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The Chosen Ones
Readings Relies On Tried And Trusted For Rio
by Jeremy Ruane
As squad announcements go, that of the Football Ferns to contest the Olympic Women's Football Tournament at the Games of the 31st Olympiad, aka Rio 2016, was highly predictable, to put it mildly.
There are just four changes to the squad which reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympics, all a result of retirements. And the quartet who have replaced Kristy Hill, Jenny Bindon, Rebecca Smith and Hayley Bowden over the course of the last four years have already firmly established themselves as regulars in coach Tony Readings' squads in that time.
You could put forward a decent argument that, like All Blacks' squads of recent vintage, it's harder to get into the Football Ferns' set-up than it is to get out of it!
Such is the relative youth of the squad chosen to strive for a medal in Rio that the vast majority of them should still be going strong when Tokyo 2020 rolls around. Indeed, of the seven for whom this is a third Olympics, at least four of them could still be in contention when thoughts turn to qualifying for and competing in Japan.
That would be quite an accomplishment, make no mistake. But that's a long way into the future. Right now, it's all eyes on Rio, and a challenging group which will see the Football Ferns taking on the USA and Colombia in Belo Horizonte, and France in Salvador.
Readings exudes confidence aplenty in the ability of the squad he has chosen to progress beyond the group stages. But he's certainly relieved that the selection process is over.
"It's nice to get the team picked", he said, following the official announcement of the squad at Avondale College on Tuesday.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again - it's been the toughest (selection process). I know a lot of coaches say that, but with the depth we now have in our squad, there are some really good players who've missed out on the eighteen, and more really good players who've missed out on the twenty-two.
"There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, arguments and debates among the coaching staff, but we've got to a point now where we're happy with the squad which we've chosen.
"We're really confident going into Rio, and I'm sure everyone would agree it's the strongest squad we've ever assembled".
That's for sure, with the combined experience of the eighteen players chosen amounting to 1324 appearances in "A" internationals. By comparison, Australia's eighteen have clocked up just 905 appearances in green and gold. And the All Whites' squad which went to South Africa in 2010 boasted just 453 caps in total among twenty-three players.
There have been doubts over a couple of the Football Ferns' squad members, however, with Rebekah Stott and Hannah Wilkinson having been under injury clouds in recent times.
When the squad took on Australia in two internationals early last month, they were ACL victim Wilkinson's first appearances for her country in almost a year. Stott, meanwhile, was sporting crutches and a moon boot while cheering the team on from the stands.
"They're definitely on track", declares Readings, "which is good. They're two top quality players that we can't really do without.
"We took their respective situations into consideration before naming the squad. Given everything that's happened in the last few weeks, they're ahead of schedule, so both should be fully fit and ready for selection for the first game, as will the entire squad.
"Rebekah's out of her moon boot now, and has got her proper boots on! She's kicking a ball again, and joining in in training, so she's well on track to being ready, which is good.
"And it's good that we've got some good competition for places there now, with Meikayla Moore coming in and doing really well in both Holland and Australia. It's good that we've got a bit of depth in that position, which we haven't had for a while".
'Mouse' captained the Junior Ferns side which took on the visiting USA U-19 team in two of the three matches on their tour, one which Readings found highly beneficial for the women's game overall, as well as the Olympics selection process.
"To get a team of that calibre to New Zealand is great. In all the time I've been involved with the team, we've never had the USA to our shores. Even though it was the U-19s, they're a very good team, and I'm sure a lot of those players will be stars of future Women's World Cups and Olympic Games.
"A lot of our players had the chance to gain experience from their tour. For the Ferns' players, it was great - more game time. Obviously it wasn't our whole team, but it was still more time on the pitch together, more time to get that cohesion, which we normally lack at the start of tours, because we're apart so often.
"But particularly for the U-20 team, it was a huge learning curve. We managed to score some goals, we were really competitive for
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Schedule
Squad
large portions of both games, and it helped us to look at a lot of the fringe players in the squad.
"We've had a few players who were fighting for those last slots in the Olympics squad and we got the chance to see them against good quality opposition, which we don't normally get to do. You do in training, of course, but you definitely learn a lot more in matches.
"In terms of us for our selection, it was useful, but I think it was most beneficial for the future Football Ferns in the U-20 squad who've learned a huge amount from those games".
Game-time for some players has been something of an issue in recent weeks for followers of the country's foremost league competition, the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League, in which the likes of fringe Football Ferns such as Aimee Phillips, Catherine Bott and Daisy Cleverley have played fleetingly, while Paige Satchell has been a regular starter.
Readings appreciates the situation from a fan's perspective, but understandably has bigger fish to fry, and a bigger picture guiding his vision. "We've obviously got to try to get our players peaking for the biggest sporting event in the world.
"To do that, we need to train together. So the players had a choice. They could play club football, which is fine - we'd work around that. Or we would train together full-time as a team, where we can manage the loads when they play, which we do every Tuesday, and have done every week for the last ten or so weeks against boys' teams.
"It's just like being on tour. We'll have four training sessions that preview a team, then play them, review the game, after which the players get a day off. We've been replicating that international environment for the last ten weeks in NZ, and it's been really beneficial.
"Players generally aren't getting game time for their clubs. Some have played when we've had breaks or they haven't been selected, but as a team, we've been playing every Tuesday against good quality boys' teams.
"It's hugely beneficial for us, because we get more cohesion as a team. There are no points up for grabs, obviously, but there's a lot up for grabs when you're trying to play for an Olympics spot. So there's lots of pressure on them.
"It's been fantastic for us as a coaching team because we haven't had to factor in things such as girls playing on a Friday night or on a Sunday, which means your whole training group is decimated twice a week.
"If you're playing on a Friday, you can't train on a Friday or a Saturday, and if you're playing on a Sunday, you can't train on a Monday, 'cause the girls need to recover. So it's giving us a good opportunity to work with a team closely, and particularly in recent weeks with the overseas players coming back into the environment.
"As we're going to be training even harder now, prior to our departure, it's going to be difficult for those players who are playing club football to
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continue to do so. They may be able to - it's their choice whether they do or not, and we'll factor that into their trainings - or they can choose to stick with our programme. It's completely up to them".
They won't have many opportunities to do so anyway, with the squad departing on July 19 for Rio, giving them two weeks to prepare - ample time, in Readings' eyes.
"I know Australia have left early, and the USA have already assembled as a team. It's not as long as those teams, but for us it's a huge amount of time. We normally work some real miracles re how quickly we get the team assembled.
Sometimes we only have one training session before a match (with the whole squad together), so to have two weeks together as a team before our first game is a real luxury for us. We're looking forward to that.
"We've still got some really key players overseas, but we've a lot of the squad back here now, and we've been working ever since we got back from Australia. We'll bring in those extra players when we get to Rio and continue with the good work that we've been doing.
"We all arrive at the same time in Brazil. A couple of the girls from overseas may arrive a couple of days earlier, to help with their recovery from jetlag. That's great for us.
"It means that both on and off the pitch, we can do a lot of work with the team and as a group, to get us more connected and cohesive. It's going to be great - probably the longest preparation time we've had together since the last Olympics! It's a really good position to be in".
As well as the numerous training sessions which will take place in Brazil, plans are afoot to ensure the Football Ferns won't go into their opening match against the reigning Olympic champions cold, as Readings outlines.
"We're finalising a few details now, but we're going to have a warm-up game - maybe two - when we get to Rio. But just being able to train together as a team as well will benefit us. We're going to have two weeks, so we'll get to train at least ten times, and for us that's huge.
"We probably spend less time with our team as a group than any other country in the world. I think that's one of the reasons why we didn't play so well against Australia in the first game. All the cohesion we had came to life in that second game.
"Sometimes we might not even train once as a group before an international. Even against Australia, we had lots of girls coming in from Europe who could be drip-fed into training because of long-haul flights. So we actually had just one training session as a team before that first game.
"It tends to take us a while on tours to get into games. We've had it before, against Japan - poor in the first half, much better in the second half. The same with the Australia games.
"This time around, there won't be any excuses like that we can use. We'll be fully acclimatised, fully over any jetlag. We'll have had two weeks together as a team, which isn't as much as some of our opponents, but it's a lot for us.
"We do have that distinct connection emotionally and mentally as a group as well, so once we've had that going over two weeks, we think we'll be firing in the first game. We know that we'll need to play better from the off".
Readings is hoping that the venues themselves will also play into the Football Ferns' hands. "The good thing with the Olympics is we're not playing away from home, but on neutral turf, and that's always a big advantage.
"Most games we play away from home, you haven't got the crowd supporting you, and you've had to travel, whereas the opposition hasn't. At the Olympic Games, you don't have that, so it's more of an even playing field.
"The plan is to start firing like we did in the second Australia game for the USA game, 'cause if we don't, we'll get beat - it's as simple as that. So we have to play at our best in those games.
"That's why the group we're in is so great - we don't want an easy challenge. We want to earn our success. We know that when we get out of our group, the knockout stages become easier, because we've already taken care of two of the highest-ranked teams in the tournament, so we can focus on going right to the latter stages".
Be in no doubt that matching or even exceeding their 2012 effort of making the quarter-finals will be a real challenge for the Football Ferns, given they face two of the world's top three-ranked nations in their group.
And the Colombia encounter, sandwiched as it is between those fixtures against the USA and France, is an absolute must-win match as well, remembering that the two third-placed teams with the best records also advance to the quarter-finals, along with the top two teams in each group.
Should Abby Erceg and her team-mates' stay in Brazil extend beyond August 10, it'll be a tremendous achievement in itself. If not, it won't be for the want of trying, that's for sure.
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