Gareth Turnbull was playing for Canterbury United and coaching a Mainland Football boy’s team when a friend asked him to coach the 12^th grade girls side through a tournament.

The team placed second and Turnbull stayed with them at Coastal Spirit FC. Then he took the premier women’s side there. Then came the Mainland Pride, the New Zealand U-17s and U-20s.

In 2017, Turnbull was appointed head coach of the Future Ferns Domestic Programme (FFDP). This week, Turnbull leaves New Zealand Football after four years and reflected on his tenure.

Following the 2016 Rio Olympics, the FFDP was developed as an academy-style programme which would train in the evenings to allow players to balance other commitments. The programme had a clear goal, Turnbull said.

“The vision was to help the Football Ferns win on the world stage,” he said.

“That meant developing more professional footballers and helping the domestic-based players raise their level so they could really push the overseas pros when they were away on camp.”

T
urnbull has seen the FFDP transition from a total mirror of the Football Ferns, to an independent programme.

“The overriding goal of helping the Ferns win has remained. But time perhaps could have been spent more wisely giving players tactical flexibility for the professional environment. So now we change shape every six weeks, so players experience different problems on the pitch for at least a period of time.”

The focus on professional readiness has also led to a new technical emphasis this year, which Turnbull says enables the programme to cater for a wide range of players. He sees these shifts as key improvements during his tenure.

Even as it has evolved, Turnbull’s time with the FFDP has clear evidence of its success. He cites the eight professional graduates – CJ Bott, Meikayla Moore, Jana Radosavljevic, Aimee Phillips, Katie Rood, Emma Rolston and Victoria Esson – as examples of the programme achieving its goals.

“The thing with CJ and Mouse (Moore) is that they’re playing consistently at the professional level. Helping them find the right environment has been a really big win. I also think the next generation coming through are at a higher technical base.”

Turnbull was also happy to have worked so closely with Alana Gunn and Gemma Lewis.

“They’re two really bright, energetic, talented coaches in the women’s game. Hopefully, good parts of me have shaped how they look at coaching,” he said.

Lewis has been appointed as the next head coach of the FFDP. Turnbull hopes that he has left a solid starting point for her to take to the next level.

“The FFDP is embedded as part of the landscape now. At the very least, I know the FFDP will see a continuation of what it is about now: the individual, patience, challenging fixtures. But there’s scope for it to be bigger, maybe with regional hubs one day."

Reflecting on his time, Turnbull was most proud of the 5-0 win the Football Ferns claimed over Thailand during his time as interim assistant coach.

“That was a high point,” he said.

Another highlight was his experience at the 2018 FIFA U-20 World Cup in France, as well as the 2016 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Jordan.

At the U-20 tournament, he was proud as his team held the host nation, “a side full of professionals”, to a 0-0 draw.

Turnbull said the future of the women’s game in this country is bright.

“The previous age-group World Cups show we’re starting to not just compete but succeed.”

Article added: Wednesday 03 July 2019