Movingly one of the legends of our game and our Southern community, Georgie Salter was recognised in the New Year Honours for her lifelong involvement with netball as a player, coach and administrator.

In the New Year's honours Georgie was made posthumously a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

We are so very pleased Georgie was bestowed this honour recognising what a profound and positive influence she had on many sports and our community, and too was able to be told before she passed away.

Read more from Colin Williscroft below.

Colin Williscroft, Stuff, December 31 2018.

Posthumous honour for top netball coach and former Silver Fern

Netball was more than just a game to Georgie Salter.

Salter, a former Silver Fern and leading netball coach, died in late November before she could be made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year's honours.

But her husband David said she was told before she died she was going to receive the honour for her lifelong involvement with netball as a player, coach and administrator.

The family had been touched by messages of support from former players, coaches and managers she had dealt with over the years.

"For Georgie, netball was bigger than a sport. Her aim was not just to create a winning team. It was more about reaching out and helping people to achieve."

The tributes to her reflected that, he said, with her innovative and vibrant style of coaching leaving a lasting impression on those she came into contact with.

"She just managed to inspire people."

Salter, from Oamaru, was never one for awards or accolades, so being awarded a New Year's honour was not something she strived for.

She found being singled out for awards embarrassing, he said.

Having represented Southland Country and then Otago, Salter first played for New Zealand on the under-24 New Zealand tour of Australia in 1972, before being picked as a Silver Fern.

She played eight tests for New Zealand, making her debut against Singapore in 1974, and was part of the Silver Ferns' unbeaten tour of England the same year. At the 1975 world championships in Auckland she was a key member of the New Zealand side, which finished third, as the team's first-choice wing attack.

It was as a coach that Salter really came into her own.

Her coaching career began as a young teacher and then intensified after she moved to Oamaru, initially with North Otago, then as regional coaching co-ordinator, before coaching the Southern club in Dunedin. She went on to coach the Otago team, before coaching the Otago Rebels to the inaugural national league title in 1998, going through the season undefeated.

She guided the Rebels to 19 wins from 21 games during the 1988 and 1989 seasons, and in 1998 coached Otago to its first national provincial title in 66 years.

Salter twice coached the New Zealand under-21 team to the Netball World Youth Cup, firstly with Leigh Gibbs in 1992 as champions and again in 2000, when she guided them to third place, before returning to national franchise netball to coach the Auckland Diamonds in 2001 and 2002.

She then took the Cook Islands national team to the Netball World Cup in 2003.

Salter later stepped out of retirement to coach Netball South in Netball New Zealand's second-tier Beko League in 2017 and 2018.

For the duration of her coaching she mentored provincial and international umpires, while also serving on the Hillary Commission from 1996 until 2002.

Known for her tireless advocacy for young people, Salter encouraged and coached primary and secondary school netball for more than 40 years.

That gave her a lot of pleasure, David said.

"She took real pride when she got feedback from kids, when they let her know what they had achieved."