Graham Cornes column: Matildas’ coaching fiasco has exposed the poor culture within Australian women’s soccer

Sacked Matildas coach Alen Stajcic appears to have been harshly dealt with by the FFA, whose board and administration must surely accept more responsibility if the reports are as damning as suggested.

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• Stajcic sacking is still unclear

WHO would be a coach in this new millennium?

Matildas coach Alen Stajcic became the latest victim of boardroom, political correctness or gender politics when he was axed from his role, despite significant support from the playing group.

It has been a PR disaster for the Football Federation of Australia who refuse to give any valid reasons for his sacking.

The words “toxic culture” were mentioned, which in today’s political environment is enough to see any coach off. In this modern sporting world, apparently the coach is still responsible for the “culture” of a team. Performance is no longer enough.

Ask Darren Lehmann; ask James Hird.

Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Clarke scales the cliffs at Florence Fall in Litchfield National Park when the AFLW team spent the day there after playing Fremantle in a trial match at TIO Stadium in Northern Territory.

Matthew Clarke, the new coach of the Crows AFLW team spoke at the Crows season launch on Thursday night.

I can’t remember a more impressive pre-season speech from a footy coach. This is the template for a modern coach. The only differences he saw in coaching men and women were time and money.

His charges were part-time footballers trying to attain professional standards. His affection for his players was palpable, yet I’m sure there will be many who think AFLW teams should be coached by women.

Stajcic was sunk after a Matildas Wellbeing Report, examining such topics as health and wellbeing, psychological distress, psychological safety and player insights indicated some players felt they were under unacceptable levels of mental stress.

It’s never hard to find members of a team under unacceptable levels of mental stress - just survey those who are not getting a game or who have been dropped.

And just exactly what is an acceptable level of mental stress anyway?

Then there was an interim report from Our Watch, an organization “established to drive nationwide change in the culture, behaviours and power imbalances that lead to violence against women and their children.”

Chaired by South Australia’s own Natasha Stott-Despoja AM, the organization, given the unacceptable rates of violence against women, has a vital role in society: but sport?

There was no suggestion of sexual or physical impropriety, however the interim report does hint at a “culturally unsustainable environment”.

Those who know Alen Stajcic speak highly of a “good man” and a “good coach” .

His career is in tatters and his reputation shredded. The FFA offers no real reasons for his demise, which then leads to speculation and innuendo. Surreptitious whisperings hint of “bullying”, “body-shaming”, and subtle “homophobic jibes” (although not delivered by Stajcic) have leaked out.

It’s such a fine line between criticizing a player and that player feeling bullied. Old school coaches and players will simply say “harden up”, but that doesn’t cut it any more.

Leadership expert, Nicki Bowman a member of the soccer advocacy group, Women Onside, says “Things that you say to people at that age (teenagers) are far more informative and influential than they are if you said them to [someone] with 20 or 30 years of experience.” She’s right of course but one wonders how ex-sportspeople who experienced the withering sprays of yesterday’s legendary coaches were able to recover and face the real world.

“Body-shaming” is an interesting one.

Can a coach no longer tell athletes they are over-weight and not fit? It is an obligation of professional sportspeople to present themselves in the best physical shape.

Hockeyroos coach Ric Charlesworth talks to his players after lossing to Great Britain in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Picture: Darren Tindale

The true professionals condition and shape their bodies for maximum performance. To be told you’re overweight or not fit enough may hurt or embarrass, but to complain about bullying and body-shaming is the ultimate cop-out.

Would Ric Charlesworth, arguably Australia’s most successful coach, survive a “Wellbeing Report”?

When the Hockeyroos changed their playing strip from traditional skirts and tops to the figure-hugging body suits, he joked that there now was “nowhere to hide” for those who wouldn’t do the work and keep their weight down.

Under Charlesworth, the Hockeyroos became the world’s fittest women’s hockey team, subsequently winning two Olympic gold medals along the way.

The really delicate topic, particularly in some women’s sports, is homophobia. If some of the gay Matildas felt they were the targets, or victims of homophobic jibes, it definitely would impact on team harmony.

However surely that is a “cultural” issue that needs to be addressed with educational programmes instilled by the administration, not the coach?

Australian football hasn’t yet had to deal such an issue. Despite those who suggest otherwise, there are so few gay male footballers in the AFL system.

Significantly, the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy which “expects that all people connected with the game will conduct themselves in a manner that demonstrates respect for all people, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, and recognizes our game’s responsibility to promote and model gender equality without tolerance for the harm of others based on gender” has educated AFL players.

Does the FFA have such a policy? If so how does it enforce it?

It’s hard to define exactly what “culture” is in a sporting team.

To different groups it means so many different things and different words encapsulate it. Professionalism, discipline, respect, work ethic, excellence, success, perhaps even compassion begin to shape a culture. “Win-at-all-costs” seems to have slipped out of fashion when describing a team culture.

Alen Stajcic appears to have been harshly dealt with by the FFA, whose board and administration must surely accept more responsibility if the reports are as damning as suggested.

However, it is a lesson to all sporting coaches that the athletes of 2019 are very much different to those of 1999. More carrot, less stick!