On Tuesday the NPL will broadcast the first part of an extended interview conducted with Nicola Williams, Coach of the Australian Under 13 Girls team. It's a terrific interview.
They are doing some outstanding things in WA and Football West for Football and Futsal. Recall the interview the NPL did with the Coach of the Football West Under 13 Boys in 2009 (Warren Grieve) - they had it all and a lot of them ended up being selected in the Australian Under 13 Team.
They play it out from the back in WA - they don't hoof it long!
You will quickly understand why Nicola is the Coach of this Australian team. She is very impressive. I'm hard pressed to recall many rep coaches who can speak so confidently and with such clarity about Football. Too many talk in cliches! She gives the best general introduction to the 1-4-3-3 playing system I've heard and I have listened to a few try to talk it through, but none as clear as Nicola Williams.
Nicola has lot to say about the Nationals, standard of play, technical assessment, the value of the All Stars match and what she is looking for when selecting players. Some good advice too for us community coaches. Nicola followed up the the players final selection process at AIS with detialed instructions to each player by way of preparation before they tour Vietnam. Very organised. Very smart!
Oh yes, Nicola is a teacher in WA at a high school that specialises in delivering Football as the primary co-curricular sports option (one of six!!). I told you they were going ahead in WA. Must be all that distance away from the FFA headquarters!
Next Tuesday the NPL will broadcast Part 1 of the interview, with Part 2 (the 1-4-3-3 playing system) to follow. By popular request, Part 2 will be put up on the blog next Tuesday as well as Part 1. Can't say fairer than that!