Test cricket back on Boxing Day menu
Andreas Heraf has cut his ties with New Zealand Football but don’t expect the dozen Football Ferns who refused to play under the controversial coach to end their international mutiny straight away.
While former Ferns player Katie Duncan believes Heraf’s resignation will eventually provide the catalyst for their return, she said trust will need to be rebuilt between the players and NZF before they recommit to the national team.
"Obviously they will reconsider their stance and the new coach will need to be appointed. But it still really depends on who they are going to get to replace him and if changes happen,’’ Duncan said.
‘‘I’m sure they just won’t be ‘this was the decision’ and then they’ll be straight back in. There will need to be things that are looked at, for sure.’’
Duncan called for Heraf’s resignation in the wake of New Zealand’s 3-1 loss to Japan in June as she was ‘‘furious’’ with his ultra-defensive tactics and even more so with the ‘‘disrespectful’’ comments he made in the post-match press conference, where he conceded New Zealand could never compete with a team of that calibre.
She said Heraf’s position had become untenable after being placed on special leave last month, and she was relieved to hear Heraf had finally resigned from his roles as Football Ferns coach and technical director yesterday.
‘‘For the outsiders the writing was on the wall in a way. It all started with him after the [Japan] game putting his foot in it and in my eyes he’s continued to do that.’’
Heraf refused to comment when contacted by Stuff, hanging up the phone on two separate occasions.
Duncan said it was ‘‘disappointing’’ and ‘‘sad’’ that the Ferns environment had become so toxic during Heraf’s reign that as many as 12 players reached the point where they could no longer represent New Zealand, writing complaints which are understood to have centred around an unprofessional culture of bullying and intimidation.
She also revealed Heraf tried to convince her to return to the Ferns, having successfully lured Abby Erceg and Sarah Gregorius back into the fold for their twogame series against Scotland earlier in the year. But Duncan said she had concerns about his lack of experience in the women’s game and she was not prepared to give up her jobs as a teacher and coach in order to add to her 119 international caps.
Although Duncan said the Heraf saga has been a ‘‘setback’’ for the Ferns, she said there was still time to rebuild under a new regime ahead of next year’s World Cup.
Now Andy Martin and Andreas Heraf have gone the blowtorch must be applied to the New Zealand Football board.
The sport’s stakeholders must ask the hard questions about how Martin became chief executive and Heraf technical director.
Martin, who had a banking background and a MBA qualification, had been chief executive at English rugby premiership strugglers London Irish.
Heraf, a former Austrian international, was appointed to the high performance role after coaching Austria at the 2015 under-20 world championships in New Zealand.
Martin quit last month after four years and Heraf fell on his sword yesterday. Neither man seemed to have a feel for New Zealand’s football culture.
Martin could point to a burgeoning bank balance – boosted by receipts from the World Cup inter-continental playoff against Peru – but he showed a disturbing lack of leadership over the mutiny against Heraf when Football Ferns women’s internationals accused their new coach of bullying.
There were a number of snafus on Martin’s watch.
New Zealand were booted out of the 2016 Olympic Games qualifying tournament after fielding defender Deklan Wynne, who did not qualify to play for New Zealand under Fifa regulations.
Martin also blotted his copybook with Kiwis after urging New Zealand football fans to give Peru ‘‘a hostile welcome’’ before last November’s World Cup playoff in Wellington, earning the ire of the Peruvian public and media and prompting retaliatory action when Peruvian air force planes buzzed the All Whites’ hotel in Lima.
Heraf was never destined for a long tenure with the Ferns after insisting on a dour, defensive style of football and then claiming New Zealand teams were not good enough to compete with sides such as Japan. He was stood down pending an internal review after players wrote official complaints to New Zealand Football.
While cooling his heels at home on ‘‘special leave’’, Heraf cooked his goose through his own hubris after giving a damning interview to an Austrian newspaper where he accused the Ferns of a ‘‘conspiracy’’ and of being more interested in making fun videos and social media posts than his ‘sophisticated’ European coaching standards.
It’s a little ironic Heraf is now refusing to comment to New Zealand media after flapping his
Was Heraf’s appointment a classic case of a bunch of governors being seduced by a sexy CV without delving deeper?
gums in his homeland.
Was Heraf’s appointment a classic case of a bunch of governors being seduced by a sexy CV without delving deeper?
The current New Zealand Football board has members with business acumen and grassroots football involvement and its governance performance has had a glowing review from Sport New Zealand.
But there is a serious lack of high performance football experience. None of the present board have played or coached at the international top-level.
The best boards have a blend of business brainpower and sports savvy.
Take New Zealand Rugby’s for example. It has career company directors and former provincial union chairmen but also boasts Mark Robinson, an ex-All Black centre and former Taranaki Rugby Union CEO, plus two former New Zealand rugby greats, ex-All Black flanker Sir Michael Jones and Black Ferns legend Farah Palmer.
It’s hard to imagine a Heraf being appointed by a New Zealand Rugby board with such high performance heft.
Former All Whites goalkeeper Frank van Hattum chaired NZF’s board for six years – presiding over the All Whites’ march to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa, although one of his final acts was to rubber-stamp Martin’s appointment.
New Zealand Football needs more van Hattums at the board table or in a high performance advisory group.
What chance would there have been of Heraf hoodwinking the likes of ex-All Whites defender and forensic psychiatrist Ceri Evans, Ryan Nelsen, Tim Brown and Simon Elliott, Wynton Rufer, Michael McGarry, veteran coaches Kevin Fallon, Roger Wilkinson and Barrie Truman and eminent former Football Ferns such as Wendi Henderson, Maia Jackman and Rebecca Smith?