Football Coaches Australia lifting the quality of world game to new heights

Staff Writer
XVenture
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Football Coaches Australia and XVenture have announced a new initiative which gives coaches and players easy access to the body of work which has been built by XVenture CEO Mike Conway, the emotional and mind coach who worked with Sydney FC during their record-breaking years and the Socceroos on their journey to achieving 11th place in the 2022 World Cup.

The new initiative, available from today at the FCA XV College, provides discounted access to the “Winning Minds Team Package” where coaches and their players will be able to learn, grow, develop, and apply the principles of Essential Skills for individual and team success.

Any community or accredited coach who signs up to the “Winning Minds Package” at Football Coaches Australia and XVenture College will get access to modules in emotional intelligence, leadership, culture, and communication. Then 16 players (or parents) from their team, will be provided free access to the Foundation program of 20 subjects.  For each completed Module, coaches will also receive 30 CPD points towards license re-validation.

Football Coaches Australia CEO, Glenn Warry, said:

“To date, over 500 coaches from grassroots to elite have undertaken the FCA XV Essential Skills Program from Australia, New Zealand, India, Vietnam, Greece, and Sri Lanka. This new initiative is not about dollars and commercial gain.”

“This is about FCA and XVenture working together to provide coaches and their players the opportunity for greater success on and off the pitch. It’s about Essential Skills, for coaching and life.

“FCA is also seeking to support accredited coaches to attain their 100 CPD points to re-validate their respective FA coach licence by providing exclusive access to world leading professional development.”

Essential Skills Alumni, Drew Taylor, who is the Director of Football, Coach and Player Development at Newington College, said:

“I highly recommend having a look at undertaking the course for anyone wanting to better understand and/or develop emotional intelligence, communication, leadership, resilience and culture.”

Mike Conway added regarding his FIFA World Cup 2022 experience:

“I’ve spent some time reflecting on my experience in working with Graham Arnold, players and all the other staff involved in the 2022 World Cup Campaign and why we were successful.

“From my point of view, the answer lies in the deep connection, cohesion, trust, and commitment of those involved together with the incredible energy of support which we felt throughout the campaign. It was the same during my tenure at Sydney FC with 5 trophies won in 3 years.

“I’m now even more convinced that when we’re all on the same page regarding emotional intelligence, communication, culture, roles and relationships, amazing things can happen. So, we’re offering this new initiative, at a cost- effective price for coaches and no additional charge for players.”

Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) Co-Chief Executive Beau Busch outlined that the initiative would help Australian football to enhance the continual development of current and future coaches and PFA members.

“A number of PFA members have worked with Mike over a number of years in an effort the very best out of themselves,” he said.

“We are delighted that through this initiative more of our members will now be able to get access to the FCAXV Essential Skills Program through their coaches.”

One player who has appreciated Conway’s work is Harry Souttar.

Souttar told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2021: “It’s been a massive help in my progression as a footballer and as a human being as well, I’m going to be honest. For me, still being young, when you see older pros like Maty (Ryan) working with him, and he’s played how many times in the Premier League and had an unbelievable career … if he’s still doing that at his age, why should I not be doing this at my age?”

The Winning Minds Package is now available at www.fcaxvcollege.com for $140 during April and May.

For players who are keen to get access, please forward this information to your coach and encourage them to sign up for the Winning Minds Team Package.

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Football West’s Female Football Week draws record engagement from Metropolitan Perth to Remote Kunurra

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Image Credit: Football West

Football West has wrapped up its 2026 Female Football Week with activations spanning metropolitan Perth, regional Western Australia and national online platforms, as participation data from the state’s most remote football association underlined the scale of demand for women’s and girls’ football beyond the city.

Kununurra Soccer Association, situated in the East Kimberley more than 3,000 kilometres from Perth, recorded 47 new female registrations aged 7 to 12 across the first two terms of 2026 through Football West’s Junior Girls United program, representing a 30 percent increase in female membership that coaches Hannah Grominsky and Evie Marchetti described as overwhelming.

“The support from the community has been simply awesome,” Grominsky said. “We’re up to nearly 50 registered girls now. The majority of them have never played before or aren’t part of our association, so it’s great to give them a positive football experience in a comfortable environment.”

The program, supported by the Federal Government’s Play Our Way grant, now runs every Wednesday and has extended football activity into the cooler months of the Kimberley calendar, a season when the association would not traditionally operate. The result is a cohort of players new to the game, in a region where access to organised sport has historically been constrained by geography, infrastructure and seasonality.

Recognition across the state

Back in Perth, Female Football Week’s centrepiece event was the Women in Football Celebrate You Breakfast at the Sam Kerr Football Centre, featuring two panel discussions covering officiating pathways, coaching development and advocacy for women in football.

Subiaco AFC NPL Women’s head coach Christine Coppin, who is one of few women coaching at her level in the region, said events like the breakfast were critical to making the pathway visible for others.

“I’d love to see more women coaches putting their hat in the ring, both at junior and senior levels, realising that there’s more to football than just playing,” Coppin said. “They can stay involved in the sport as they get older in different ways.”

A regional Women in Football Breakfast in Albany drew more than 30 attendees, while a Girls Day Out event in the same city attracted more than 50 participants aged 6 to 16 for a come-and-try introduction to the game, extending the week’s reach into the Great Southern and reinforcing Football West’s stated commitment to building women’s football outside metropolitan areas.

Recognising those who make it happen

The week’s awards, nominated by the WA public, recognised five individuals whose contributions to female football across the state were judged most significant over the past year. Cassandra Paxman of Albany Rovers FC was named Coach of the Year, Georgia Whitelaw of Great Southern JSA and Albany JSA took Referee of the Year, Karen Harris of Carramar Shamrock Rovers FC was named Volunteer of the Year, Georgia Aiesi of Mandurah City FC received the Player of the Year award, and Melissa Spillman of Football Futures Foundations was named Community Champion of the Year— a recognition she also received at the national level.

Football West Female Football and Advocacy Manager Sarah Carroll said the week had reinforced both the momentum and the responsibility facing the sport.

“Female Football Week continues to showcase the incredible passion and growing appetite for the women’s game,” Carroll said. “It’s a reminder of how important it is that we keep working together to drive the game forward.”

The contrast between a packed breakfast at the Sam Kerr Football Centre and a Wednesday afternoon program in Kununurra working around wet season schedules captures something essential about where women’s football in Western Australia actually lives. The growth is real, and it is happening in places the cameras do not always reach.

Tasmania’s State Budget Commits $350,000 to Football Facility Planning as $80 million Home of Football Moves Closer to Reality

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Image Credit: Football Tasmania

The Tasmanian State Government has committed $350,000 in seed funding for the next stage of planning for Football Tasmania‘s proposed Home of Football, moving the state’s most significant football infrastructure project closer to construction and signalling political recognition that demand for rectangular facilities in Tasmania has outgrown what currently exists.

The funding, confirmed in the 2026-27 State Budget handed down last week, sits within an almost $200 million investment in sport and recreation across the budget and forward estimates: a package the government describes as designed to improve access and participation for Tasmanians of all ages. The football allocation is listed alongside a $25 million community sporting infrastructure commitment at Kingborough, $12.5 million for new multipurpose indoor sporting courts at New Town Bay, and $8 million for the Domain Tennis Centre redevelopment.

Football Tasmania CEO Tony Pignata OAM welcomed the commitment as an acknowledgement of the structural gap between participation numbers and available infrastructure, particularly in the state’s south.

“The State Government’s delivery on this commitment shows us that they understand that demand outstrips supply for rectangular facilities in the state,” Pignata said. “If we are to continue to grow and develop future Matildas and Socceroos, we need to invest in the infrastructure our game so desperately needs.”

The proposed $80 million facility would include six full-sized pitches, three synthetic and three turf, alongside four five-a-side pitches, modern changerooms for both men and women, and dedicated training facilities. The design is intended to serve every level of the game simultaneously, from grassroots junior competitions through to national-level tournaments.

From grassroots to A-League ambitions

Football Tasmania has framed the facility’s purpose across a deliberately wide range of uses. At the community end, it would provide a permanent home for junior games and regional tournaments that currently compete for limited rectangular ground availability across the state. At the elite end, it would create the capacity to host national competitions including the Emerging Matildas and Emerging Socceroos Championships, flagship state competitions such as the Statewide Cup finals, and potentially, in time, an A-League team.

That last ambition is the most significant and the most distant. Pignata was measured but direct in raising it, situating a Tasmanian A-League club alongside the NBL’s Jackjumpers, the WNBL’s Jewels and the AFL’s Devils as part of the state’s emerging identity as a home for national sporting competition.

“One day down the track, we anticipate this would become home to our very own A-League team, so that we take our rightful place in the nation’s elite competition,” he said.

The pathway from planning funding to A-League admission is long and would require sustained political and commercial support well beyond the current commitment. But the logic is consistent with how football infrastructure investment has worked elsewhere in Australia. The facility comes first, and the competitive pathway follows. Without a purpose-built ground that meets the standards required for elite competition, the conversation about an A-League team cannot begin in earnest.

The equity dimension

The inclusion of modern women’s and men’s changerooms in the facility’s design carries more weight than it might appear. Community and semi-professional football facilities across Australia have historically been built to male standards, with women’s changerooms added as afterthoughts or not included at all. That inadequacy has been consistently identified as a barrier to female participation and to the hosting of women’s competitions at venues that cannot accommodate them properly.

A purpose-built facility that treats women’s infrastructure as a design requirement rather than a retrofit positions the Home of Football to serve the growth of women’s football in Tasmania in a way that existing facilities cannot. The state recorded 41,395 registered football participants in 2025, a number that has been growing and that the current rectangular facility stock was not built to support at this scale.

Additionally, the government’s Ticket to Play program, which provides eligible children with two vouchers worth up to $100 each for sporting participation, and the Ticket to Wellbeing program offering $100 vouchers to eligible seniors, represent indirect but meaningful support for football participation across the state’s communities.

Pignata also acknowledged outgoing Football Tasmania President Bob Gordon, who he said had dedicated almost a decade to the organisation and had been instrumental in lobbying for this and other facilities across the state.

The $350,000 planning commitment is a beginning. The $80 million facility it is intended to progress remains subject to further government investment and development approval.

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