Amy Shepherd appointed Wellington Phoenix Assistant Coach
The Liberty A-League has gained yet another National Premier Leagues Women’s NSW coaching product with Sydney University SFC assistant Amy Shepherd joining the Wellington Phoenix as the club’s assistant coach for the 2024-25 season.
Shepherd will link up with Phoenix head coach Paul Temple with previous Wellington assistant Callum Holmes accepting a role as the club’s female development lead.
Joining the Phoenix in a fulltime capacity, the 35-year-old has had a wealth of experience under her belt leading up to being appointed at Wellington.
Originally from the U.K where she held roles at Watford FC and Norwich City, Shepherd has coached in Australia since 2016 and is currently the director of women’s football at Sydney University SFC.
Shepherd has been the assistant coach of the Sydney University SFC NPL women’s first team for the past four seasons and has served as the assistant coach of the New South Wales’ U-15 and U-16 boys teams at the National Youth Championship.
“I love being an assistant coach and it’s long been an aspiration of mine to coach in the A-League,” Shepherd said.
“I’ve coached at a number of levels in Australia and I’m ready to take that next step.
“From the interview I had with the Phoenix it struck me how everyone speaks about the club.
“It sounds like there’s a really good environment to learn and develop.
“The club’s also ambitious and loyal and committed to people within it, so I’m really excited to work there.”
She is also looking forward to focusing all of her time on the assistant coach role having been “so stretched across the game for so many years”.
“I also do a lot of coach education so I was getting to a point where I needed to decide do I go into coaching or do I go into coach education?
“In football you end up doing so many different things to stay in the game so the thing that excites me the most is the fact that I’m coming into an assistant role where that’s my only job.
“My fulltime focus is being an assistant coach and how much can I give to the players and how much how I can assist Paul to get the best out of the team.”
Amy Shepherd will move to Wellington next month ahead of the start of pre-season training.
Shepherd becomes one of a number of coaches that have made the jump from the NPL Women’s NSW competition to Australia’s national competition with Perth Glory’s Stephen Peters, Sydney FC’s Ante Juric and Central Coast Mariners’ Emily Husband just some of the managers that have come through via the state’s NPL system.