In The Technical Area with David Perkovic
David Perkovic is the current Men’s First Grade Coach at NWS Spirit, competing in the NPL NSW Men’s competition.
Can you give us a an overview of your coaching journey thus far?
I’ve been coaching for 16 years including 12 years as a First Grade coach. I have coached professionally in Philippines for two seasons and this is my 7th season with NWS Spirit FC. Last season, I coached the team to promotion into NPL and won the 2022 Waratah Cup.
When did you first start coaching and why?
Funny story, after growing up and playing football since I was 6, I stopped playing at 21. I started managing bands as a hobby and one of the bands I managed wrote the theme song to the Socceroos campaign for the 2006 World Cup. Part of the deal was the band had to play had to perform before the Socceroos last home preparation game vs Greece at the MCG. So as the band was playing, I was on the field and the stadium was packed and that’s when I realised I had to get back involved in the game.
What do you think are the three main characteristics of a successful coach?
- Believe in your way of football, the game will try and change you, but stay true to your beliefs. Make sure what you believe in is measurable this way the squad and staff can evaluate performances.
- Be a strong leader with excellent communication skills and patience.
- Know your strengths and weaknesses and surround yourself with staff that have strengths where your weaknesses are and together as a group you are more complete.
How do you keep developing yourself as a coach to be the best you can be for your players?
- I live by a quote, “the day you think you know everything, retire and do something else”.
- Have staff that challenge you; you don’t want staff to always agree with you.
- If you have the luxury of having staff, employ staff that has different qualities e.g. my staff includes Gary Rafferty; S&C/Sport Scientist, Luca Falcone; Sport Psychologist and Tony Lazaro; mentor and assistant coach. All staff are football coaches but as you can see they also have other expertise.
- I always look for opportunities to educate myself; whether that be formal education, online research or even podcasts. There are many facets to coaching, so I try to educate myself not only on modern training techniques, but also managing, whether that be managing players or staff but also managing up with Theo board and president.
If you could turn back the clock, what advice would you now give to yourself when you first started coaching based on the experiences you have had?
Focus on aspects of your coaching career that you can control, not the things you can’t.
