Victory women secure new coach (original) (raw)

With the third season of the Westfield W-League just around the corner, Melbourne Victory is delighted to announce it has secured a new Coach for the year ahead.

victorycoach With the third season of the Westfield W-League just around the corner, Melbourne Victory is delighted to announce it has secured a new Coach for the year ahead. Vicki Linton will join Victory, bringing with her considerable coaching qualifications and experience.

Melbourne Victory Chief Executive Officer, Geoff Miles, is pleased to welcome Linton on board, highlighting the strength of having a well credentialed female at the helm. “It’s fantastic to have someone with Vicki’s experience onboard to lead our Women’s program over the next four years,” he said.

“Vicki boasts a fantastic CV with coaching experience in America, as well as England - and brings so much to the table in terms of her exposure to different styles of football and also coaching methods.

“Our Women’s program has produced some very talented players, none more so than Melissa Barbieri who captained the national side during May’s Asian Cup win – and with Vicki now at the helm I think we’ll see a few more Victory players in the Matilda’s squad in the future”.

A FIFA Coach Educator, Linton has travelled Asia and Oceania to work with coaches in a number of developing countries, and closer to home has been an Assistant Coach at the New South Wales Institute of Sport and Women’s Football Coach at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport. She also has national coaching experience in Australia, having been involved with up and coming Matildas hopefuls as both the Australian Under 17’s and Under 20’s Women’s Team Assistant Coach.

The move to Melbourne will see Linton serve two roles; coaching Melbourne Victory Women and being the Football Federation Victoria’s Women’s National Training Centre (NTC) Coach.

Excited about being involved in the W-League, Linton says she’s pleased to have secured a full-time job working in the sport she loves. “I love coaching. I wanted to get back into full time coaching and work day-in, day-out with players and I wanted to take on the challenges of coaching in the W-League,” she commented.

Linton will spend the first few weeks of her time in Melbourne scouting the local Women’s Leagues, focussing on the Women’s Premier League, before assembling her squad for the 2010/11 Westfield Women’s League season next month. “My plans are to start having a look at players in the WPL and getting a list together, then we’ll conduct some trials. I’ve begun to draft a program for our pre-season, which we’ll be starting in September,” she said.

“Melbourne Victory has performed solidly in the first two seasons of the Women’s League. There has been a good core to the squad, so I’d be looking to keep that good core and look to see what else is out there. We obviously have a strong leader in Melissa Barbieri, being the National Team Captain, and several of the National Junior Team. There has been strong interest from interstate players, which is great and which we’ll consider for those who can be based in Melbourne. Mix them with some senior players from the WPL, and the combination is very promising.”

“I think putting together a good squad, and being organised and cohesive will mean we’re able to perform well this year,” said Linton.

Melbourne Victory’s Women’s team has finished fifth in each of the two seasons of the Westfield W-League to date. The 2010/11 Westfield Women’s League season will kick-off in early November, with Football Federation Australia set to release a fixture soon.