levels," said Hockey New Zealand chairman Dean Ellwood.

"Hockey is in a much stronger place than it was four years ago at a similar stage in the Olympic cycle.

"We have a strong family of commercial and funding partners, hockey's profile has grown, we are developing major events, the Future Black Sticks are on the way to their Junior World Cups, and the Black Sticks have both vastly improved their world rankings and have world class coaches."

Ellwood added that the recruitment process to replace Poole will begin shortly.

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