NUAFC 1968-2018

2017
He could point to a squad where half had already
attended 5-6 national tournaments, but were still in their
prime. The Waikato squad included the likes of Ali Grant,
Lesley Letcher, skipper Anne Smith, Joy Howland, Jo Fisher, Jo
Bradley, Jane Simpson, Cheryl Carter, and Michelle Rayner.
“If any team can do it, this one can” Coulshed boldly
predicted before the tournament, and he was right. Waikato
topped their group – ahead of defending champs Auckland on
goal difference – beat Canterbury 1-0 in the semis through an
Ali Grant free kick, then rolled Auckland 5-4 on pens in the
final.
In the 12 years the tournament had existed, until
then only Auckland or Wellington had won it. But Coulshed
and his team took even more satisfaction from defending
their national title the following year in Napier.
They beat Auckland 1-0 in the final and for the
second successive year did not concede a goal from open play
(only in a nerve-wracking penalty shootout win against
Wellington in the semis).
After the final there was a further unofficial tribute
to Coulshed’s work when he had the satisfaction of seeing a
record six Waikato players make the New Zealand training
squad in Lesley Letcher, Ali Grant, Jo Bradley, Jane Simpson,
Rhonda-Lee Traill and Joy Howland.
Jeff was always a student of the game, and a keen
observer of trends. When he returned to coaching at
northern league level with Ngaruawahia in 1995 (after a 12-
year absence) he remarked about the lack of knowledge of
the game among players.
“I think players have been used too much to get
results from week-to-week and not had any long-term
education in what the game is all about,” he said. “I’m
spending most of my time explaining principles of play to the
lads”.
In the wake of his death, reminders of many of those
simple Coulshed principles are starting to pop up on social
media. (“Straight ball – angled run. Angled run – straight
ball.”)
I caught an example of this first hand once, at a
casual evening kick-about in the early 90s down at Kahikatea
Park. Coulshed – in no official coaching capacity at the time –
insisted that play stop so he could make a coaching point to
an inexperienced fullback.
Coulshed chastised the lad for making an
overlapping run and insisted he needed to understand a
fullback should never overlap forward of a midfielder in
possession of the ball until that player had got at least half a
turn on – otherwise all it did was effectively limit a passing
option. Then we were allowed to continue playing.
Vintage Coulshed. Even when he wasn’t coaching he
was coaching.
Coulshed’s teams tended to be very tight
defensively. The 1979 Hamilton team conceded just four
goals in their league title run, the least ever. His 1988 and
1989 women’s teams conceded none.
Time for another keen Coulshed coaching point . . . .
“Good football is not necessarily attacking football.
Good football is playing to your strengths, and that might
simply mean defending intelligently when you are out of
possession of the ball for long spells.”
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