New Canberra United head coach Njegosh Popovich knows how to make an impression. Nickoletta Flannery’s return and the naming of an impressive mentorship group headline a feel-good recruitment campaign.
Popovich brings a deep pedigree in Canberra football to the role, as well as assistant coaching experience with both Canberra United and the Junior Matildas. We were keen to chat to Popovich about the forthcoming season, speaking to him after the players had undergone testing and their first few training sessions as a team.
“The testing on Saturday measured their high-speed meters, and what their yoyo ability [a fitness endurance test] was. And I was very impressed. To be honest, I love the competitive nature within the group.
“I can say that Michelle Heyman topped the speed, which wasn’t expected from some, but it was expected by me.”
“So that was a really good intro, and then coming into training on Monday for our first session was interesting. The players come together as a group, we played a game at the end, and I was very impressed with a few individuals.
“We’ve got a few players on trial this week. We’ve bought in from Sydney and Melbourne. From the trial match that we’d had previously, we identified four players and put them up in accommodation at the Institute (AIS). Their meals are catered for and everything, all they had to do was get their way here. We’re providing them with a training environment, to give them an opportunity to see how they’re going to fare amongst our players.
“Along with that we’ve brought in some girls from Canberra, around the Canberra environment, ACT, young ones who have … I don’t want to start naming too many names. But one of them has really impressed us. And don’t be surprised if she gets minutes this year as a young player.”
In communications with members recently, the club had flagged the possibility of two international arrivals. Canadian Kennedy Faulknor is one of them and there may soon be even more good news on the international signings front.
“We’ve got two hopefully, one of them [Faulknor] arrives Friday and fingers crossed the other player won’t be too far off. They are both very exciting players.
“I can tell you that both of them have full caps with their national team.”
“One is … a young centre-back, and the other one – that I’m still exploring – represents a country that has a lot of success in the women’s game, is in their first eleven and will be probably one of the major players for her country come the World Cup next year.”
Earlier in the recruitment campaign, there was some focus on NPL Victoria talent with four players from that league signed (Grace Jale, Holly Murray, Grace Taranto and Bec Burrows, who unfortunately sustained an injury late in Heidelberg United’s season).
“In the Victorian league, I guess it goes back to the juniors that we had from the last cycle. There was a massively talented group out of Victoria. And I wanted to go and have a little bit more of a look around there. I was familiar with Grace Taranto, within the first three signed were Bec Burrows and Grace Taranto. The loss of Bec coming into the season was [hard] … she was going to be our number six. She had everything that I needed, and watching her in that NPL environment, she was outstanding. I couldn’t believe that she didn’t have an A-League Women’s team.
“And then off the back of that we saw and identified a couple of others [Holly Murray, Emily Roach and Grace Jale], and gave them the opportunity to come in. Just on Bec, she’s in Canberra, the recovery has started. I’m hoping that she comes to full recovery for next season, and could be a really good prospect for us. She [was awarded] Players’ Player of the Year across the Victorian Premier League, even after missing the last four rounds with injury. A very impressive player.”
The longer season means that squad numbers are by necessity a little larger than in previous campaigns.
“We have a requirement to fulfil a quota. That’s a requirement with the APL [Australian Professional Leagues]. We need 17 full contracted players, and four scholarship players – there’s a higher requirement on scholarships than what there was previously. And I think we can have as many train-ons as we want.
“So if we look at that, we’re looking at a training environment having somewhere around the 26 mark, including probably four goalkeepers.”
Click here for the Beyond 90 A-Leagues Season 15 squads page.
The introduction of the mentorship group (Grace Gill, Nicole Begg, Ash Sykes and Caitlin Munoz) makes sense on a number of levels, not just for inspiration and guidance, but also as experienced heads for players to confide in.
These girls 💚💫 @CanberraUnited pic.twitter.com/kMfolJ1eCO
— Grace Gill (@gracegill9) June 28, 2020
“The reality of it for me is that … two heads are better than one. Four heads are better than two. They’re invested; they came to our first practice match and Caitlin came to the conditioning testing session to see where the players were at.
“They are players that have been there and done that.
“If you look at it, that, in my opinion, was the golden generation of Canberra football, and you can talk about my [men’s] football or female football, the reality of it is they were the golden generation of football full stop in this town.”
“I’m hoping to work towards replicating what they have achieved. It’s very important to have that experience around the group, [but we’re] putting no pressure on them in terms of them having to be at every single training session. They have done some media for us around announcements, it’s also a great balance within our group, we’ve got myself and Ant [Antoni Jagarinec], both male coaches. I like to have a little bit of that dynamic where the players may feel a little bit more comfortable, speaking with a woman on personal or health matters. I’m big, big, big on balance, and I think that we’re working really well together; the players, we have Phil [Booth], the technical director, we have Kelly [Stirton, also Paramatildas coach], who’s our manager, and Tim [Davies], our goalkeeping coach.
“I let everybody have their input … ultimately, without any doubt, it’s my head on the chopping block, so I’m going to make the final call. But it’s so much easier when you do get a confident uptake from everyone within the group.”
Popovich also has the luxury of Ellie Brush within the player group, who has as much Canberra United experience as anyone.
“Ellie’s working well, at the moment, she may not be as far progressed as what we would have liked to have seen with her recovery. But at the same token, we don’t want to rush it through, we want to make sure that we get the best out of her. We’ll give her the time that she needs to be able to get back on the park and make an impact and have her influence on the field. Even at training sessions, she is very influential.
“I’ve deliberately said to her look, I don’t want you to be part of the mentorship group, as a player. But that role is there for you in the event that for whatever reason, your body doesn’t get to the point where it needs to be. And knees are a funny thing. You know, at the moment, everything’s travelling really well. You have to remember that she’s had a double ACL, which is not an easy thing to get over mentally as well. So we’ll work towards giving her the best chance and the best opportunity to jump back in.”
In a Canberra United first, eight players have accepted two-year deals. It has been evident that a major factor in recent A-League Women’s success has been squad list continuity, and this is a major step towards guaranteeing that for the coming two seasons. Two-year deals are spread throughout the attacking (Michelle Heyman, Nickoletta Flannery, Grace Jale) and defensive (Emma Ilijoski, Hayley Taylor-Young, Sasha Grove, Holly Murray) lines as well as Chloe Lincoln in goals. The absence of a two-year deal in midfield does not however mean that a player won’t be there for two seasons, just that some flexibility is preferred.
“Exactly right; a couple of the players have ambitions to go play overseas and that’s fine, we never stand in the way of anybody doing so. They do want to have that flexibility, to get a really good year under their belt in the A-League and then hopefully get some scouts looking at them for some overseas opportunities. [Matildas coach] Tony Gustavsson has said he wants players playing overseas, so yes I think that most definitely is the reason why some of the players aren’t on two years.”
Popovich could not be happier with the level of support he has received from the club during pre-season preparations. Club members are also doing their part, with a new optional membership tier helping to ensure the club can use the full salary cap amount this season and compete on equal footing with the best sides in the league.
“One of the big things for me was the training venue coming into the environment. Chris [Gardiner, Capital Football CEO] rang me and he said, what would it take? I rattled off three things that were for me, without question, important. One, back to the Institute with daily bookings, afternoons Monday to Friday. If we have a day off, we have a day off, but I need the bookings. Two, I choose staff. And three, the players were treated as professionally as they possibly could. He replied, not a problem. And it was great, really good.
“Talking to players, it’s an easy sell, to get them to come to Canberra when you’ve got all those facilities in place. [We have reconnected with] ACTAS (the ACT Academy of Sport) to work with our strength and conditioning staff. Not every player is the same, some players may need a little bit more work in the legs, some players might need to build up a little bit of strength in their upper body, and others may need to work more aerobically. Having that connection with ACTAS is really important.
“In terms of budgets and expenditure on players, we’re in a different environment this year than what we have been in the previous years. Obviously, this is an extension, almost that full home and away schedule, we’re not quite there yet. That obviously comes with a financial impact. Chris, and Phil Booth, the technical director, have been more than accommodating with everything that I’ve asked and requested when it comes to players [both in conditions, and ability to recruit], with just one making a personal decision about needing a change and wanting to do something different.”
Popovich’s role at the club is a little different from the last couple of coaches who also had the role of Canberra United Academy head coach, but as he explains, that is partly through necessity with the lengthening season encroaching onto the NPL calendar.
“I’m responsible for overseeing the Academy program, along with Phil, and guide and basically mentor the coaches coming through in that environment, and [to] put into place what I feel we need to improve to create the next national team player for those environments. I think in reality, you need to create the environment. If you build it, people will come and you will create. The reason that I’m not coaching in that space is because of the crossover between seasons, it’s just too difficult. And what I’ve [observed] is a coach leaves, and then a new coach comes in, and they start again.
“What we’re trying to create is consistency around the program so that if Njegosh Popovich leaves and another coach comes in, let’s say, for example, Nic Begg, she doesn’t have to start fresh with the Academy, the Academy is already in place.”
“So we will put in some parameters, and create the environment. The coaches will be influenced, if you like, yes sure, they’re going to be their own people. But they’ll be influenced to [work] the Canberra United way. And there’ll be some consistency around that moving forward. There’ll be a lot of replication of what we do in the senior Canberra United environment so that the girls can get a full feel of what training sessions look like. I think that’s important. I think it’s also important that it doesn’t fall onto me, it doesn’t fall onto Ant and it doesn’t fall onto Phil Booth. We need to upskill others so that they can do this. Without a doubt, we’re going to be there overseeing.
“At the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it; you don’t put something into it and just walk away. Will we be there at every single training session? No, we won’t. But will we know what’s going on at every single training session? Yes, we will. That’ll be through video, that will be through GPS data, where we’re going to be monitoring all the players in the older age groups in CUA, which is a part of the game today.”
While the coming season will be longer than previous editions, the pre-season is a short one, and Canberra United fans from last season understand how important early cohesion will be. How will the club be addressing this in Season 15?
“Yeah, good question. I think that there are a couple of parts to that answer. For the first, two years ago Michelle Heyman had an outstanding year, scoring I believe 13-14 goals, and named Player of the Year as well, the Julie Dolan medalist.
“Michelle, at the moment, is turning back the clock, she reminds me of the Michelle from four or five years ago. She is one player that I’m really excited about this year. And I’d love to see her back in the green and gold. And I think that the national team staff would be silly to overlook her for camps. For me, Michelle is a player that can do anything for you in the last 15-20 minutes. As I said to you earlier, the high-speed runs are still up there, she’s got some longevity about her. That was part of the reason why we pushed for her to be a two-year [signing], so she doesn’t have to concentrate or worry about anything else except us.
“Secondly, the consistency of most of the playing group from last year will assist us. When I’m choosing players, I deliberately find out the background of the person. I ring previous coaches as far back as three or four years. Vesna is a perfect example; I touched base with Craig Foster on her, out at the New South Wales Institute. He had nothing but good things to say, very coachable, lovely human being, all the attributes that Canberra wants in our environment.
“We look at bringing in good people, and a good environment gets created automatically.”
One nice problem that Popovich has is the versatility shown by Academy graduates Hayley Taylor-Young and Sasha Grove. Having formed a successful attacking partnership during their Academy days, both have found themselves in defensive roles over the last year, so it will be interesting to see how their seasons pan out.
“Hayley’s probably more explosive than Sasha, but Sasha has the ability to run for days. For both, I think their strengths lie in the wide areas, depending on what we do in terms of our formation and how we look to play. I think they’re both equally comfortable whether they play higher, or deeper.
“I think the speed of our game for young players gives them the opportunity possibly to start from a deeper area and then work towards playing higher up the field. Particularly when you have the likes of Jale, Heyman, and the new player that we’re signing from overseas, Nickoletta as well up there … when you’ve players of that calibre it’s a difficult one to crack. So I think that they’ve got to work their way to becoming that full 90-minute player in those positions, but both are on the radar obviously for the Young Matildas. Sasha has just now been named for Leah Blayney’s camp.”
Popovich signs off the conversation with the following thoughts for fans of the club and the competition.
“I think we’ve assembled a squad that’s going to be quite dynamic. We have pockets of players around that are very explosive. We have a very, very strong attacking force in the likes of Michelle and Jale. Gracie Maher is able to score from distance, Vesna scores from distance. Nickoletta Flannery had a good season this year with Leichhardt as well, scoring goals and getting into the right areas to do so.
“So I think we’re going to be scoring a lot of goals, I really do believe that.”
“I would like to think that my style of play is a possession-based game, but it’s not possession for possession’s sake. We look to go forward as early as we possibly can and make it appealing to the crowd. In terms of our aspirations for where we end up during the season, I’ve always been a winner. I don’t like to go into things not thinking that we’re going to win. I think the mental preparation with all the players has been all about winning. And we would like some success coming back in to fill that trophy cabinet.
“Again, going back to McKellar Park is huge for us. It’s our fortress, you know over the years how much success we’ve had at that stadium and ground. We just want to replicate all of that, as best we can.
“I would like to just add quickly that we do have the best crowd in Australia. I’ve travelled around the whole of Australia with the W-League and A-League and we do have the best supporter base. We’re hoping that continues and grows.”
Beyond 90 would like to thank Njegosh Popovich and Canberra United for their assistance.
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