Feature Image: Rachel Bach
Alamein FC head coach Sinisa Cohadzic has penned a special column for The Corner Flag, detailing his thoughts on the future of womens football in Victoria, and how the sport has to progress, should it wish to compete at an elite level with the rising threat of other sports in Australia.
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This article that I am writing and presenting is because of my concern in the direction that women’s football in Victoria is going.
There are a lot of reasons I have decided to write this. I am passionate about this game and hold myself to a high degree of professionalism at any level that I am involved. My concern in the women’s game is the direction we are going in, what the people in charge are doing to make the game better and how we are going to keep the players in the game competing with other sports codes.
I will further outline each of my concerns but keep in mind that this is only my opinion. Hopefully my involvement in the competition’s recruiting and coaching over the last three years, my qualifications and my knowledge of the game can transfer credibility for you to understand my concerns and the direction we should be looking to go in.
NPLW and the number of clubs
It was a great decision by the FFV to start the NPLW with eight teams; that final outcome was achieved after in-depth research looking at past figures and results across each state to come to that conclusion. In my opinion – after the first year of competition – eight teams proved to be the right number of clubs for the quality of players across all age groups in Victoria.
In the first couple of rounds, some teams needed a bit of time to adjust to the league but after that, it has become more competitive and every single team on the day had a chance of winning the game. It’s been a good and satisfactory first year in the league and the FFV’s media coverage of the game should be applauded.
Clubs have done well to promote the game and organise themselves both financially and resource-wise to finish the season. We have to be mindful that each club is made up of only four teams. Financially it is not easy dealing with that amount of player fees to pay a technical director, coaches and staff, as well as equipment and the hiring of grounds.
Quality-wise, there was just enough number of players to have eight teams. I was involved in every age group this year at Alamein FC and closely followed each age group in every game of the season. I am one of the only coaches in the league that has done that, which means my understanding of the quality across all age groups in the league and potential is backed up with my observation of the whole NPLW.
Now my concern comes in adding another team. We can agree all that there is an increase in number of players which is great for the game, but that does not mean quality.
We must understand that we redeveloped old the WPL into the new NPLW because we wanted to progress to a more semi-professional set-up to create a high quality league that consists of players that will be able to challenge and develop eventually to become W-League players or even a Matilda.
With that observation, my conclusion is that we are not even close to having enough quality in the present eight teams altogether, which means we are not ready to add another team.
The Under 18’s league has not given me any confidence that we have a minimum of 5-10 players that are ready to step up and play senior football next year, which is a big concern. I am impressed with the quality in Under 15’s age group and lot of those players will be ready in two-three years’ time to step up and play senior football. It is still too early to say in regards to the Under 13’s age group as they are all in the early development phase. Within the next two-three years, we will be able to really judge them.
That is the reason it is too early to add another team in the league.
NTC is another personal concern of mine as I think that it would be probably better to have those kids spread out playing in existing teams instead of adding another team. We as clubs should go through the scouting identification process to pick players that can be brought into the NTC environment once a week to get ready for National Championships each year.
I believe that NTC program has been beneficial for lot of young players but we have to look at the facts. When a program is self-funded from each player at state level, something is not right. With each club at NPLW level having very qualified and capable coaches in charge, that should be enough for these players to develop in a club environment.
Adding another club this year then another following year will just bring us a step backwards to where we were originally with WPL in previous years. Do we want this? Did we go through the whole process of restructuring to get back to where we were?
I would like to hear the opinions of other people involved at this level because through discussion of our opinions, we really need to do what is best for the game. There are a lot of capable people at this level who have great opinions about the direction womens football is going and we need to listen.
Player commitment and competing with other codes
In the rules of the NPLW, it clearly states that players should not receive any payments for playing. This needs to change.
Firstly, it needs to be known that women commit the same amount of time as men at NPLW level; three times a week training and a game on the weekend. It is very hard to do that if some players have university, jobs or parenting commitments. In return, they are not allowed to get financially rewarded.
How are we supposed to keep these girls interested and committed to the game? How can I ask a player why are they’re going on holidays or why they aren’t coming to training? I have no right as a coach to ask them because they don’t get rewarded or paid for what they do. They depend on finishing university and finding a job that will pay for their lifestyle.
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Some players aged 25 or older are already thinking how they are going to form a family, so why would they keep on committing to a game when they get nothing in return? We are talking about a semi-professional NPLW level where we really want it to become the stepping stone for players to go to W-League or into national teams. We are losing players to AFL at the moment because money keeps coming in from their sport. We need to somehow start matching it quality-wise and financially.
If a men’s NPL club can get sponsorship funds of $150,000 minimum for a season. I don’t see why each women’s club can’t have a budget of $50,000 to keep these players interested and rewarded. Going back to the NTC program, it’s appalling that a player who gets picked to go to a National Championship has to pay their own way to compete at the highest level in the country. At the end of the day, these players are classified as the best in the country and should be rewarded for their talent.
We need to change all this because it’s coming to a point where it’s crucial that we match these other codes in every way. Competition format, level of competition, financial incentives, but most importantly media and sponsorship coverage.
Conclusion
FFV have done a great job in terms of their media coverage of the NPLW this year, but the decision to enter another team in my opinion has come too soon.
Oversight or not, they failed to communicate with of the most important stakeholder groups, the coaches of the league. They’re the ones that know what the quality of the league is and if we are ready to add more numbers. Now, although it is too late change some things, we can address other things I have stated above.
We need to do everything to support women players and give them some kind of financial security to rely on to commit to this wonderful game. It has to be planned and ideas need to be put on the table between the clubs and the FFV. This is the only way we can rival the new codes and the financial incentives they are giving players to switch from football.
Let’s strive to unite and work more closely with each other so we can get the best outcome and incentives to support players on their way of achieving their dreams of becoming the next Matildas representative. Let’s make this level of competition more professional and enjoyable for every player so their only focus is on playing and competing at the highest level.
I hope this article helps all the people that are involved in the game at the women’s level and bring us closer together.
I hope this brings all the people that are involved in the game at women’s level closer together; the stakeholders, FFV, media and sponsors can work together to make this beautiful game the most popular of all the codes.