Joan Harnett

Joan Frances Harnett-Kindley (née Martin; born 24 February 1943) is a New Zealand former netball player and real estate agent. She began playing for Canterbury's Sacred Hart team in 1960 and was first selected to play for the country's national squad in 1963. Harnett played in three editions of the World Netball Championships in 1963, 1967 and 1971 and was named player of the tournament of the 1967 competition that New Zealand won. She stopped playing internationally in 1971 and retired three years later. Harnett played in 116 international matches and was captain for 45 of them. took up a career in the real estate industry from 1972 to about 2007, serving as a member of various committees and was an inaugural member of the Real Estate Authority. Harnett is an inductee of the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and was named a Sporting Legend of Canterbury in 2007.

Early life and career Harnett was born on 24 February 1943. Harnett was part of the New Zealand squad that contested the 1963 World Netball Championships in England, where the team finished runners-up to the Australian side by a single goal. For the 1967 World Netball Championships in Perth, At the time, Harnett was working in a bank and practised shooting at break times.

She was named captain of the New Zealand side for the 1971 World Netball Championships in Jamaica. She was the first female to be awarded both the Fellowship and Life Membership to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand in 2003. and had less focus on her achievements. Harnett is, however, credited with changing the perception of netball in New Zealand, She was one of two first sportspeople to be named to the Sporting Legends of Canterbury at the Sport Canterbury Winter Awards in late 2007.

In 2024, Harnett was an inaugural inductee to the Netball New Zealand Hall of Fame.