Northern NSW to Compete at NTC Challenge in Canberra

A squad of 14 Northern NSW female representative players will depart for Canberra on Thursday for the National Training Centre (NTC) Challenge held at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from Friday 24^th until Monday 27^th July.

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Each of the nine Member Federations of Football Federation Australia (FFA), ACT, NSW, Northern NSW, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia are set to participate in the 2015 NTC Challenge.

In previous years, the NTC Challenge has been based on Member Federations playing against each other with a focus on adherence to the FFA National Curriculum, as well as used as a player identification tool for National Teams.

Ahead of the 2015 Challenge, the FFA Technical Study Group (TSG) has altered the format of the tournament to shift the focus towards individual player talent identification.

During Day 1 and 2 of the tournament, players will compete with their respective Member Federations and participate in two fixtures per day for evaluation by the TSG.

At the conclusion of Day 2 fixtures all players will be allocated into a mixed team for the remainder of the tournament before competing with their designated team on Days 3 and 4.

Head Coach Gary van Egmond commented that his squad has been preparing well ahead of the NTC Challenge and he is looking forward to experiencing the new format.

“We have been using the Women’s Premier League (WPL) competition as preparation in regards to the NTC, with the mainstay of the squad making up the WPL team which competes in the Football NSW competition,” van Egmond said.

“This week we welcome Claire Farrington from Far North Coast which compliments the whole of our team and we look forward to our final preparations at Speers Point this week before leaving on Thursday to compete in the NTC,

“It will be interesting to see how the Challenge works with this new format and we can see that from the FFA’s point of view there is a very big emphasis on the individual. Notwithstanding all the new changes, we hope a number of our players are identified within the course of the Challenge,” concluded van Egmond.

Northern NSW Football Technical Director Michael Browne believes the NTC Challenge affords players the opportunity for identification for future national squads.

“The NTC will provide the opportunity for girls to impress Ante Juric, Head Coach of the Young Matildas, and to stake a claim for a place in the squad for the forthcoming AFC Under 19 Women’s Championship in China,” Browne commented.

Northern NSW will participate in Pool 3 against NSW and South Australia on Day 1 (Friday), and in Pool 2 alongside Northern Territory and Tasmania on Day 2 (Saturday) before the side is split amongst selected squads for fixtures on Day 3 and 4.

Full squad list below: