Without a doubt the hottest topic that we have every year at the club, as well as every football club and every other sporting club for that matter, is your team coaches.
As a club we absolutely recognise and agree that your child’s enjoyment of the game can be directly related to the experience that they have with their coach. Much in the same way that your child’s experience at their school at class level is directly linked to the relationship they have with their teacher.
Coach Michael is our club coach coordinator and the responsibility of finding coaches is one of his daily tasks. A task that has become increasingly difficult year after year, in fact this year he has reported that he “has never spent so much time on finding coaches this year” compared to previous seasons.
Why?
All statistics show that club football in Australia is booming like never before. Which in turn means more players, more teams and the need for more coaches; put simply there are just not enough coaches to go around.
Added to that we are a community club, so in essence we are at the bottom of the football heap when it comes to choosing a pathway for coaches compared to other clubs further up the pecking chain. Again statistics have shown over and over again that in community clubs the coaches that have the best input into younger teams are the parent coaches. Coaches that know, from experience, how to manage young children.
The advent of new junior NPL teams in season 2020 means that more experienced coaches are drifting towards those NPL clubs and not to the community clubs. It means that the coaching pool is getting smaller and smaller at our level.
All of the reasons listed doesn’t mean that we give up on finding coaches but what it does point to is that, as a community club, we are likely to get more and more less experienced coaches for our teams which in turn means they will need strong parental support.
Alternatively some younger teams might be better off with one or two parent coaches, who will get club support in regards to football knowledge. If this is something that you would be interested in doing please contact coach Michael at coaches@mfcc.com.au
Overall the job of finding coaches for your child’s team is a difficult one but not something that we take lightly. We always try our best but sometimes our best is not good enough.
Your input and involvement as a parent and possibly a Team Manager can make the difference between a good year and a great year. Please keep this in mind for season 2020 ahead.
Yours truly, Kevin Milstein
MFCC President
