Football Federation Victoria and Melbourne Victory has announced that Matt Shepherd will leave his role as the NTC Women’s Head Coach and Melbourne Victory Women’s Coach by mutual agreement.
Football Federation Victoria and Melbourne Victory has announced that Matt Shepherd will leave his role as the NTC Women’s Head Coach and Melbourne Victory Women’s Coach by mutual agreement.
Matt has led the NTC program since January 2008, and was the first full-time coach in this role. He was also the coach of the Melbourne Victory Women’s team in its first two seasons (2008, 2009).
As the NTC coach, he has been instrumental in re-establishing the youth development pathway for Victoria’s best female talent through to national teams and the Victory team itself. As the Victory Women’s coach, he successfully assembled a good blend of local, interstate and international talent to make the first two Victory teams respected as being competitive units, playing attractive football and narrowly missing the finals in both seasons.
Matt would like to thank both Football Federation Victoria and Melbourne Victory for the opportunity to coach both programs.
“With talented players like Stephanie Catley, Brianna Davey and Caitlin Friend coming through, and others soon to follow, FFV’s participation in female national programs is now looking much healthier,” Shepherd said.
“I’d like to thank all the coaches who are working hard to develop the next generation of players, and urge them to keep learning and working hard to push players through to the next level.”
“I’d also like to thank the hard-working staff at FFV for their support, and especially the amazing NTC and Victory Women’s staff who have helped and supported me over the past two seasons, in particular, Naomi Hirst, Bob McGuiness, Dylan Wissell, Simon Walker and Sharbil Wehbe.”
Football Federation Victoria and Melbourne Victory would like to thank Matt for his contribution to the game in Victoria, and wish him luck in his new endeavours.
