It was such an honour take a group to the Football Australia National Futsal Championships for Northern NSW Football for the first time in a long time, filling a gap that has been there for futsal players in the region to represent their region at the highest level of futsal in Australia. Congratulations to FA and Football Victoria for running a World Class event and for all member federations for their successes and collaboration!
We went with no expectations on results, for everybody to have a positive experience and to light the fire in the players, parents and coaches of the region.
It was an eye-opening trip for most and will give me and the rest of the futsal community a baseline of where we are at and goals of where we want to be in 12 months and beyond.
I’ve believed for a while, that taking the focus off outcomes and putting it on the processes and improvement, is the way to achieve success and I was so happy with the teams and coaches for demonstrating this. We took all pressure off results and I think that allowed for a positive experience all round. The success was in parents and children thanking us for the opportunity and offering to help grow the participation.
Thank you to all the coaches Alex Freeman, Steve Punshon, Chris Ford, Daniel Campbell and Mick Day and all the team managers for making it all run smoothly and giving the players the professional experience we wanted. To Kaz for taking pics. Huge thanks to Brea Bax for keeping them all on the court despite some pretty tasty looking knocks and of course the staff from NNSWF for supporting me and the teams: Mick Hugo and Ethan, plus all the ones back in Newcastle that spread the word and helped with the organisation! Mackenzie, Scarlett Hurst, Hannah Guest, Amie Richardson, John Byrne and of course Peter Haynes and Ross Hicks for allowing us the opportunity to represent Northern and trusting me to lead the project!
Had a few days to decompress after Melbourne, but I can’t wait to build on this for 2025.
