Ground breaking initiative North West Sydney Koalas and Gladesville Ravens

In a ground breaking initiative North West Sydney Koalas and Gladesville Ravens have formed a collaboration that will further the ‘quality’ growth of women’s football in Sydney’s north west.

This ground breaking union demonstrates a shared vision and passion for the sport, respect for the quality and integrity of both organisations and the essential philosophy that female players both young and old be given the chance to grow and become a better player.

Female football in Australia is growing rapidly. Whilst in many parts of the world girls and women are not encouraged to adopt the beautiful game, in Australia football is well accepted as a sport for females.

The enthusiasm and structure in place to support women’s football has been vindicated with the Australian women’s team (The Matildas) now ranked 8th in the world. A phenomenal feat for such a young football nation.

The growth potential of women’s football in Australia is high on the agenda of the Football Federation of Australia and Football New South Wales and is seen as a key driver in the overall growth of the game in this country. There is genuine commitment to continue and expand the support of women’s football at all levels.

Only growing in numbers is not enough, it is essential that females are given the opportunity to not only to participate but to develop to achieve their potential.

North West Sydney Koalas and Gladesville Ravens have identified a role they can play in this exponential growth.

At the outset the emphasis will be on sharing knowledge, expertise and time. It is envisaged this will evolve into practical applications such as joint training sessions, playing friendly games at all levels and additional coach education.

This would allow both groups to better monitor their players in a competitive and competition environment with a view to ensuring success within a players own pathway and the opportunity to graduate to higher levels of competition.

To facilitate, this both groups have looked at the structure and make-up of their technical departments and ensured that for 2014 there is a group of coaches who have aligned themselves with second edition of the FFA curriculum, have completed the most up to date coach education and share the aspirations of both clubs.

NWS Koalas and Gladesville Ravens look forward to this collaboration which is the first step in a very positive relationship where every individual player will find her place to develop. And in the process we will …have a lot of fun.

–NORTH WEST SYDNEY KOALAS AND GLADESVILLE RAVENS JOINT MEDIA RELEASE