OFC Head of Women’s Football Connie Selby has been on a mission.

Over the past three weeks she has been deployed by OFC and FIFA in Papua New Guinea and Tonga with the aim of promoting Women’s Football and developing an understanding of how the game works among the coaches in the local areas.

Selby ran a FIFA/OFC MA Women’s Coaching course in Port Moresby from March 3-8, followed by a junior course in Vava’u on March 11-12 and is currently running a regional course in Tonga from March 17-22.

Selby has been impressed with the development of coaches and willing participants since her last visit to PNG late last year.

“A lot of motivated females that are interested are now getting more involved in working with the junior girls and are helping develop the standard throughout PNG. It’s encouraging to see more coaches become members of the women’s standing committee but it still needs to be driven from somewhere.”

Selby said there were a lot of obstacles that Women’s coaches in PNG had to overcome but was happy with the professional approach taken by the women.

“A lot of our course participants find it difficult to attain access to adequate facilities, find it difficult to play 90 minute games for girls, and often struggle just getting hold of equipment because these countries don’t have enough resources to carry on from where we leave off.”

“But because our course was really well organised and the participants were there on time it ran smoothly and was very professional.”

Selby said there was an excellent response from course participants, who wanted the course to continue for another two weeks.

“They just wanted as much information as they could get, anything on Football, they were all really smart and enthusiastic.”

One of those who wanted more was Spencer Manhi a former PNG international who now plays for Hekari United in the NSL.

Manhi paid for his own airfare from Kokopo to attend the course which he saw as an opportunity not to be missed.

“I train kids where I’m from, and saw this as a great opportunity to learn more about coaching. I like to help get kids together and identify talent and then develop them.

“From the course I learnt how to deal with kids and how to develop them into better players, how to prepare quality training sessions and it gave me a better understanding of the game from a coaches point of view.

“We need more interested people who are keen on developing players to attend course like this so we can be more competitive in OFC and abroad.”

Manhi took a representative side to the OFC U’12 festival of football tournament in Papua New Guinea in April last year and described it as the greatest experience of his coaching career and something that he will always remember.

Selby said that there is not enough television coverage of football on TV in Papua New Guinea but noted that the recent live broadcast from EMTV of the OFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying match between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea was a huge step forward toward promoting women’s football in PNG.

“One of the best things about the course in Port Moresby was that Dame Carol Kidu (the first female cabinet minister in PNG) presented all the course participants with certificates and shared some of her experiences with them which was a special moment for everyone involved. She is a huge supporter of Women’s football.”