Gungahlin United have high ambitions heading into the 2024 NPLW season and are looking to build the foundations necessary to progress towards becoming a regular title contender.
The club bid farewell to Head Coach Andrew Woodman after one and a half seasons of exceptional service, making way for previous assistant and youth coach Nick van Aalst to take the reins in 2024.
The new man in the dugout says working under Woodman allowed him to refine his style and develop into a first-grade coach.
“I think it’s pretty obvious, the impact he made in the 18 months that he was with the club, and being his assistant was a big learning [experience],” he said. “The discussions that we had were always good… in terms of seeing things a different way and having a different point of view.
“It was good for me personally, but I think it was good for the club as well, the girls took a big step in terms of their performances across that time as well.”
It certainly was an improved season for Gungahlin who, off the back of a 2022 season without a finals’ appearance, finished fourth in the league and made it to the Federation Cup Final, where they narrowly lost to Belconnen United.
“It was absolutely a success,” van Aalst said. “I think any time you’re in a cup final regardless of results it’s a big thing for a club, and pushing to be in the top four year on year is good.
“Obviously the more that that happens you need to start winning some silverware at the end of it to sort of justify that you’re not just a placeholder…but I think it was really a big turnaround from the year before and builds a solid base for us to set a standard of success for the next few years.”
While the season was positive, Gungahlin’s recurrent defeats in the eleventh hour saw them fall short when it counted, particularly in both their cup final defeat, and their Elimination Final exit against Canberra Croatia.
“Losing games like that at such late stages, it’s a big learning [experience] for the group but also for myself in how we approach game situations,” he commented. “I think if you’re not in those situations you’ll never learn how to play in those situations, so the fact that we already have some level of experience in that area is only a good thing regardless of if that hurts or not.”
Looking at Gungahlin’s start to 2024, the Gunners have begun the season with two losses against title contenders Belconnen United and Canberra Olympic, alongside a victory last weekend against West Canberra Wanderers.
With it being his first occasion at the helm of Gungahlin, van Aalst has targeted several areas to improve as the season progresses.
“The biggest thing that I really want to try and bring in is a little bit of defensive stability,” he noted. “But also going about that in terms of not necessarily becoming a defensive team but trying to control games and maintain possession for longer and longer periods in the opposition half.”
It’s a feature of Gungahlin United that van Aalst, with the backing of the club, is keen to implement, to become the team to beat in the NPLW.
“We’re a very possession-based club, we want to keep the ball for as long as possible,” he said. “I don’t think there’s too much of a change from what Andrew brough to the table, in terms of being attacking, being aggressive, and trying to impose ourselves on other teams.
“We want to become a team and a club where other teams have the game plan against us… and we just have to worry about ourselves.”
The quality evident in Gungahlin’s squad indicates that a successful season is within reach, having maintained most of their personnel from the previous campaign. Team of the Season nominees, playmaker Natalie De Marco and goalscorer Ginger Oliver both remain at the club, while the presence of captain Maddie Perceval at the base of the team, alongside top scorer Darby Whiteley, completes a formidable outfit.
In terms of areas that needed strengthening in the squad, van Aalst identified several players to fill holes in the Gungahlin team sheet.
“We didn’t feel like we had to make too many additions… it was just about getting the right [ones] to take us to the next level,” he said. “The biggest one was goalkeeper, we had Emily Kelly who did a fantastic job for us last year, she went back to the States, and Kailey [Tonini]…[who has] decided to take a bit of a break from football this year.
“We looked at bringing in someone from college again, but ultimately, we settled on promoting Matilde [Laurel Tighe] who was our U17s keeper last year at the club.
“I think the other three additions…Alex Martens, Corinne Denton and Alex Nealand, they’re all players who can come in and play a few different roles for us, but ultimately the biggest thing that they’ve brought to us so far is their commitment to training.”
With attention turning to the remainder of the 2024 season, van Aalst’s ambitions for his first campaign as Head Coach are grounded in achieving progress.
“I mean ultimately if I don’t say silverware, I’m wrong right?” he said. “You’ve got to be there fighting for titles.”
“I think the bare minimum for us is just an improvement across the board in terms of last year.”
“Even though we’re trying to win silverware this year, it’s also important that we’re trying to put in building blocks for the next three to five years, so we can become a team that wins three out of the next five.”
Words: Sam Watson
