The Australian Football Coaches Association (AFCA) was set up in the 80's to develop and encourage coach education in Western Australia. Since this time AFCA has provided a worthy service of Coach Education to the many coaches involved in the game of Australian Rules Football.
The primary focus of AFCA was to provide Coach Accreditation Courses, seminars, resources and recognition of coaches.
However with the evolution of the football development system throughout the WAFC, we have seen these focuses incorporated in the day to day activities of WAFL Clubs, Development Officers and the State Talent / Coaching Manager.
Given the evolution of the football development system the role of AFCA must be redefined to ensure it stays a viable part of coaching in Western Australia.
Need
There is a serious need for WA to remain at the coal face of coaching and produce strategies that will enhance the coaching pathway and the games environment.
It is critical that the WAFC are at the cutting edge of coaching at all levels of the game thus enabling for the infiltration of information and knowledge via the football development infrastructure of the WAFC.
There is also a need for the profile and recognition of coaching to be raised to another level. Our current systems of reward and recognition do not fulfil the requirements to ensure that coaches are understanding of their importance and influence to the game.
If coach recognition was to be enhanced we would see a positive impact in the quality of coaches attracted and retained in the system.
Strategy
The strategy is to re-position AFCA to a body of influence in the WA Football industry. Therefore the need is to restructure the current association into a Board of expertise representative of all key coaching groups throughout WA.
The role of these representatives would then be to provide the WAFC Talent and Coaching Manager with the required information relevant to their area of expertise that can enhance the coaching systems / processes within WA.
The cross sector of knowledge also provides a great forum to continually analyse and challenge previous and current programs for greater improvement.
2009 AFCA Membership Form - Register for the Australian Football Coaches Association
Coaching Resources Catalog - List of Available Resources to purchase
Glenn Morley
Gate 6, Patersons Stadium
Subiaco Road, Subiaco WA 6008
Phone: 08 9381 5599 Fax: 08 9388 1764
