New Ferns coach preaches harmony
With four words, new Football Ferns coach Tom Sermanni drew a line under a tumultuous period for the team.
‘‘I’m not a dictator,’’ the Scotsman said yesterday, shortly after his appointment was confirmed.
‘‘I’m not someone that screams and shouts, and their tonsils come out of their throat on the sideline. I’m a guy who tries to bring people together. I try to work cooperatively.’’
The distinction between him and the Ferns’ previous coach, Andreas Heraf, known to favour an authoritarian approach, couldn’t be clearer.
He resigned in July, before the completion of a review, allowing New Zealand Football to begin the recruitment process that led to the hiring of Sermanni, who has spent a decade in charge of Australia as well as a little over a year at the helm of the United States.
Sermanni is contracted until the end of next year’s World Cup in France, which the Ferns have to qualify for by winning the Oceania Women’s Nations Cup in New Caledonia next month, a task they should accomplish with ease, given they have never lost to a Pacific Island nation.
He will name his squad for that tournament early next week, and Sarah Gregorius is backing Tom Sermanni as the right person for the unique challenge of the Football Ferns coaching job.
Gregorius, an 85-cap Fern, said she was excited by the appointment, viewing Sermanni as the ideal coach to take them through to next June’s World Cup.
‘‘I absolutely think it’s positive. If you look at where we’re at in our programme a couple of weeks out from World Cup qualifiers and within a year of the World Cup, we need someone who can hit the ground running. You look at the experience that Tom has had and you’d definitely back him to do just that.’’
Gregorius said the Ferns job would pose a ‘‘unique’’ challenge for
they will gather in Auckland the week after that, ahead of their Nations Cup opener against Tonga on November 19.
When the Ferns come together in Auckland, it will be the beginning of Sermanni. ‘‘For us as a playing group, we’re now at the back end of what has been a pretty difficult time.
‘‘Obviously there is getting everything clicking on the field, but there is a huge piece around the offfield stuff too and rebuilding our identity and culture to get everyone connecting again after some pretty solid efforts to undo all of that.
‘‘It’s quite a unique challenge to have such on-field and off-field considerations in front of a new coach, but I’m pretty sure he’s the
an eight-month period where they will have two main goals – winning their first game at a World Cup, and making it to the knockout stage for the first time.
Sermanni is familiar with many guy to hit the ground running and address both those areas.’’
Phillipa Muir’s review of New Zealand Football noted the lack of pathways for women’s coaches and the recent appointments in the elite women’s coaching positions all going to men.
That has continued with Sermanni, but Gregorius said she hoped the Scotsman would help to develop those pathways.
‘‘It’s been really interesting that the lack of a female coaching pathway in New Zealand has been thrown up as one of the contributing issues to why we got to the place where we are.
‘‘I think they really do have to look now to address that, particularly when you’ve got someone of Tom’s calibre now coming into the
of the Ferns, having coached against them on several occasions, and will start his tenure by setting expectations that will underpin the team environment.
‘‘The first thing is I’ve got to programme. I’m pretty sure he’ll be more than willing to help us upskill our female coaches, or anyone who wants to coach in women’s football, it’s not limited to females.’’
Sermanni will have to get quickly into his work, with the Oceania Women’s Nations Cup in New Caledonia starting on November 18.
Gregorius was happy the focus could now shift back to the on-field part of football.
‘‘I know that it’s been a really, really difficult time for a lot of players and people associated with the game, but I’m certainly optimistic enough that we can put that behind us and really embrace the next nine months. I can’t wait to see the girls and get started on the next part of the journey and put to bed what has been a difficult few months.’’
explain to them what I expect from myself and my management team,’’ he said.
‘‘Without going into huge amounts of detail, the key thing I expect from myself and my management team is that we create an environment where players want to turn up every day and play for their team, whether that be a national team or a club team.
‘‘It’s my responsibility primarily and my staff’s responsibility that we create that environment for the players that they want to be part of. That’s the first thing we want to do.
‘‘The second thing is we need to say ‘this is what our expectations are from the players’.
‘‘Our expectation for the players is that they want to come every day, and they want to train every day, and they want to be challenged and they want to improve and they want to play for the team and in this case they want to play for their country.
‘‘Obviously the situation had reached a low ebb and when a situation reaches a crisis point with players saying they don’t want to play, there has to be something wrong within that environment, so it’s important for me now to go in and create an environment where players want to be.’’
During his playing days, Sermanni had a stint in New Zealand’s national league in 1977, making nine appearances for Christchurch United and scoring four goals.
‘‘I’m a guy who tries to bring people together. I try to work cooperatively.’’
Tom Sermanni, above