Successful night with one of the country’s foremost coach educators

Monday 4th of March played host to a special evening as the Technical Department of Football NSW kicked off its ‘An Evening with …’ series, with a presentation from one of the country’s best coach educators, well respected Dr Ron Smith.

Amongst the 50 plus coaches and technical experts that attended were representatives from a number of A-League and NPL clubs, the FFA, Member Associations and former players and Socceroos that had benefited from Smith’s time as Head Coach of the Football program at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Smith spoke on his extensive research and analysis of matches across many years of the Hyundai A-League and other major tournaments, and presented findings from his comprehensive review of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and the recently completed 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the UAE.

Smith paid particular attention to goal scoring trends and lead up play, such as crosses from the flanks, resulting in shots on goals.

As part of a group discussion at the end, attendees were asked to make comparisons of the playing styles of both England and Belgium in the Third Place play off in Russia having been shown condensed segments that had been edited down for both teams.

In closing, the session and thanking Ron for his outstanding presentation, Football NSW’s Head of Football Peter Hugg commended those in attendance for their interest and commitment to learning more about the game, educating themselves and participating in such a lively discussion and promised more similar sessions in the future.

The ‘An Evening with … ‘ series of presentations will be held regularly where attendees can hear from and interact with well-regarded experts in the coaching and high performance space on a broad range of subjects.

The next ‘An Evening with …’ will be with Dr Craig Duncan, formerly Head of Sports Science with the FFA and the Socceroos, fresh from his return from the 2019 AFC Asian Cup where he worked with Carlos Queiroz and the Iranian National Team.

Further information on this session will be announced shortly.