Anthony Hudson (FAT Technical Director | Thailand)

did the phoenix get shafted though? It's fair for Merrick to be upset, but I don't think the Phoenix were specifically picked on here (unlike the NZF awards snub). 

Mountains and molehills

get off your high horse mate - none of us are saying the end result is correct but if there is a policy in place then you can't really lay blame with people who followed the policy (if they did), like Tegal said the Nix were not targeted.

The PFA need to get involved if the CBA isn't right and if the CBA wasn't followed then we need to know why.

There's a write up on Hudson in FIFA weekly magazine, They also have a page on the women's national side calling them the "Swans" Are they not the football ferns?

Read it here: FIFA Weekly

| laughed when I read that too. SWANZ was an old acronym/nickname from the times when the game was known as soccer instead of football.

Read FIFA weekly - maybe he should of said "I'm not very popular here, Rugby is the national sport and we are struggling to compete" lol

real issue is where do NZF staff sit? If they are in business and the playing staff are not then all is not right

damn good question that JD

Yep, someone contact "Baba business class" for the skinny

Hudson is in the latest FIFA online magazine on the FIFA website, talking about his plans for NZ football.

Anthony Hudson - ' "The new Jose Mourinho" - Harry Redknapp'. LOL x 10!

Interesting article on ESPN about Hudson backing the Nix and his NZF National Team alignment:

Hudson on FFA Nix Decision and NZ Football Alignment

Sounding like Mr Hudson is laying the ground work for his early exit. Hudson lashes out at the state of NZ football

Not sure about that.

It's a different take on how things currently are.

I don't particularly mind him making those views public.

Yeah, don't know how much say he has in getting international games but he can't be happy with the limited number we get and not knowing in upcoming international Windows if we will have a game. Can't make it easy to put a team together if you don't know if and when you'll play.

I agree particularly with ASBP going on a break over xmas. I'm sure there would have been some players back this week who are not as fit as at the end of the last round. If you want to be a professional footballer you have to commit to that full time this New Zealand attitude of we all deserve a break is not going to cut it. 

He directly contradicts many of his previous comments. Before he was banging on about having only one game per window so he could maximise contact time.

Now he contradicts himself.

We didn't even have one game per window last year.

Hudson's spot on about the young Kiwi football culture. Well known within football circles inc Nix. Just good to hear someone table what's a big issue here? That's always been the case, and why Kiwi players who move to Oz generally take their game to another level. No mummy or daddy to drive them in and out of training, and drop their cut lunch off.

Sadly when people do what Hudson has done and criticised work ethic and mentality the general public all fall into line and agree with that sort of attack. Its a very lazy default argument to go to. It falls into the same category of when fans  etc  get excited by a player making a gut busting run and "showing passion" despite the fact that player may have been having a stinker in terms of his quality during a game. people are always sucked in by the emotive arguments but the thoughtful and more considered answers or questions are ignored.

If you think Hudson has tabled a big problem then you sadly are missing what and where the real problems sit. You have been sucked in by a Winston Petersesque  diversion tactic.

On Veitch right now...

Personally I think there is merit to his comments but at the same time, I also read it as being a comments to set up his exit so can fudge off early because of our lack of professionalism.

An honest question, looking at the state of the mens programme now, if you looked at it from the point in time from when Herbert left to today under Hudsons care, has he advanced the programme? Sometime your have to go backwards to go forwards but is there any forward? I'm not so sure its in a better state or going to be in a better state than when Ricki walked away.

Agree with the viewpoint that he'll be leaving soon, and he's already tabled his excuses - amateur environment, not enough games etc etc. His comments are pretty much spot on though, but in NZ Football it all stays the same. Why bother putting effort in when some numpty local club teams can pay you thousands of $ every year to play in a rubbish league?

Remember when Merrick came to the nix he made a few comments like this. One was something like that the nix were the nicest bunch is losers he ever met.

OK but forgive me if this is long and verbose.

A couple of years ago Raymond Verheijen ran a coaching clinic in Auckland. I attended.  The first thing he did was talk about how soft NZ was as a country, how we were safe and middle class and everything in general life was easy and pleasant to for us.  He talked about how we lacked mental toughness and  a hard nosed desire to succeed because of this and all the while the vast majority of us there nodded  in agreement. First thing with his little effort was that it was his first time in NZ, in fact his first time in Australasia, he had in fact been picked up from the airport only that morning but was telling us all how safe and lovely it all was here. How did he know how "spft" we were if he had never spent time here before?  What he failed to recognise is just how often in our history NZ sports people had been successful precisely because they had the "right mentality". One of the things kiwis like to spout is that per capita we are one of the best achieving sporting countries on earth, the Olympics being a good example.

SPARC and GACU run free coaching courses. They are not sport specific but the various courses cover areas of coaching that apply to all sport. One area is mentality, motivation and how to work with athletes in those areas. Most of our successful sports people have had excellent coaches working with them and one area that many of our other major sports have been working but Football here hasnt is in the area of mentality and motivation.  A guy called Gilbert Enoka recently was awarded an honour in the Xmas honours list for his services to sport. He has been working with athletes in multiple sports in NZ for decades, he is one of a number of people who do this sort of work in various sports in NZ yet in football we have nothing like this.

So why are people Like Gilbert Enoka important in sport today? Well people have differing ways of being motivated or motivating themselves, not just for sport but also for most other aspects of life. Some people are able to work out if they are intrinssicaly motivated or extrinsically motivated. Some people arent aware enough to know the differences or if they are dont know how to do this for themselves. So some athletes have the desire and motivation but dont know how to harness it to the best result etc. Coaches need to understand these issues and also know how to lift and motivate their athletes. Im not talking about when to give an athlete a pat on the back or a rebuke but I am talking about being able to assist an athlete to find their own methods to motivate themselves to do some extra training in awful weather or push themselves harder in areas they are weak in etc. Athletes will often know where the problem may lie but often wont know what tools can be used to solve problems.

Its interesting that the All Blacks use these sorts of things so much considering that many will have an impression its a very physical game played by Neanderthals with no need for intelligence.  If anyone watched the rugby WC semi final between NZ and SA they will have seen at half time the tv footage of the two teams dressing rooms at half time. NZ were struggling at the break so something needed to be done. The SA dressing room showed the SA coach hammering out his message to his team who were all seated in a semi circle all looking and listening to him speak. In the AB dressing room players were gathered in groups of 4 or 5 talking through the problems in the game.  The reason this is important is that modern sport requires more than inspiring speeches from coaches at half time, it requires intelligent problem solving which encompasses everything from inspiring words through to solving game and moment specific problem solving. 

If Hudson has been working with all of these players over the last 2 years why is he complaining about the football culture?. Good coaches need to be able to motivate and inspire their athletes but even more importantly they need to be able to help athletes motivate and inspire themselves.

I have been coaching for long enough now to see the time and effort a lot of our players put in from an early age.  We have well motivated and dedicated  people in NZ, proof of that is in the success other sports people in NZ are able to achieve. Whats missing in football is a lack of understanding and implementation of mental skills work from our football coaches.  I would love to see Hudson tell Ben Sigmund that he lacks a mental toughness to succeed. 

Bottom line is the problem lies with the need to take our football coaching culture up another level. We are doing lots of good things in coaching  through the ages but we have not yet started to work with coaches on helping players with their mental skills. I have done every coaching course in NZ at least twice over the last 30 years and the first I saw of the mental skills side of things was on SPARC and GACU courses I attended in the last 4 years.

Self motivation is something some can do naturally and others need assistance with how, why and when to do things. 

Hudson highlighting what he believes is a mental weakness is only highlighting where he has been deficient with his own players.

Thanks Alf, very interesting.

First off, my gut feeling is that Hudson is kicking off his exit strategy from the job, he said he isn't a quitter, but that's what he did at Bahrain I think.

What you say is correct, I think, the problem lies within NZ football as there a number of sports where Kiwis excel and are top of the world. You could never make the 'soft' accusations that Hudson made towards rugby or rowing for example.

Thanks for the insight Alf, I enjoyed your comments almost as much as i enjoyed watching you play int he old days :)

This "cerebral" analysis, referencing the All Blacks as the model, I would propound, is overly simplistic.

The question needs to be asked though doesn't it? If NZ rugby can do it, what can be taken from that and used within football in NZ to achieve something better. There is no quick fix but there has to be a strategy that doesn't get tossed out every few years.

Sadly, very little has changed in that regard - but we're talking about NZF here.

What's the FFA got against them again?

Two things can be true at once. Hudson can be out of his depth and NZC can be a mess from an administration perspective.

If after 18 months he can't motivate players without using the Sunday Star times then he should be fired not walk.

Because on all other metrics:

He has cheapened the jersey by picking every Tom Dick and Harry

His style of play is not flash

His results are terrible

You can't blame him for the state of NZ Football. You might could blame hime for not changing enough in the 18 month he is here.

Hudson is clearly building up some frustration. He was the first of NZF (as far as I can remember) who said how bad it would be for New Zealand if the Nix get kicked out of the A-League.

Check the eligibility disaster, fudge me, I get really angry, NZF not even official fired the guy the next day, just fading him slowly out. It is major fudge up for all the young players. Imagine you are Louis Fenton, one of our best local grown talents, captain of the team. NZF just popped his dream bubble of playing at the Olympics, because someone is to 'laid back' to know the rules, in a country full of immigrants, it is a joke, no excuse. Result? No Olympics for whole generation of young players, experience they need to play in a World Cup.

Can't believe Hudson complaining about younger players entitlement and that he had to debut so many players! Exactly- cheapened the jersey. A place in the AWs was not something to be fought for and earned by our best, but seemingly handed out to any promising Central leaguer.

Seems much like he's ready to get out and have excuses and blame for everyone but himself. 

Many of the things he complains about come with the job and he would have known them as factors going in.

On Veitch today, he made mention that he didn't cheapen the jersey by selecting all and sundry. He said something about quite a number of player that he couldn't pick because of the eligibility uncertainty. Take that as you will.