Ryan Campbell has flown up the ranks stepping into interim head coach role of the Newcastle Jets A-League Women’s side.
The club announced on Monday that head coach Gary van Egmond would depart the Jets to pursue a position with the Chinese Football Association.
Campbell has taken the reins as interim head coach of the club’s A-League Women’s side as well as managing the girls academy.
Campbell said he looked forward to the challenge but that the role had come up sooner than expected.
“I'm excited for the role. It is something that I have been lucky enough to work with Gary in the A-League and the academy in the past, giving me experience to help me step into the role with confidence,” Campbell said.
“It is something that has been on the cards for a little while but I had sort of presumed that Gary would finish out the season.
“It definitely wasn’t something that I thought would happen so quickly but I also thought at some stage in the near future it would be the right time to look at what the next step is in my coaching career.”
Campbell stepped into the assistant coach role with the Jets women’s side for the 2023-24 season after many years of playing a key part in the Newcastle Jets Academy. He also spent many years involved with Adamstown Rosebud JFC as technical director and coaching multiple teams, finishing his tenure with the club as the head coach of the NPL Women’s NNSW side last year.
The new coach was not looking at changing things up too much with the Jets having one of their most successful campaigns in recent times, sitting in finals contention in sixth on the table.
“A lot of what we will be doing is a continuation of what has already been happening,” Campbell said.
“It would be silly of me to make wholesale changes when things are working. My job is to keep things going and keep trying to improve the players and develop them as best as I can as we also have quite a young team.
“The girls’ attitudes have been excellent. They have trust and respect in me and there is confidence inside the group that we can continue to be successful. We just need to keep on progressing”
The interim head coach credited the people and clubs around him that assisted with his coaching development.
“I think that the important part is that you need good people around you that are supportive but also challenge you to be better,” Campbell said.
“I have always kept in contact with people like Gary, where they will always challenge you and give you honest feedback on what you are doing to help you review.
"My time at Adamstown was very beneficial in how the club looks at developing coaches and players, not just results, which has been really important for my development.”
Campbell’s first test in the head coach role will be when the Jets take on Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday.
“If we are able to win that game it puts us in a great position ahead of the big derby match the following weekend,” Campbell said.
“We need to get results in these types of games. We lost the game 1-0 the last time we played Sydney when we had a good performance, so we are looking at what they have been doing to make some minor adjustments ahead of the weekend.
“I have been working really hard and even though it has come up quicker than I have expected, I am glad to have had Gary as a mentor and have the tools to hopefully get a result.”