Jump to content

The Matilda's, Australian Woman's national football team

Nnnnnathan12

By Nnnnnathan12
in Womens Football

Recommended Posts

Carns

Carns

Posted
Posted

Good article from Tracey Holmes.

Quote

A quarter of the players who responded reported feeling psychological distress and many were afraid to seek support, believing it would be held against them.

Players were asked a series of questions under specific headings including Health & Wellbeing, Psychological Distress, Psychological Safety and Player Insights.

Fewer than 20 per cent of them said they felt the team environment was conducive to making them better players or people.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-22/matildas-environment-of-stress-and-fear/10734412

Worth reading the whole article.

Link to comment
Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Carns said:

Good article from Tracey Holmes.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-22/matildas-environment-of-stress-and-fear/10734412

Worth reading the whole article.

I've just read the whole article. It ends with mentioning the FFA haven't yet received the full Our Watch report. That has me wondering if they've acted too soon.

Link to comment
Hughesy

Hughesy

Posted
Posted

If the issues are not physical or sexual in nature then it makes you wonder what on earth happened that led to his instant dismissal.

Seems very odd to me also that only 20% apparently supposedly claimed the camp was a good environment yet so many of them are coming out on social media and expressing their surprise. 

Link to comment
Potkorok

Potkorok

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

I really hope that this is the downfall of Gallop. It can't come soon enough.

Everyone must realise now that Gallop is/was a plant by the AFL/NRL junta with direct orders to destroy the game - it's the only logical explanation!!! Nothin else makes sense of the debacle of the last few years - even by Australian football standards:sorry:

Link to comment
Carns

Carns

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, hughsey said:

If the issues are not physical or sexual in nature then it makes you wonder what on earth happened that led to his instant dismissal.

Seems very odd to me also that only 20% apparently supposedly claimed the camp was a good environment yet so many of them are coming out on social media and expressing their surprise. 

I mentioned to a friend that I am curious that if they'd asked the squad "Do you want the manager changed", what the response would be? I doubt they'd want him sacked (judging by the number of the squad coming out to support him).

Link to comment
Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Carns said:

I mentioned to a friend that I am curious that if they'd asked the squad "Do you want the manager changed", what the response would be? I doubt they'd want him sacked (judging by the number of the squad coming out to support him).

 The Holmes article says "... a quarter of the players who responded ..." had psychological concerns. So not all responded!? What % did respond? How big was the "sample"? How small was the unhappy portion? Even though more than the surveys were the basis for the sacking, is the number of players expresing shock, dismay, and support for Stajcic indicative of flawed conclusions from a flawed survey?

Just for clarity, at this stage at least, I neither support nor disapprove of the sacking due to the current lack of information. 

 

Link to comment
sonar

sonar

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, papersun said:

These so called "in the know' people get on my wick a little bit.   It's seems to smack of elitism to me and being a bit precious, that they think they're the only ones who should  be entitled to know what's going on.

I think it will all come out eventually anyway.

Also the journalists should out the people with an agenda and force themselves to explain themselves.

 

I would add that if you were a parent of a young woman who may be a prospective player you would want to know the circumstances and what sort of culture your child is being exposed to. To say nothing leaves the door open to inuendo and rumour,,,,,,not the truth or facts. The supporters of football deserve better.

Link to comment
Burztur

Burztur

Posted
Posted

My take on it is, there is and was a problem but Stajcic is probably not solely to blame. The FFA should be shouldering some of the responsibility. By acting 'quickly' they tried to cover this shortcoming and it has backfired. 

At the very least, this whole thing has been poorly handled by the FFA and has damaged everyone's reputation but most of all, our chances during the WC. Morale is going to be terrible now and how has the FFA eliminated the toxic culture? They have created more instead!

Link to comment
papersun

papersun

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, TehSmileyBandit said:

Read Bonita's article - https://footballtoday.news/features/ffa-board-confronts-their-first-governance-challenge-with-alen-stajcic-decision

Wow that's a totally fearless article in which the people with an agenda have been outed as I hoped might happen. Seems this has been brewing every since Alen Stajcic took over from the previous coach.

The people named need to explain themselves. The FFA are also not very good at manipulating the media, poor try guys.

A lot of heads need to roll over this including the guy at  the top, the sooner the better.

 

Link to comment
btron3000

btron3000

Posted
Posted

I haven’t read much about this yet, but just to add to the rumours, one of my relatives worked with a Matilda on fitness etc. outside the Matilda setup, and he said that this particular Matilda “******* hates him”. This is not a player who would be bothered by the skinfold test, was always picked, and this was way before the issues at hand.

Of course, heaps of player’s don’t like the coach, but coming from this player it just struck me as interesting at the time.

Gallop, for all his faults, is a lawyer. The first breakout line proffered by Bonita Mersiades - that there are only two scenarios, which are that it is either a matter for police or that FFA are on legal shaky ground - is absolute rubbish. There are any number of reasons to not tell the whole story, and lawyers generally play it safe in these situations.

I’m not saying the FFA are totally in the right and it seems weird that a “toxic” culture could have just appeared so quickly and they didn’t notice, but my bet is there’s a little bit of fire with this smoke.

Link to comment
scarcev

scarcev

Posted
Posted (edited)

He should never have been sacked, he deserved his chance to see his work come to fruition at the World Cup where we had a genuine chance, under his guidance they reached No4 in the World rankings which is higher than they have ever been.  He was employed because he was a ruthless tyrant who got results and that's what they wanted him to do, he was then sacked for being a ruthless tyrant - go figure.  He was employed to get results not to look after the team culture, Emma Highwood who was the person that was supposed to be overseeing the culture and welfare of the players is still there and also has not said anything about the decision and yet she was the one who should of been sacked.  She attended every training camp and every trip and if there was a 'toxic culture' she should of either fixed it or went to FFA to get it fixed, that was her job and she was employed above Stajcic as his boss.  Don't worry about what ourwatch says about their standards, the ourwatch survey could of been done multiple times online by the same participants with no repercussions as it was an anonymous survey with no ip data collect and although they say password protected was no better than surveymonkey quality, there were only 140 respondents so it would not of taken much to skew the results, there were only 3 current Matilda's who we know responded to the survey and the rest were parents of the players (both in and out of the team and pssoibly disgruntled), staff and parents of staff and even partners of players and staff, so this would include players who were dropped or did not get a start in the side.  One of the assistant coaches who is mate was not contacted nor interviewed by ourwach or anyone at FFA and yet they pay him and he is at every camp as well. It is no coincidence that Heather Reid was on the FFA Board barely 60 days when this occurred, it is no coincidence she has a link with the ourwatch organisation (wait for this link to be aired on 4 corners or something like that it's a beauty), she dislikes Stajcic due to a couple of Canberra player omissions and she wants the Matildas coached by the Canberra coach, like she did in Canberra wants women's football run by women, and has made no secret of this and did the same thing at Football Canberra. Funny how she also let only female journalists in on some leaks as well speaks volumes for her character as does the fact in 2015 she sent some coach in Canberra bankrupt after winning about 150k in a defamation court case when he said on his own facebook page she was a liar, two faced, incompetent, sexist.  Between Reid, Dodd (who was filthy they sacked her choice last coach before Stajcic) and Highwood he was hung out to dry, Gallop who has no balls at the best of times was left stranded but holding the smoking gun, they have all made no secret they wanted a female coach in charge (which I have no problem with but come out and be honest about it) cos they way it goes now the FFA are going to be up for millions as Stajcic lawyers up and will win an 'undisclosed figure' fortune for this.  You wait til the new appointment is named, that will just about kill off any chance we have at winning the World Cup as the players will rebel and the lunatics will be given the keys to the asylum.  The fact that the majority of players are now saying we will win this World Cup for Staj just shows how ******* stupid this decision was, I hope he cleans up because you imagine putting your life and family on hold for 4 years to work towards this one goal, your life work, the World Cup and then being a shandy away from getting there and have the rug pulled from under you for 'confidential' reasons.

Edited by scarcev
Link to comment
scarcev

scarcev

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 22/01/2019 at 1:52 PM, hughsey said:

If the issues are not physical or sexual in nature then it makes you wonder what on earth happened that led to his instant dismissal.

Seems very odd to me also that only 20% apparently supposedly claimed the camp was a good environment yet so many of them are coming out on social media and expressing their surprise. 

Heather Reid happened, it was her first Board meeting at FFA and she wanted to make a statement as she normally does, same thing happened when she was appointed in Canberra, as for your 20% well only 3 current Matildas participated in the survey out of 140 responses.

Edited by scarcev
Link to comment
Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, marron said:

https://ciaramccormack.com/2019/01/22/the-curious-case-of-alen-stajcic-and-the-fcked-up-world-of-elite-womens-soccer/?fbclid=IwAR2Wlv8HrF0rTfvMegJYh46ndub4Gmjh-X-Dw2GTlX0Xe3PNVmz7nOfn3Mo

 

Great read.

A mixture of being an eye opener and stating the bleeding obvious of human behaviour 

Link to comment
MartinTyler

MartinTyler

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, scarcev said:

Heather Reid happened, it was her first Board meeting at FFA and she wanted to make a statement as she normally does, same thing happened when she was appointed in Canberra, as for your 20% well only 3 current Matildas participated in the survey out of 140 responses.

Yeah my sauces tell me that she wasn't a popular figure in Capital Football and continually meddled in senior football and futsal to the detriment of the game there

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
mack

mack

Posted
Posted

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/soccer-the-women-who-wanted-stajcic-out/news-story/d1f043355849b5e7958e9f94bea09845?nk=563ab4a8a5e1cf4c81b86c5e12c6f733-1549080768

Soccer: The women who wanted Stajcic out - RAY GATT

An insider with deep understanding of the workings of women’s soccer claims the sacking of Matildas coach Alen Stajcic was “not about him as a coach but about a group of power-hungry women with a long-held hatred of him”.

The source, who approached The Weekend Australian on the condition of anonymity, also revealed that they had been told of Stajcic’s sacking at least 24 hours before it happened, raising questions about the process.

“The biggest concern for me is that I was approached with the information that Alen Stajcic would be sacked. If some people (on the street and without a strong connection to the sport) knew of the decision then how many more knew?” the insider asked. “These people knew he was sacked even before he did.

“For information like that to get around, you have to wonder how long it was out there. It also makes you wonder about the whole process.”

The revelations come amid suggestions to The Weekend Australian that some Matildas have taken exception to recent comments made by Football Federation Australia chairman Chris Nikou.

In an interview with ftbl.com.au on Wednesday, Nikou said the Matildas understood the reasons behind the decision to sack Stajcic, who was dumped two weeks ago. FFA has refused to give any details of the reasons for the decision, though there are suggestions of a toxic environment in the camp.

“They (the Matildas) have worked through some issues and my understanding is that people are understanding of the decision and there is a great resolve to get on with football matters,” Nikou said.

However, some Matildas are unhappy with those comments as they are still in the dark as to why Stajcic was sacked.

According to the insider, the job of assistant Matildas coach Gary van Egmond is also on the line. But FFA was told during its two meetings with the Matildas in Coogee on the Monday following Stajcic’s dismissal that if Stajcic could not be reinstated then they wanted to retain all remaining staff members for continuity.

The Australian revealed last week that staff were sent an e-mail saying that, Stajcic aside, no one else would be axed. However, two staff members had already opted to resign in protest over his sacking.

The insider said there were people in high places who had an axe to grind with Stajcic and wanted him out.

“I know of certain situations in which some well-connected people have spoken openly about Stajcic. What gets me is that they haven’t hidden it,” the insider said.

“Some of these comments go back to the Asian Cup in Jordan last year.

“One of them made known she clearly did not rate Alen, saying she thinks he makes poor decisions and if it was up to her he would not be there.

“Interestingly, however, there was never any talk of a poor culture or issues inside the camp.

“When Alen was named temporary coach of the Matildas in 2014, I know one administrator was very disappointed.

“She said she can’t stand him. She did not want him, she did not like him, she thought nothing of him.

“She said they had ‘fought so hard (to keep him out)’ but couldn’t do anything about it.

“Then you add the other levels, like former players, a number of whom have been working behind the scenes against him. Players who have been dropped, players whose contracts have not been renewed.

“I know of one former player who has never forgiven Alen and said she would get her own.

“This is all a combination of people in the background (that have targeted him).”

The insider lifted the lid on claims about some of the families of the players, saying that some parents were part of the worrying culture within the camp.

“There are some big-hitters among the families. There are also some very nice families but there are some who spend a lot of time in the family sections dictating who can or can’t do what,” the insider said. “They look at the line-ups, critiquing Alen and are very vocal.”

According to the source, who has had dealings with Stajcic in the past, they have never seen anything that would be construed as misbehaviour on his part.

“I never saw anything in terms of how he treated people or ­players.

“He could be stand-offish. If he didn’t like someone he wouldn’t exactly be welcoming,” the source said.

“Of course, that wasn’t the case with the players but more to do with some of the families and external people.

“With the players, he is a very nurturing person.

“He understands players, he understands their characteristics. He is willing to work with that.”

Link to comment
Davo

Davo

Posted
Posted

I’m glad these stories are coming out, even if they’re completely made up. If the FFA want to take the approach of “we’re right and you little people don’t need to know why, just trust us” then that lets the media dictate the narrative. They should make the FFA look as bad and in the wrong as possible, forcing them to either provide more information to deny it or cop the bad publicity.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
  • mack locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...