Kat Smith has been appointed as the replacement for Western United grand final coach Mark Torcaso.
Torcaso made the decision to resign from his position in order to focus fully on his role with the Philippines women’s national team.
Returning to the A-League, Smith said she is champing at the bit to be back home in Melbourne and coaching once again.
Smith joins United as just its second women’s coach and first female to be at the helm.
Smith brings a wealth of knowledge on a majority of the playing squad having come up against United while leading the Western Sydney Wanderers side last season and also coaching Alamein FC and Geelong Galaxy in the women’s National Premier League.
It’s a full circle moment for Smith to return to the Western United environment after she was a part of the first ever Western United women’s development squad.
“I’m really excited, the weather has been turned on in Melbourne and I’m back at home doing what I love, being on the grass coaching,” she said.
“I’m really stoked to get this opportunity to work with this group, obviously some strong foundations have been laid.
Commencing in 2021, the women’s development squad was the precursor to Western United’s A-League team, bringing professional training standards to a select group of talented players in Victoria.
That group featured the likes of Alana Cerne, Adriana and Melissa Taranto and Natasha Dakic, all of whom went on to secure A-League contracts. Smith said she is now eager to reunite with familiar faces.
“That’s the drive you get from coaching, seeing players progressing and reaching their dreams and helping them with their ambition,” she said.
“To have the opportunity to work with the club prior to moving to Sydney I think coming back and being able to reconnect with those players again and help them on their journey here.”
Smith coached her first match at United on the weekend, talking before the game she said fans shouldn’t be expecting massive changes.
“The group’s got a really good foundation,” she said.
“We are obviously going to put a bit of my flavour on things that we’ll tweak but I think the real focus and priority will be for players to have clarity in terms of their roles and responsibilities.
“I don’t want to change too much because like I said there’s a good foundation and good principals… it’s just redefining a little bit of the language and a little bit of the purpose and intent for the ball.
“Our style of play is going to start with the ball, every team likes to control possession, we’ll be like that but also really aggressive about how we play forward.
“We’ve got some really good technical players in this group and their strengths and their dominant qualities are going to come.
“And of course we’ve got to have a good work ethic and desire of every player to make sure that we can support each other around the ball.”
