Former Auckland City FC co-coach and Junior Ferns gaffer Aaron McFarland has been to a few noteworthy football tournaments in recent years, and now he's adding the Olympic Women's Football Tournament to his CV as the Football Ferns' assistant coach. JR:     Aaron McFarland, how much are you looking forward to your first Olympics? AM:     "It's hard to say. Maybe a number out of ten, but when you've worked full-time for four years for this event, it's hard to explain how excited and how motivated I am.      "It's an amazing event, and one we've all been looking forward to, regardless of whether it's the first or, for some of us, the third. The whole team will be really excited by going to this one". JR:     As the assistant coach, could you give a brief run-down on your role in both the selection process and the training programme, please? AM:     "(Coach) Tony (Readings) likes to lead a very inclusive approach to the way we work, so he, myself, the other assistant coach, Danny Robinson, who specialises in goalkeeping, and in recent times Rob Sherman, the Technical Director of the High Performance Team, all have input into what should be included in training, how the training runs, etc..      "We've all been on a number of international courses and we all have valuable input to make on how the sessions should be run to get the best output. Ultimately Tony will have the final say.      "It's the same with selections. Tony, Danny and I will discuss and come to an agreement on what the squad should look like, and on a daily basis, what the team should look like when we're playing a game". JR:     There has been plenty of preparation for the

USA, Colombia and France matches, and there's doubtless material on your laptop to pass on to the players at the appropriate time. How do you go about accumulating that? AM:     "Gary Connell is our performance analyst, and he goes about using his contacts, downloading from the web and accumulating all those records, then coding them so we end up with a database of up to eight recent games over the last year for each of those teams". JR:     How much does it mean to you to be an Olympian? AM:     "It's hard to say. On one hand, every time we step onto the field in an international fixture, I feel an amazing pride to be part of the team, part of New Zealand, win, lose or draw.      "Now, with so much focus on this competition, so much of a New Zealand feel, it's not like going to a World Cup, where we're the only New Zealand team. We're going to an Olympics, where there are lots of different sports, and representing New Zealand. There's a real excitement and a different feel about it.      "How would you rate it out of ten? I don't know. It's hard to explain in words, but there's an amazing sense of pride and honour to be able to go with the football side to represent New Zealand". JR:     How much are you going to miss your family while you're away? AM:     "They are number one in my life. Fortunately we've been able to fit - for want of a better word - together the football and the family, 'cause often it doesn't work for travelling husbands or wives. To be able to do it is great credit to my family as well. But this is my second family and my number one family understands that!"