The Australian National University Football Club (ANU FC) is determined to remain competitive throughout the rest of the season to ensure that they remain in contention for finals yet again this year in the Capital Premier League.
After keeping a clean sheet in their 6-0 away romp over West Canberra Wanderers, ANU FC Head Coach Thomas Crossley is feeling comfortable with the team’s position at this point in the season, while acknowledging there is no room to rest.
“I think it is a really tight competition.” Crossley shared. “Queanbeyan has gotten off to a fast start like they do, and Belconnen has played some pretty good football with Brindabella catching up.
“Wagga is up there as well and they’re a tough team away so they’re the sort of teams that we’re in the mix with. On any given day, certain teams are going to win, but we just want to make sure we’re playing the football that we want to play.”
In his second year as coach, Crossley has already noticed that with a better understanding of his team comes positive results. After his first year in the role where he spent time getting acquainted with the players, this year his approach has been to let the player take more control of their own game.
“I think this year we have a more balanced squad, and what I’ve felt more comfortable with is just understanding not to necessarily complicate the game so much,” he said.
“Let the players make the decisions and lead the game. I’ve just got to give them motivation and the ‘be careful of…’ with what the opposition is doing, and the ‘be aware of…’ with what we’re doing. They’re a strong side and a balanced side, but just giving them a little more ‘football intelligence’ around the game and moving forward week to week.”
Going into what Crossley believes the be the ‘business end’ of the season, ANU FC also faces their biggest challenge with the university semester coming to an end and holidays begin. While some of their main squad returns home or heads off on travels, it is seen as an opportunity for other players at their club.
“We’re a university-based side, so June going into July, we’re going into holidays where a lot of players go away which, good on them, we’re happy for them to go away and have football experience or travel and come back invigorated,” Crossley stated.
“That why it’s tough for us, because we lose probably 7 players after this week, but that’s opportunity for other players.”
As the competition is well underway, the ANU FC’s focus, like many other clubs in the competition, is to remain consistent.
“You’ve got to be really good when you don’t have the ball, and you’ve also got to be really good when you do have the ball. The top 4 will be decided upon which team on the day does both well,” Crossley commented.
“On any given day if you do one well but not the other, the other team is going to hurt you. So, you’ve got to take the chances but make sure you’re not giving too many away because the competition is so strong that the other team will punish you.”
For ANU FC, the club’s overall goal is to make their best effort to ensure that their teams reach the finals. Not only this, but Crossley also wants to prioritise the enjoyment factor for the squad as well to ensure they return year after year.
“We just play our football, let the players lead our play and the decision making,” Crossley shared. “That way they’ll enjoy it, they will keep coming back because we’re a bit different to the other clubs, we don’t pay our players, we don’t have the opportunity to do things like that, so we’ve really got to let them enjoy their football. That’s my main focus.”
Words: Kate Reedy