So, what now?

It's been a couple of weeks since Wellington and, indeed, New Zealand exploded in the wake of the All Whites' historic World Cup qualification victory over Bahrain.

It was an epic evening and the perfect way to end what has been the most memorable football season for me personally.

There hasn't been an evening to rival that in New Zealand sport. Ever. The high stakes nature of the game, the importance of the result, the atmosphere and the sheer, unadulterated positiveness of everyone in the stadium and on the streets of Wellington combined to create something truly unique for New Zealand sport.

We've done some pretty special things locally in 2009 and now, knowing that New Zealand will have a presence in the Greatest Show On Earth makes me both exhilerated and terrified about the responsibility we have to ensure this opportunity isn't wasted.

Yes, in Matamata this is very much our responsibility, just as it is for every club around this small country of ours. It is our duty to ensure that football becomes all it should be for New Zealanders. World Cup qualification is one of those events which has the potential to accelerate the development and advancement of New Zealand football. But only if we let it. And that means working harder than we ever have before.

I was interviewed by the local paper last week about what this whole thing will mean for football in Matamata. The inevitable question about came up, as it has all across the country: do I believe football will overtake rugby as our national game off the back of World Cup qualification.

Obviously it's my hope that one day it it will, but that won't be any day soon. And it doesn't matter. As football people we need to be looking positively at what we can do to grow the game, improve the quality and make it more accessible to other Kiwis. That doesn't happen in six months. It'll probably take a generation or two.

I'm game if you are.

Personally, I have no need for sports like rugby. I could probaly write a thesis on my reasons, covering everything from media coverage to attitudinal hypocricy from the average punter on the street. That's just my personal feeling and, I guess, doesn't amount to much for anyone apart from myself and my wife who sometimes has to listen to my rants...

The last thing we as football people need to be, however, is bitter and twisted about other sports hogging the limelight because that will distract us from what really matters - improving our football.

So let's look to that. Let's focus on the good stuff. Let's remember the buzz we had on November the 14th, the spring in our step for the next week and the faint, but very real, strike of emotion every time we saw a replay of Rory Fallon rising to head a football into history.

And let's make this change real.

Yes!

Yyyyeeeeeeeesssssssssss!!!

Wellington? Amazing!

The All Whites? Fantastic!

Son of Fallon? New legend!

New Zealand's sporting self-confidence? Never been so high!




The All Blacks? Priceless...

The ultimate road trip

Well, it will be for me.

I'll be setting off at about 10am tomorrow morning (hopefully my brother will be on time - it's his car). We're heading down to our nation's fine capital, through the very heart of the North Island, for the biggest game of football (all codes) in New Zealand this year.

I'm sure we'll stop off at a couple of places on the way. Enjoy a little of this country's fantastic scenery. Grab a coffee. Take a leak. Whatever's needed. But we'll want to get into Wellington at a reasonable hour to start sucking in some of the atmosphere that's already building.

Maybe Friday night will be a quiet one. I don't know. The plan is to meet up with the remainder of the Swifts contingent in the evening. So maybe it won't be so quiet. Any group headed by Dave Taylor and Pete Vossen, and with the sly, some might even say devious, promptings of people of the calibre of Mike Collins and young Scotti Parsonage, has trouble written all over it.

The farmers hit the big smoke indeed. A place called Mermaids has been talked about. I don't know what that is. An aquarium, perhaps...?

Saturday promises to be quite the footballing experience. Wellington is set up for matches, in fact events, such a these. The old town will be heaving as the good and great from all around our tiny island nation descend for our country's 90 minutes of truth.

I'm expecting the day will be as close as it will ever come to what I experienced in Munich and Hamburg during the 2006 World Cup. The town will be loaded with fans, covered in nervous tension and in high spirits. The only difference will be this time I actually have a team to support. And that team is playing for the highest stakes any team representing this country can ever play for.

So, no pressure then.

I'll report in again when I get back. Hopefully (please, please, please) it will have been the ultimate road trip. The result of one game of football will have determined that.

The future

Firstly, an acknowledgement. It's clear I suck at this bogging thing. I have every intent of posting something new every few days. Then suddenly it's two weeks later...

I promise to do better in future.

And on the subject of the future, it was both pleasing and more than a little bit scary to watch the progress of the NZ under-17's a the World Cup in Nigeria.

Pleasing because the team achieved something no other New Zealand side had - made progress to the second round. It was scary, however, because all the games, and particularly the 5-0 loss to Nigeria, showed just how far we have to progress if we wish to become contenders.

To be clear, I don't want to knock the efforts of the Junior All Whites. Their efforts were history making and something we have to build on. But that's the question - how do we build on it?

In his book The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle explains how greatness isn't born, it's grown. He describes the three key elements that work together to form myelin, a microscopic neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your movements and thoughts. The three things: Deep Practice (specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice. 10,000 hours of deep practice leads to world class skills), Ignition (not just motivation but a higher level of commitment - passion - that accelerates development) and Master Coaching (the world's most effective teachers do things differently, and better, than the rest).

Coyle shows that it's not just money or location or any of the usually cited things that determine whether someone is world class. It's a good read and I recommend any aspiring coach get hold of a copy, read it properly and apply the lessons immediately.

A study on this country's so-called elite athletes would be fascinating. I'd suggest our rugby players, netballers, leaguies et al, wouldn't need to come anywhere near the approach explained in The Talent Code because the measure of what is world class in those sports would be far less than what it takes to be world class in sports like football. Why? Because the global depth of talent in those sports is negligible, so you don't even need to be all that good of a sportsperson to be considered a great.

I'm not for a second suggesting the people representing our country at those sports don't work hard. I'm sure they do and I'm sure they've put in the 'hard yards'. It's just that those hard yards wouldn't stack up if these sportspeople wanted to emulate Tiger Woods, Alberto Contador, Roger Federer, Lionel Messi or Kaka. We're talking two completely different concepts of excellence here. Our rowers and cyclists, on the other hand, will no exactly what's required to be the best.

Anyway, bringing this right back to where we started: how do we improve the quality of talent coming through the footballing ranks in New Zealand? It won't be easy, of course, but I believe it all starts with our levels of expectation. Every young player, parent, club coach and fan must expect more and contribute more. I know we can't just flick a switch and make that happen, and I know we're infected by the 'just enough is good enough' outlook I explained above, but we have to try. And if we fail then we try in another way. And again, and again, and again.

My personal interest in this is the rapid aging of my two sons (man, they grow up quick!). As a parent it's my duty to set standards and expectations, show them the way and support them 100% in what they choose to do. Naturally, they'll both choose to be footballers, so I'm going to have to ensure they have the best opportunity of reaching that goal. And I'd prefer they aim to be like Kaka or Messi rather than some journeyman international sportsman like Dan Carter or Richie McCaw.

I've got my work cut out for me.