Canberra United unveil Junna as New Head Coach

Canberra United unveil Junna as head coach



Canberra United took a big step towards season two of the Westfield W-League today with the appointment of former AIS Assistant Coach Ray Junna as head coach for the coming national league season.

The former National League player has been involved in elite football for more than 20 years both as a coach and a player and will take the next step in his coach career with Canberra United.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be able to announce Ray Junna as the head coach for the coming season,” Canberra United independent chair, Senator Kate Lundy said.

“To have a coach of his experience will only further add to the wonderful franchise we’re building here in the ACT.”

Junna was an Australian Institute of Sport football scholarship holder in 1982 and 1983 then went on to join the Canberra Arrows and Brisbane City in the National Soccer League before returning to the AIS in 1995 as a Scholarship Coach.

The former midfielder is no stranger to football in Canberra. Before his appointment as Assistant Coach at the AIS in 2000, Junna, also coached with the ACT Academy of Sport.

“Twenty odd years [of living in Canberra] and eleven years of coaching at the AIS, whilst I’m not born and bred in Canberra I pass the test because I’ve been here more than 20 years.”

“It’s an exciting time for women’s football, it’s going to be challenging but exciting at the same time and I’m really looking forward to it,” Junna said.

“I think this women’s league has made an impact world-wide, not just in Australia.”

Junna’s appointment as Canberra United Head Coach comes with national team coach Tom Sermanni’s praise.

“It’s a great coup for Canberra United and women’s football to have a coach of his caliber to coach the team.”

“He’s got an extensive coaching background at an elite level and a playing background at an elite level so he’s exactly the type of coach and person that we’re looking to get involved in our women’s system.”

Junna’s initial task will be compiling a squad for the season with the first registration window to open in a month’s time.

http://www.canberraunited.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=27813

Seems to have a good resume.

Sad to see Hooker go, but time to move on.

When I first saw the name I thought he was Brazilian and then when I saw the picture of him I was sure he was Brazilian.

his CV looks ok, what worries me is his lack of first team coaching experience.

i'm gonna reserve judgement until the first games are played.

Yeah, he does look good, but he I don't he will be as good as Robbie Hooker

CV's alright, wants to keep Munoz as coaching staff obviously knows his stuff... promising

^^

does that mena munoz won't be playing this year? we're looking really thin in an attacking sense if that's the case.

Yeah our defense was top notch last year though the strikers were weak. If we loose Munoz then we will def need some new faces up front.

i hope he has some open door training sessions so we can get to see him in action. hooker did it a couple of times and we loved him for that

Just come on to answer a few of these questions. No Munoz won't be playing this year, she had a knee reconstruction about a month after W-League finished. So she can't actually play, she only started running a few weeks ago.
Also Ray Junna will also be one of the most experienced coaches across the whole W-League this year, and before Hooker coached United he only had head women's ACTAS job first-team coaching, Junna has been the men's head ACTAS coach for 2 years, so not much difference there. Plus Tom Sermanni, Matildas coach, asked Junna to be involved when it became clear Hooker wasn't going to re-apply.
No surprises there though, I don't have any inside info, it's all in the canberra times if you read it!


Also, I'm not certain, but pretty sure that no United session was officially 'closed' last year. If you asked when they were on, you could have turned up to any of them and I think it will be the same this year.

^^

fair enough.