COAST SOCCER PRODUCT IS GUAM’S MAIN MAN
PALM Beach Sharks junior product Karl Dodd has landed an international gig as head coach of the Guam national soccer team.
And one of Dodd’s former coaches, Grae Piddick, is predicting he will make a good fist of the job.
Dodd, 37, will take over his new role at one of international soccer’s minnows, a US Territory in the western Pacific with a population of just 163,000.
“If anyone can succeed, he can,” Piddick predicted.
“He has all the attributes to be a good coach – he has been a professional player and he has done some coaching briefly in the NPLQ before he went to the Roar as strength and conditioning coach. Obviously it’ll be a challenge because it’s such a tiny nation but he’ll be looking to make his mark.”
As a player Dodd turned out for Palm Beach juniors before stints in the NPL with Brisbane Strikers, Queensland Roar, Wellington and North Queensland Fury.
He also played Scottish Premier League with Falkirk before returning to Australia when he took over as conditioning coach with Newcastle Jets. Dodd returned to the Coast in 2014 and signed with Palm Beach in the NPLQ in the days before the Sharks became Gold Coast City. Dodd featured in the magnificent Westfield FFA Cup run that year which had the club into the quarter-finals of the competition.
Dodd is a member of one of the Coast’s most prominent soccer families.
Father Dennis is a life member of Football Gold Coast. His two siblings Kris and Dave, also a Roar player, both advanced through the Palm Beach junior system.