Wakehurst FC is excited by the growth in our female members and to have the FIFA Women’s World Cup being held in Australia this year.

In what will be an very exciting year Wakehurst FC is delighted to announce that we will be offering a specific Development Program for Junior Women’s football in 2023.

We have been fortunate enough to commence working with Ivan Jolic (Technical Consultant) who will bring a wealth of technical expertise to our club as well as coaching & development experience. He and his team of skilled and experienced coaches, will deliver several programs across the season for all of our Junior Women to become involved in.

This year Ivan will help us focus on a some key areas that we feel will improve the game skills of our Junior Women players and coaches, as well as drive and increase player participation and enjoyment.

Between 2019 – 2020, Ivan was the Assistant Coach for the Matildas, working on player development and technical skills. Since then his passion for the development of Women’s Football has continued to grow and we are excited to have him working with us at Wakehurst FC in 2023.

His career timeline is impressive and can be viewed here.

The programs we will be delivering for our registered players and coaches throughout 2023 are as follows:

Pre-Season Training Sessions (All Players)

Come and get an early start before the winter season begins with our preseason training session with Ivan. Details include the following :

• 90 minute session
• Age specific skill technique
• Come along with friends and develop some fitness techniques and core skill focus
• 8-11 year olds- 26 February 2023. 8.30 – 10am. Click here to book your place.
• 12-16 year olds – 26 February 2023. 10 – 11.30am Click here to book your place.
• You must be registered with Wakehurst WFC for the 2023 season
• $20 fee payable and registration required (see links above))

Pre-Season Coaching Education Program (All Coaches)  

Wakehurst FC know that delivering a well prepared and fun training session can be very rewarding but also daunting at times. Wakehurst FC would like to offer all women’s team coaches a preseason session with Ivan to kick off the 2023 season.

This session will be followed up by in season assistance as detailed below. We encourage ALL coaches to attend this session as we believe it will be beneficial to all coaches and players for their ongoing development.

This session will be held on Saturday 18 March 2023 and will be funded by Wakehurst FC. Location and time to TBC.

Sessions will focus on:

• Age and ability appropriate training session demonstration
• Examples of warm ups, technique development, Rondos, various games and drills
• How to Step Up and Step Down an exercise
• Q+A sessions with coaches

Player Development Program (May and July 23)

The Wakehurst FC Junior Girls Development program will be an in-house program, run with the assistance of Ivan, that provides the opportunity for girls to train and play in a technical and focused environment.

Players who demonstrate an ability to play in the top team of each age group will be offered a place in the Junior Girls Development Program. If spaces become available positions will be offered to the next graded players.

This program will be run on Monday afternoons at Lionel Watts over two separate intense 4 week periods and involve the following:

• 4 x 75 minute sessions
• Focus on technique development
• Work on four functional core skills to improve your game
• Run by skilled and accredited coaches
• Session 1 – 1st, 8th, 15th & 22nd May 2023
• Session 2 – 17th, 24th, 31st July & 7th August 2023
• Times TBC
• Cost TBC

Player/Coaching Development Program (All Players)

This is a separate program (run with the assistance of Ivan) designed to improve game skills and enjoyment for players in all divisions. We believe it is important that all players in all divisions are given the opportunity to develop their football skills. This program will also provide valuable assistance to coaches on how to run an effective training session and how to further develop each girl’s skill level.

This program will involve the following:

• A technical coach will attend your teams training sessions 3 times throughout the season to provide coach mentoring and player skill development
• Provide guidance and feedback for coaches in a safe environment
• 60 minute session for U8 – U11 teams
• 90 minute session for U12 – U16 teams

This program will be funded by Wakehurst FC.

As we finalise details of these programs, we will share further information with you via our website and Facebook page.

We are very excited about the opportunities we can offer our Junior Women in 2023 and look forward to having as many of you as possible attend.