Coach Ronan Naicker has more than one goal in mind at the Futsal National Women’s League in Wellington this weekend. Naicker is aiming to win the tournament in his role in charge of the Canterbury United Pride but is also keeping an eye out for talent as he looks to put an U-18 Futsal Ferns team together to compete at the Youth Olympic Games.

Naicker made history by leading the inaugural U-18 Futsal Ferns to the OFC Youth Futsal Tournament title at the back end of last year – which brought qualification for the Youth Olympics this October – and is hoping to earn some more silverware at national level with the Pride over the next two days.

Canterbury are among the favourites after finishing fourth last time out and Naicker feels he has a promising set of players at his disposal but admits their preparations have not been ideal.

“We’ve had a number of players away or unavailable for different reasons, which is mostly just a consequence of the time of the year,” he says.

“Having said that, we have a talented young squad with a number of them making their debuts, so they will be keen to impress.”

Those in his own side won’t be the only ones looking to catch the eye of Naicker as places on the New Zealand squad that will travel to the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires later this year for the Youth Olympic are sure to be in hot demand.

While his primary focus will be on lifting the Futsal National Women’s League trophy with the Pride, Naicker intends to make the most of a rare chance to assess the talent on show in all teams.

“Every opportunity to monitor the girls in a competitive environment is crucial because we don’t get many opportunities with futsal,” he says.

“We work as a team to select these players and there are a number of coaches and staff involved in the futsal high performance set up that are in Wellington over the weekend watching. It will be good to see the younger girls given the opportunity to showcase their talents but, importantly, also their knowledge and understanding of the game.”

Now that a player pathway right to the top is in place with the introduction of the new national teams, Naicker believes events such as the national league have taken on increased importance.

“Our female futsal players now have pinnacle teams to aspire to, which makes these tournaments more attractive because of the opportunities they present,” he says.

He feels high-end competitions such as these need to be supplemented with the ongoing impressive work at grassroots level to continue to drive women’s futsal forward throughout the country.

“Futsal is steadily improving but there is still a lot of work to do. Our federation leads have done a lot of good work in the community space at junior, youth and school level with more girls playing each year,” he says.

“We have now have to work to provide these girls with quality coaching and opportunities to learn on a more regular basis, outside of the representative environment. I expect the national league to be stronger again because we have more girls playing regularly, with quality coaches leading each team.”

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To view the draw for the Futsal National Women's League please click here

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