Women S Standing Committee Meeting

Women’s Standing Committee Meeting

Monday September 9, 2013

Football West Boardroom, Gibbney Reserve, Maylands

MINUTES

No / Item / Comment
1 7pm / Welcome & Apologies / Present: (Elected) Penny TannerHoath (Melville), Steve Ireland (Beckenham), Emma Smith (Subiaco), Conrad McKelvie (UWA). (Co-opted) Tim Hodgson (Northern Redbacks).
Invited attendees: Peter Hugg (FBW CEO), Janette Spencer (FBW board – women’s representative), Elisa D’Ovidio (FBW women’s representative), Jessine Bonzas (NTC).
Apologies: Tras Young (North Beach)
Penny (as previous Chair) welcomed new WSC members (Emma) and introduced everyone.
2 / Confirmation of Minutes of Previous Meeting April 29, 2013 / This was the last meeting of the previous Women’s Standing Committee, when all terms were concluded. Penny, Steve, Elisa and Jessine were present at this meeting and signed accordingly.
3 / Business arising from previous minutes / None
4 / Election of Chair - Penny TannerHoath / The meeting was opened for nominations for WSC chair. Penny nominated and was unanimously elected.
5 / Chairmans Report (Penny) / In the absence of any meetings, information from Football West (FBW) has been put to womensoccer.com.au, womensoccer.com.au facebook page and The World Football programme 107.9fm between May and September.... to keep members informed about the National Womens Competition Review (WNCR), to encourage members to join the WSC and to get some feedback on agenda items for a club workshop (check the web directly for feedback).
6 / Voting rights for co-opted members / Peter Hugg informed the group that the Football West board had signed-off on WSC nominees and co-opted members having the same voting rights as elected members. There is a need to extend the representation of WSC members across zones that have no representation (we currently have Melville, Redbacks, UWA, Subiaco, Beckenham and NTC represented from the State League and only 1 Metro rep in Tras from North Beach).
7 / General Business / A Strategic Planning Day on the future of women’s football in WA: Peter Hugg and Janette Spencer plus Club Workshop
Peter stated the need to have a strategic planning day to look at the future of women’s football in WA, to which all clubs would be invited. The meeting would be a workshop type arrangement to get feedback from the clubs and work out pathways forward and should include sessions about growing the game, developing the players (e.g. looking at improving elite pathways and coach accreditation) and structural support for the game (operational matters such as State League and competition rules are for the club workshop discussion). Of significance is the retention in the sport, especially at a junior level (questions raised as to current junior numbers- Peter will provide junior numbers and girls leagues from last year to this year). Peter and Janette will organise this and present it to the clubs before the start of 2014. Any operational matters would be part of the club workshop and not the planning meeting. Elisa will develop an agenda for the club workshop with Penny and Janette (based on feedback from #5 above) for this meeting and forward to the WSC for endorsement. This meeting will be planned if possible for prior to the end of this year.
B National Premier League and potential inclusion of women’s teams: Peter Hugg
Victoria's challenge was that clubs entering the NPL were advised they had to have a women’s team. This criteria was not accepted by all VFF clubs and isn't part of the WA criterion. The NPL is the result of a national competition review where clubs in each state must apply to be a part of the new league. The NPL is a requirement of entry for Australia into the Asian Confederation. Each country must have a two tiered competition to be able to enter the ACL.
FBW will start working with clubs once the NPL structure here in WA is completed (soon- ready for 2014). The women's restructure would be commenced soon, ready for 2015. Conrad noted that there is a WNCR document and it has already been circulated to clubs via #5 above.
Tim said Northern Redbacks has already had NPL clubs enquiring about aligning themselves to fulfil future NPL commitments. Peter confirmed that it is not a current requirement for an NPL club to have a womens team, but it will be part of future criteria. It is incorrect that womens state league teams must have a current affiliation to an NPL club to participate in the womens state league for 2014.
C National Championship Results (July 2013): Jessine Bonzas and Elisa D’Ovidio
Jessine said the U13s won their pool at the championship, but the U15s (in pool B) struggled. Observations from the NTC coaches are that WA lacks physicality and athleticism and technically they are OK but we need to extend our programmes to compete better.
D National Training Centre 2014 season
Jessine and Elisa made a presentation, endorsed by Cris Ola, FBW technical director, to the WSC. An NTC restructure was proposed after an analysis of the 2013 NTC programmes that identified several development issues that need to be addressed.
Jessine explained the NTC girls programme needed to shift its focus to an earlier age group of all year round early development programmes – SAP- Skills Acquisition Programmes (targeting as young as 8s and 9s) in order to keep up with other state development and be competitive at national championships. Boys SAP trials were already underway (early identification and setting up of programmes is key for WA's female development). It was noted that there are several clubs that already have SAP set up with excellent quality coaches and that in the NPL model, SAP is a criterion for eligibility.
The proposal will see a 13s girls age group playing in boys 12s competition, a 15s age group playing in the boys 13s competition and a 19s NTC group playing in the womens Premier State League competition. Plus an introduction of SAP's at an earlier age.
The WSC endorsed the proposals in their entirety and encouraged advertising for trials for the restructured programmes to commence immediately.
E State League – player crossover: Steve Ireland
Steve opened by saying that reforms needed to be undertaken to retain player numbers and improve development. He recommended three steps:

Change to State League rules before the start of the 2014 season to correct current causes of dissatisfaction among players, in particular change the order State League games were played so reserve teams played before first teams – as is done in other sporting codes
Hold a workshop in the near future for clubs who have U17 girls teams about transitioning those players into existing or new women’s teams at the club (this is being organised with FBW prior to the end of the year as per WSC meeting April 29 and 7A above)
In the longer term, hold a forum about the future of the women’s game to which all clubs are invited (this is being done by FBW – refer 7A).

The purpose of the state league reserves competition was discussed, the reasons for player crossover (insufficient numbers of players to fill two separate teams and seeking a competitive edge in the reserves competition being two reasons) and some of the outcomes of high numbers of player crossover (demoralized teams due to playing against first team players, regular reserve players getting less game time, some first team players were being overplayed and perhaps duty of care needed to be considered).
It was discussed that players playing up and down and the management thereof is at the clubs discretion and that there are no rules impeding this.
Penny reiterated that the original intent of the state league with reserve competition was to promote junior development and give a clear junior pathway within a club and promote stability by allowing crossover between the teams while the club grows (and therefore not have to forfeit games because player numbers fluctuate through the year and during the clubs growth).
But that valid reasons are also to drop underperforming players and re-introduce injured players and allow new players an introduction to state league competition.
Steve pressed for a vote to be taken on the matter. There was good support for reversing the fixture times but as there is a club workshop being scheduled, Penny suggested allowing the clubs to give their feedback direct to the upcoming workshop and hence FBW. Any rules can still be changed for 2014 between now and then.
Penny said she would work with Elisa to find a date and discuss the setting up of the workshop. This will also address such things as clubs with juniors and transitioning to senior competition, metro clubs with ambitions to enter the State League, night series structure, referees for state league, cup structure and more.
Leadership Programme: Janette Spencer
Janette said she had been pleased for the opportunity to travel to Canberra during the NTC Challenge week to meet Heather Reid, CEO Capital Football, FFA's Eugenia Buckley and National Coach Hesterine De Reus, to discuss strategies to increase opportunities to develop our present and future female leaders. There are funds available here in WA to start a leadership project to encourage and support females to step up into roles such as coaching and administration.
9 / Meeting Ended / 9.22pm
Next meeting Monday October 7, 2013

Signed as a true and accurate record of the meeting held on / /Chair signature______

SC Member______SC Member______