MWFA

The 2024 season was another very successful year for Coach Development in MWFA, with more than 900 coaches supported across a variety of coaching courses and workshops, as well as training session and match visits. Overall, 15% of coaches supported through courses and mentoring were females.

This total does include a number of repeat customers, however this is also an indication of the positive experience that coaches have had when attending our courses, and the ongoing value they provide. Similarly, more than 30 coaches from outside of the Northern Beaches travelled to take advantage of the opportunity to attend our Coach Development events.

797 coaches in total attended 12 x MiniRoos courses, 3 x Foundation of Football courses, 9 x Coach Workshops, 6 x Game Leader workshops, 2 x club based coach meetings and 1 x C-Diploma.

Despite many weeks of washed out training sessions and matches, we were still able to support 116 coaches through personalised mentoring with their actual teams in their own environments, which is the most effective way to help them learn ‘on the job’.

The combined total is not as many as our record season in 2023 where we supported over 1,000 coaches, but we will likely reach a similar number once 2 further Coach Workshops, another C-Diploma and the Future Coaches Program, all scheduled to be completed before the end of the year, are added in. This is largely due to the high number of dates made available across different clubs and spread out across the entire season, providing plenty of follow up development opportunities to encourage long term learning.

MWFA Coach Development Manager Eugene Lawrenz was obviously very satisfied with this outcome, after a very busy but productive year despite the challenges with the weather.

“It’s been a complicated season, but I’m very happy with the overall result. Credit to all of the coaches who develop themselves for the sake of their players, especially those who’ve come back more than once. Most importantly, although there is still plenty of work to do, every year we are seeing an increasing number of players having a positive experience in the sport, with more engaging and game-realistic training sessions, and player-centered coaching. I would like to express my thanks to all of the clubs who hosted and helped promote all of our events this season, as well as acknowledge the hard work and quality of support that was provided to coaches by my team, in particular the Coach Mentors who made a big effort to be available as often as they did: Gregor Agic, Marilinda Winter, James Mitchell, Catriona Ormond, Sai van Wegen, Patty Faria and Gareth Banks.”

The MWFA Coach Development team would like to wish every player, coach, club volunteer and parent a safe and happy holidays, and we look forward to seeing more quality football in 2025.

Do you wish you had a mentor to help you develop as a coach, but finding someone willing and able (and available) is difficult?
Do you want more regular opportunities to develop your knowledge and skills beyond the occasional courses and workshops on offer?
And are you motivated to push yourself as a coach as far as you possibly can, and not afraid to be challenged?

MWFA is pleased to announce that applications for our Future Coaches Program in 2024 are now open.

This is a 10-week intensive mentoring program designed to identify, develop and reward aspiring football coaches within MWFA, whether they have ambitions to progress to higher levels, or simply want to be the best coaches they can be.

All sessions will take place on Wednesday nights from 6:30pm at Cromer Park on the following dates.

October 16, 23 and 30
November 6, 13, 20 and 27
December 4, 11 and 18

Additionally, special guest mentors and experienced coaches will be invited to join these sessions to share their feedback and advice, and other optional sessions with a practical focus will be offered on top of the core dates. There is also the potential for coaches in this program to gain paid coaching opportunities with MWFA, MWFA clubs and/or Manly United.

The program will cover content relevant to the participants, including potential areas such as training sessions, match day coaching, video analysis, periodisation, leadership, man management and personal development.

This will be a very intensive and challenging program where participants will be expected to show a high level of commitment and push each other to raise the bar as high as possible. 100% attendance is required and punctuality will also be important – coaches who cannot lead by example are not suitable for this program.

To express your interest, please fill in the application form here: https://manlyunited.wufoo.com/forms/mwfa-2024-future-coaches-program-applications/

Applications close on Sunday September 22.

Over the last few months, MWFA has been sending our Coach Mentors out to visit all of our clubs to provide coaches with guidance and support with their training sessions, as well as occasional match visits. During this time we have come across several examples of coaches who are doing a really great job.

This week we’d like to acknowledge Ben Walker who coaches the U8 Goannas at Seaforth.

See this video to check out some highlights of their recent training session, as well as some quick interviews with the coach!

MWFA Coach Development Manager Eugene Lawrenz said: “Ben is a very organised coach, as he always comes to training with a clear plan, and he is always reflecting on how he can help his players improve their skills in every session, not just ‘putting on drills’. He always includes competition and makes sure they are fun, which his players respond really well to. Ben’s manner is great for this age group, as he is calm, patient and encouraging, while he also improving at finding the right balance between trying to teach as much as he can without disrupting the flow of the games too much.” 

Well done Ben, and keep up the good work!

As a reward and recognition for their efforts, we are also pleased to provide their team with a few special gifts:

• extra training balls, because every coach wishes they had more balls to use so they can do exercises where every player has a ball each to work on their control
• mini goals, because scoring into actual goals always makes training more fun, and finishing is a skill we should encourage players to develop ever more
• a whiteboard, so coaches can help players understand their positions and how to support each other visually, which is much more effective than just using words

MWFA would like to thank all coaches for their efforts this year, and we look forward to hopefully seeing you all again, and continuing to provide our support, in the 2025 season.