ZENON REMEMBERED

Q I understand you had a bit to do with the development of Zenon Caravella (pictured). How did you cross paths? A I had three or four years working with Football NSW as an elite development coach so I had three football associations I worked with in Sydney, which were all really strong football regions with a lot of history and my job was to select the best kids playing rep football at the time, bring them into the programs, work with them on an individual and collective basis, so we might have only had three or four 16-yearolds or three or four 15-year-olds and this was spread over the entirety of Sydney. Collectively, there were a lot of kids. It was about working on their skill and technique development. I was pretty fortuitous to meet Zenon way back when. I can’t even put a date on that. We caught up for coffee when I arrived and I hope he’s not offended if I say it but I was pretty humbled by the fact he said to me he still had a report I wrote on him when he was 14-15. So my coaching philosophy was to try to give kids the possibility to be the best they could be and if I’ve had some contribution to their development that’s fantastic but it’s not what drives me. I’m happy to be part of that, but I don’t hang my hat on that. At the same time, I had a young kid I coached for four years in Wollongong, Luke Wilkshire, who left Australia on a scholarship and ended up playing quite successfully with the Socceroos. I was just in the right place at the right time as a coach. To be able to run into somebody you’ve seen grow and develop into someone who has been a professional footballer, I don’t think you can ask for more.