Ferns coach frets about Games
Key Football Ferns Erin Nayler and Hannah Wilkinson are among those who found playing time hard to come by in 2020. Andrew Voerman reports.
FOOTBALL Ferns coach Tom Sermanni would have liked what he’s seen in the early rounds of Australia’s W-League.
The trio of Lily Alfeld, Liz Anton and Malia Steinmetz have started both of Perth Glory’s matches; Annalie Longo and Claudia Bunge started together in Melbourne Victory’s last one; and Paige Satchell has started all three for Canberra United. Of those six, only centreback Bunge was in the first-choice XI the last time the Ferns assembled – at the Algarve Cup in Portugal last March, just as the reality of the
Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to set in – and even then, she was only there because veteran Abby Erceg was unavailable.
But even though they might be players on the fringes of Sermanni’s squad, the fact that they’re starting for their clubs and playing regular minutes makes them stand out.
Covid-19 has hampered playing time over the past 12 months, with many European leagues ending their 2019-20 seasons early and the American National Women’s Soccer
League (NWSL) being replaced by two separate tournaments – the Challenge Cup in June and July and the Fall Series in September and October.
But concerns about the minutes New Zealand’s top female footballers were getting at their clubs had been growing long beforehand and many have still not been in action as often as they would have liked —as they look ahead to the Tokyo
Olympics.
Centreback Rebekah Stott has typically been one of the exceptions and played 630 league minutes for Melbourne City as they won the 2019-20 W-League, but since moving to Brighton & Hove Albion in England’s FA Women’s Super League (FAWSL), she’s only played 419 minutes out of a possible 800, for a total of 1049.
That’s at least more than goalkeeper Erin Nayler, who is yet to feature in the FAWSL for her new club, Reading, and last played a league match at the start of November 2019, when she was still at Bordeaux in France.
Looking back to the start of 2020 and running through the rest of the
Ferns’ first-choice
XI from the Algarve Cup, you also have Meikayla Moore and her 1328 minutes – 878 for MSV Duisburg in Germany’s FrauenBundesliga and 350 for Liverpool in England’s second-tier Championship – and Bunge and her 180 minutes for the Victory at the back, flanked by CJ Bott and her 133 for Vålerenga in Norway and Ali Riley and her 776 minutes for Rosengård in
Sweden in the two wingback roles.
Then you have Ria Percival, one of the shining lights, who played 1260 minutes for Tottenham Hotspur in the FAWSL and Katie Bowen, who played 626 minutes for the Utah Royals across the two NWSL tournaments, at the base of midfield.
Ahead of them were Betsy Hassett, another shining light, who played 1418 minutes for
Stjarnan in Iceland and Olivia Chance, who played 448 for Bristol City in the FAWSL, 90 for Sheffield in the English Championship, and three so far for the Brisbane Roar in the W-League, a tally that should grow as she regains match fitness.
Then up top there was Hannah Wilkinson, who played 199 minutes for Sporting Lisbon in Portugal at the start of the year, scoring twice, then joined Djurgården in Sweden in July, but played just 503 minutes for them without finding the back of the net.
‘‘It’s really important both for the Ferns, but also for players themselves, that they’re getting game time and the challenge with that is that it is something that’s completely out of our control in a lot of senses,’’ Sermanni said.
‘‘I spoke to Hannah and to Erin recently and that’s been one of the concerns, both that they have, and that we have, is that we need our key, experienced players playing games and the challenge with that is that we don’t control that, unfortunately.’’
The leagues in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States don’t start up again until March and April, and with the pandemic still raging around the world, it’s hard to know when the Ferns will next assemble, but in the meantime, Sermanni and his staff are on call if their players need them.
‘‘It’s just about keeping in touch, seeing how they’re playing, that the environment they’re in is OK, and just being available to help them with whatever kind of help they need,’’ he said.
‘‘Whether it’s help from me in a coaching sense, whether it’s help from Alice [Noyer] in an analysis sense, whether it’s Riley [O’Meagher] in a physical training sense, or whether it’s Dom [Vetisse] in a mental wellness sense.’’