Inside the Football Ferns program that takes on the boys
The women’s game is taking a new approach, writes Andrew Voerman.
When the Football Ferns returned from Rio last year, there was genuine concern that their external funding could run dry.
From 2013 to 2016, they received $3.5m from High Performance Sport New Zealand, to help them try to succeed at their pinnacle events – the 2015 World Cup in Canada and the 2016 Olympics.
But as it turned out, they didn’t, failing to make it past the group stage at either one.
That left continued support from HPSNZ in doubt – its chief concerns are medals and world titles, and based on their recent efforts, the Ferns were still some way from either of those.
A 300-page plan, ‘From Credible to Incredible,’ was prepared, a presentation made to HPSNZ, and in mid-December, they received the good news – $1.5m in guaranteed funding over the next three years. That’s down from $800,000 last year to $500,000 this year and the next two, but NZ Football has stepped up to match that figure and then some, leaving the Ferns program in a healthy financial state. Which is good, because there remains plenty work to be done.
As Ferns coach Tony Readings puts it: ‘‘If you’re playing in the northern premier league one week, then playing against the US in the Olympics the next, that gap is too big."
To bridge that gap, the domestic Football Ferns development program has been revamped so that it mimics a professional environment as much as possible, to help players improve with the aim of fast tracking them out of New Zealand and into professional clubs. As well as receiving a funding cut, the Ferns were de-carded by HSPNZ at the end of last year, losing access to a range of athlete support services, but through this program NZ Football has tried to compensate for that as much as possible.
That revamp was publicly revealed two weeks ago, but has been implemented over the past couple of months, under the watchful eye of Gareth Turnbull, who was previously the national under-17 women’s coach and NZ Football’s athlete development manager, and is now the national under-20 coach in addition to being in charge of this program.
Invites to join went to around 25 players aged 16 to 26 who have been deemed worth investing in for the current World Cup cycle, and whose inclusion will be subject to regular reassessment and review. There will be opportunities for those not immediately involved to join down the line if they are later deemed worthy of inclusion, or if those initially involved move on.
The invited players have not yet been named, but it is expected they will be this week. Midfielder Annalie Longo (who has 99 Ferns caps) and defender Meikayla Moore (who has 20), are believed to be among them, as are players from last year’s under-17 and under-20 World Cup squads.
The program is based in Auckland, though there will be players involved who live in Wellington and Christchurch – Longo is one of them. The Auckland-based players
will train four nights a week, and play games on Thursdays or Sundays, or sometimes both. The timing of those trainings and matches has been locked in for the rest of the year, to allow players to fit work and study commitments around them more easily, which helps ease one of the issues highlighted by former Ferns captain Abby Erceg when she announced her retirement last month.
But the most eye-catching development is that the Auckland group will play matches in the region’s second-tier under-17 boys’ conference competition, starting next Sunday, which will have a significant impact on the Northern Premier Women’s League that begins the same weekend.
It’s a move that has raised eyebrows, but as Turnbull explains, plenty of thought has gone into it.
‘‘We’ve experienced a whole lot of different age-groups and abilities, and based on the objectives of this programme, and the players we have in this program, we feel the under-17 conference is going to be a decent fit.
‘‘We find that with the better under-17s or older, the speed element, mainly of defenders, is a little bit false compared to what we experience at senior women’s international level.
‘‘We can play quite comfortably and hold our own against the boys, in terms of technique and the physical nature of the game, but in the final incision moment, when we play the ball in behind, the centre back will get to the ball before our strikers do, so we never get to experience the cross, or people making the runs – the final component of an attack.’’
In the second-tier conference, the speed element should be less of a factor, allowing the development program players to work on their play in the attacking third – an area of the Ferns’ game which was identified as one of two major weaknesses coming out of Rio, the other being a lack of physical strength.
Players involved in the program will be unavailable for large chunks of the winter club season, however, which has annoyed a few people at the seven Auckland clubs affected, who only found about the plans for the first time on February 22, a little over four weeks ago.
Turnbull says he understands their frustrations and that while the timing was unfortunate, they had little choice in the matter. HPSNZ’s funding decision was announced a week before Christmas, so the revamp couldn’t begin in earnest until January, and there was then a process NZ Football had to work through before it could talk to clubs, which they tried to complete as quickly as possible.
The extent of the impact on the club
We can play quite comfortably and hold our own against the boys, in terms of technique and the physical nature of the game. Gareth Turnbull
competition won’t be fully recognised until the end of the winter, but while the new-look program is more prescriptive than it has been previously, senior and age-group international commitments have led to player unavailability in the past, so it is not entirely out of the blue.
‘‘We are taking players out of the local league – by their choice – but it’s for the betterment of the players,’’ said Turnbull.
‘‘And it’s up to other areas of the organisation to make the local game better. We are prepared to work with them, but we have to do what’s best for the players at a high-performance level, or we’re never going to close the gap."
Players not selected in the Ferns development team each week will be made available to play for their clubs if they wish, and players will also be released for games in the National Women’s Knockout Cup. The program will break for school holidays, as the boys’ league does, and it’s expected players could still be involved for as much as half of the club season. While the trainings and games are at the centre of the revamped program, a renewed push is also being made to help players find professional opportunities overseas.
NZ Football has offered support in the past, but the act of selling oneself to potential clubs has mostly been left up to individual players.
‘‘And what they’ve found is that if they send their footage or CV to a club, they’re less likely to get any interest than if Tony or NZ Football make contact in the first instance,’’ said Turnbull, who will take on being that salesman as part of his new role.
But while he will explore options anywhere he can find them, there is a particular focus on Australia, where the nineteam semi-professional W-League, played from November to February, has grown in stature in recent years.
Turnbull is making contact with teams already, and he plans to head across the Tasman to build those relationships further, and try to sell coaches on the players under his watch as best he can.
A New Zealand presence in the league through the Phoenix has long been mooted but until it does, pitching players to Australian teams is the next best option.
Last year, two New Zealanders played in the W-League – defender Rebekah Stott at Melbourne City and midfielder Kirsty Yallop at Melbourne Victory – and an early indication as to whether the revamped domestic programme is making an impact will be if that number grows come the end of this year.