Bulletin football podcast with Gold Coast United NPL Women’s coach Michael Cook

IN this week’s Round Ball Round Up podcast, Gold Coast United NPL Women’s coach Michael Cook discusses the season ahead, his recruitment philosophy, Mudgeeraba’s withdrawal and the state of women’s football on the Coast.

IN this week’s Round Ball Round Up podcast, Gold Coast United NPL Women’s coach Michael Cook discusses the season ahead, his recruitment philosophy, Mudgeeraba’s withdrawal and the state of women’s football on the Coast.

Cook, who took Peninsula Power to the NPLW title double in 2017, said he was confident the Surfsiders could improve on last year’s sixth-placed finish after recruiting strongly.

“Finishing in sixth was not the goal we set in pre-season but if I zoom out and look at all the challenges we had – new club, new team building from scratch, we had issues with training facilities, Comm Games interrupted a lot of things – and check my ego a little bit, sixth place was a fairly good start. (But) we certainly have to be looking to improve and top four is the aim this year for sure,” he said.

Gold Coast United NPL Women's coach Michael Cook. Picture: AGM Photography

“I loved the group of girls we had last year. It was super young squad though so the recruitment this time around was mostly on recruiting more mature players.

“We’ve certainly done that. There’s another Visa place that was opened up this year so we’re allowed three now instead of two.

“We’ve retained (American) Mackenzie Akins, she was our Golden Boot winner last year. We’ve recruited two very good, high quality Japanese players as well who are both in their mid-to-late 20s and with their experience, along with the more mature squad, I think we can achieve what we want to do.”

United open their season away to Easts tonight.

Listen to the full podcast above.