Looking back at some old intel, of the group that didn’t complain about Heraf, Muir only spoke to one player. She spoke to all 12 players who complained. Muir was then quoted as saying that unfortunately factions may have developed, between those who have complained and those that did not. Don’t forget there were 15 other squad members who didn’t for whatever reason, side with the 12 complainants.
You would think as a generalisation the older players may have been the one's to criticise Heraf, the younger ones feeling it wasn't their place to do so. But he really knows for sure.
When the FFs got together for the first camp post Heraf, NZF bought in a mental skills coach for a few sessions. I think Riley commented on at the time, that there needed to be a few internal 'clearing the air' sessions post the Austrian.
But since then the team have played over a dozen games, had a lot of time together, and in Sermanni they have a very experienced coach, in the women's game. So hopefully any rifts have been mostly smoothed over.
Timing when to drop older long standing players, and replacing them with younger is a challenge for a coach in any sport. Often a lauded skill of the great coaches, making the tough unpopular decisions. Sermanni's been around, and again he'll know he needs to start that process. The last 2 games at the world cup were disappointing, so that gives him some sort of mandate to start tinkering.
Still there is always some value in having an old head in a squad who may not actually get much playing time, and is more there as an off field mentor/mood uplifter. Rory was basically doing that for the AWs in his later years. Just that you can only justify having 1-2 of those players in a 23 person squad, not 5-6.
