Meet the new coach of Southern United
Hayden Meikle
HAYDEN MEIKLE: How does it feel to be back in the South?
KRIS RIDLEY: Sixteen years away is a very long time. Being able to get a fulltime football and community development role, and the fact it is in the southern region of New Zealand, is an absolute bonus for me.
Meikle: Do you still have lots of family down here?
Ridley: All of my family are still in Southland and the wider region.
Meikle: What was the role you held at your club on the Gold Coast?
Ridley: I have held a number of coaching roles at Broadbeach United Soccer Club in previous years, but for the last two seasons I was the girls and women’s director.
Meikle: What was the highlight of your time in Australia?
Ridley: It has to be Broadbeach United Soccer Club.
Everything I was wanting out of a club at the time I joined it was there: the culture, support and family feel. Arriving by yourself and not knowing anyone pushes you to try and find what you want. It gave me friends for life and memories forever, and that is something I will never be able to repay after 16 years. Being involved as a participations officer for Football Australia was also an amazing experience, delivering futsal/football programmes to schools and working with the future of the game. For me, that is what it is all about.
Meikle: What attracted you to the Southern United role?
Ridley: Obviously not the weather, as the Gold Coast slightly pips Dunedin in that category. But I have been involved within the girls and women’s side of football for about eight years now in a few different roles, and when the opportunity came about, I instantly said yes. To be able to take a risk, to challenge myself and to give back to the sport that means a whole lot to me, plus to be able to coach the top
Kris Ridley is straight into the hot seat. The Southern United coach has had just a few weeks to work with his team, which begins its national league campaign on Saturday. finds out more about the new gaffer, who has returned to the South after a long spell in Australia. women’s team in the region, was a nobrainer.
Meikle: Is it too early to predict what sort of season you are going to have? Ridley: I would say yes, but as long as we are competitive, learn from every experience we have and represent the Southern region with the respect it deserves, I feel that will help where we finish. We will be giving it everything we have to finish as high as we can, but football is football, and it will ultimately be decided at the end of 90 minutes each week.
Meikle: What role will Graeme Smaill play for you?
Ridley: Graeme has done an amazing job with the playing group over the years, both at a club level and also with the Southern side. He is still a very valuable part of the setup, and having him around to mentor, bounce ideas off and to get valuable support with players will be great. I am grateful he is around. In an ideal world, I would have been here for the women’s club season so that I could prepare accordingly, but that is not the way it has come about. Graeme has been brilliant in sorting everything with the players so that they get the necessary preparation.
Meikle: What are your ultimate ambitions in football?
Ridley: Football is something that has always been a very large part of my life. Just about everything I have has come from being involved in football. I would just like to see as many kids enjoying the sport in whatever capacity. That is where I started to love the game, and to be a small part of making that happen for them so that they carry on to play, coach or referee within this sport is the ambition.
Meikle: What does it mean for women’s football in New Zealand to host the World Cup next year?
Ridley: This is the ultimate compliment. To be one of the hosting regions for a World Cup is an exceptional achievement for the city of Dunedin. This will attract so many people to the region and it will obviously be supported by people all over the world that love the game, but also people that don’t normally watch football. If a small portion of the latter either start to enjoy it more or start to play and love it, and their kids sign up and start to play, then the World Cup has not only been a successful event but it helps start the next generation of the game.
Meikle: All coaches eventually get asked this: what is s your philosophy on football, and what style do you like to play?
Ridley: I like taking risks. I like the technical side of the game, and I like doing things a little differently. Team culture is number one for me as that has a massive say in how you play the game. I will wait until the season is under way for you to see what style we will play, but we will put something together that is exciting and hopefully gets the results we need.
Meikle: Do you support an English (or Italian or Spanish) club?
Ridley: Tottenham. I am used to [them] finishing fifth or sixth but last year was great and this year may even be better.