Football Coaches Australia (FCA) features Tom Sermanni, Head Coach of the Football Ferns, in the ‘The Football Coaching Life’ podcast with former Socceroo, & host the series, Gary Cole.
The podcasts highlight the stories behind the journeys of Australia’s football coaches, from current and former Socceroos and Matildas managers to those who coach at a community football level.
Cole, a member of FCA’s Executive Committee, believes the information and insights that can be gathered throughout the conversations in the podcast will be extremely beneficial for up-and-coming coaches, as well as the wider football community.
“Episodes of the podcast will showcase Australian coaches in a way that isn’t usually explored. I think it’s very important for coaches to hear these conversations,” he stated.
“Understanding why it is so important to know why you want to do this, learning how important developing resilience is for coaching longevity and understanding what success looks like. I’ve been around Australian football for fifty years and I have been amazed at how much I have learned from these fantastic conversations.”
The first instalments of the podcast has seen the former Socceroos assistant coach speak with some of Australia’s most successful coaches.
“The first episode was an amazing conversation with arguably Australia’s most successful coach in Ange Postecoglou, Head Coach at Yokohama F. Marinos. He was very generous with his time and this conversation was open, honest and filled with his great passion for our game,” Cole said.
“In Episode Two Tom Sermanni has a very relaxed and humorous style and talks about his growth and development as a coach.
Tom is arguably one of Australia’s most successful coaches. He has been to five FIFA Women’s World Cups, three with the Matildas (1995, 2007 and 2011), one with Canada as an assistant coach (2015) and the fifth with New Zealand in France (2019). He has won the Algarve Cup (2013) with USA, the Asian Cup with the Matildas (2010), he was also named AFC Coach of the Year (2007) and is all set to take New Zealand’s, Football Ferns to the delayed 2020 Olympic Games.
“The wisdom in these two conversations is incredible! Both Ange and Tom have been to twelve FIFA World Cups between them, they are both still striving to improve their players, their teams and themselves.
Making Media Australia director, Ralph Barba, who specialises in film and radio production, has supported Cole in delivering the project.
The podcast, with Tom Sermanni, can be listened to here.
