Welcome to the Coaching @ Wests Hub!

Wests Kaiako (Kaiako: coach or teacher) is a community of and for the 130+ coaches of Western Suburbs. The goal of the Wests Kaiako is to create a place where Western Suburbs coaches can learn from each other and grow their coaching skills. Check back here regularly and also keep an eye out for the monthly Wests Kaiako Newsletter to keep informed of the wide range of coaching resources available to our awesome coaching community.

Register as a coach or manager of a Wests team for 2026. Click the image to complete registration.

Wests coaches meet up

An important part of being a community of coaches at Wests is to regularly get together with likeminded coaching peers. Wests holds (semi) monthly informal coaches meetings during the season at the Wests club rooms at Endeavour Park. Typically, these meetings will include a brief coaching related session facilitated by a special guest speaker, followed by a few quiet ones at the club bar. Keep an eye on your email for the invite.

We look forward to seeing you again for the coaches meet ups in 2026.

Wests Coach of the Month

‘Wests Coach of the Month‘ is an opportunity to recognise the hard work that our coaches do every training, game day and behind the scenes for our footballers. Congratulations to our final 2025 Wests Coach of the Month Carl Fenemor, coach of the U13 Hornets.

Nominate your Wests Coach of the Month for May 2026 here.

Wests funded coaching courses

This year, Wests is funding the Capital Football coaching courses for all of our club coaches for introduction to coaching courses, level 1 coaching and referee courses, and level 2 coaching and referee courses. We will also fund (through a simple application process) coaches who wish to go through the more advanced level 3 coaching courses.
Public courses are also being run regularly by Capital Football and can be booked here. For the introduction, and level 1 and 2 courses, select the option for Club Funded and Pay Later in Comet. Please note to qualify for Wests funded Capital Football courses, you must be currently registered as a Wests coach at the time of the course. Check with the Coach Coordinator if you are not sure whether you are registered as a coach, or look in the Membership section of your Friendly Manager profile.

Managing your team

Gone are the days where Wests coaches need to track player details in manual spreadsheets or find the last email to contact players! From 2022, Western Suburbs has adopted the excellent Friendly Manager club management software. Friendly Manager allows all Wests coaches to have up to date player and player contact details in one central place…if a player or parent updates their email address or phone number, then that update is reflected instantly in your team portal. From within your team portal you can manage your team, set up events for your team, send a mail directly from Friendly Manager (and track who has received and opened it) and upload resources for your team. To learn how to manage your Wests team, have a look at this short video in your Friendly Manager resources.  (Friendly Manager login required to view the video). If you don’t have access to Wests Friendly Manager, please email the Coach Coordinator or the Club Admin with details of the team that you are coaching.

Wests Coaching Resources

There are a lot of excellent coaching resources out there from Capital Football, NZ Football, YouTube and football websites. We’ve done the hard work for you and collated the best of these in your Wests club portal. To access these log into the Wests club portal (here – Friendly Manager Login – Western Suburbs), click ‘My Profile’ and then ‘Resources’. Whether you are looking for the latest 11+ drills, junior or youth playing cards, how to add game scores in Comet, information on the retreating line, or useful team management/substitution mobile apps….you’ll find it under your coaching resources in your club portal.

The Coaching Manual

One of the best football coaching resources on the web is the excellent www.thecoachingmanual.com website. The Coaching Manual is a website dedicated to football coaches working with players from 4 years old through to senior footballers. The Coaching Manual has many hundreds of searchable videos, drills, games, session plans, interviews and articles. It also has football specific diagramming tools for those coaches that want to draft up their own plans, easy templates to design your own session plans and even a tool to recommend a structured season plan. Check out the quick start guide here.

To subscribe to this great football coaching resource would normally cost you around $125 per year; however Wests is providing a FREE individual premium subscription to every first kicks, junior, youth and senior coach at Western Suburbs. To be eligible for this free subscription, you need to be registered as a Wests coach on Friendly Manager. To register your TCM account please contact your grade convenor or the Coach Coordinator with the grade that you coach and the name of the team.

Wests Police Vetting

The safety and welfare of children and young people involved in football is paramount. As part of Western Suburbs FC (Western Suburbs) focus on ensuring a safe environment for all players and supporters – committee members, coaches, managers or contractors and their employees over the age of 18 who have regular contact with members of a team that includes children or young people (18 years old and under) are required to undergo Police vetting. The vetting lasts for three years. On the fourth year, volunteers need to re-submit the vetting application but do not need to show ID again unless their details have changed.

Police vetting provides parents/care givers, families and whānau with the confidence that children are participating in sport supported by coaches and managers who do not pose a risk to their safety and supports our Child Protection Policy. There is a straightforward vetting process for our coaches to go through.

Wests Veo Camera

Unfortunately, we haven’t been about to secure grant funding for the Veo camera for the 2026 season. If you or your business would like to sponsor the Veo camera this year, please reach out to Terry Chapman.

Coaching Juniors Information

Coach Support Information

Refereeing Juniors @ Wests