 Dean Heffernan has overcome a lot in his football career, from grinding his way to making his professional debut at 22, recovering from career-ending injuries to playing for the Socceroos. Dean has seen it all in his football career. Dean returned to the Wanderers in 2018, first with the club's academy, before taking up the role as head coach of the club's Westfield W League side alongside Catherine Canoulli and lifelong friend Michael Beecham and led the Wander women to their first ever final series and has every intention of going even further next season. I spoke with Dean in the state-of-the-art Wanderers Centre of Football. Dean congratulations, re-signing with the club. What does it mean to you personally to be re-signing? Yeah look it's great and as you said it's been a very tough time for a lot of people around the world. It's some welcome news, welcome good news and yeah really excited to get another opportunity. It means a lot because we definitely have unfinished business for one and in anything I do I always like to finish what we start and there's a lot of things for this season that we can achieve that we can continue to build. The atmosphere that we created around the group last season was fantastic and that comes down to the players we're able to bring across to our club, the players that we're able to work with, the personalities of the staff and everyone involved around the W League side. It was such a fresh happy atmosphere and that you know attributed a lot to what we were able to achieve so I'm really excited to continue that and yeah with the staff from last season in Megzy and Kath, in particular Michael Beecham and Kath Kanuli, yeah we get to continue on and hopefully do a lot better than what we did last season as well. He's a good friend of yours as well. What's what's it like to work with a mate? Is there the few blow-ups here and there or how does it work? If I was working I've got four brothers and I've worked with them all and there's always the odd little blow-up but it's over in a minute. How's it go? Yeah look it's well as you said Tim you've got brothers and I've got two brothers and I've got Megzy as well who I consider a brother and you know we have some some good arguments. We challenge each other to be better, we challenge each other to think into more detail when we're leading into games. There were certain games there where we'll be in the meeting room talking about how we're going to go about tactically and what we needed to do or change and at times Kath would just sit back in the chair and just kind of look side to side as if she was at a tennis game and Megzy would go at it until we felt that we had a game plan to go and get three points for the club and that's what it's all about when you have staff you want them to challenge you you want to challenge them and we all want to challenge each other to bring our level up to a standard where we can win things and that's what has to happen. How exciting is it to be a part of the women's game? This is one sport one area of this sport that has grown exponentially obviously there still needs to be some parity in places internationally but the growth has been extraordinary the quality amazing and that's the main thing I think they're right there Tim is the quality and we've seen that I read a recent report the differences between the 2019 women's world cup to the 2015 and the output from the players in terms of their physical output tactically you can see that the games just evolve so much on them in a women's space and that's the main driving force that these girls continue to want to get better and improve and they're dragging the game right up to the top and giving us something to watch every other week and you know I know too well from our Wanderers girls and the readings will get in on their GPS data and it's as much as what guys will do in a game the amount of sprints high velocity sprints the amount of k's in a game and you can just see from our girls last season that the quality in their football is there as well no excuses on the wall here at the club in the gym and it's very much a cornerstone of the way women's soccer is played yeah for sure there was never any excuses here with our club anyway and I can only speak for the Wanderers and and what we created here last season and that's why I love working with those girls so much they were selfless they worked hard for each other they they walked in here every day to try and improve and get better and you know we know in football that it doesn't matter how hard you work that you might not always get what you deserve out of football games but by working as hard as we did we give ourselves the best opportunity to actually achieve things and that's what we did last season it was a difficult summer wasn't it the weather the bushfires made an impact yeah it wasn't nice it wasn't nice at all for some of these girls in particular that came from overseas to experience an Aussie summer and play football here and be able to experience things outside of football okay because we can't expect the girls to only be focused on football 24-7 they can prepare that way but they also need to have lives and go see what Australia and Sydney has to offer but as you said the smoke the areas that were closed off that people couldn't travel people losing houses you know you never want to see or hear about that it was tough times for everyone there was games of football being played when they probably shouldn't have been played as well but look like you said on the wall back there no excuses the girls never made a single excuse you know we backed them in in what they wanted to do in terms of training in the smoke if it was a bit too much we pulled at certain games as well we had little meetings beforehand to make sure that everyone was comfortable with what we were about to do in those conditions and like you said there was never any excuses from those girls Kristen Hamilton what an extraordinary award what what a what a compliment to her and what she achieved for the club yeah look it's definitely not a compliment to to me or us as a club it's a compliment to her and one that she deserves you know I saw the work she put in from the moment she arrived she was straight in the gym the day she arrived off the plane she was in here on the roller working hard doing some runs and that just set the tone for the season for Kristen and also set the time for for what I was expecting as well to have someone that had so much success in the States to get a recent call up to the US women's national team which is no easy feat so straight away we knew the type of person and the type of player we'll get in and every day she pushed everyone we learned from her as well and yeah she was she was great to have around the club and you know we talk about culture and you know it gets thrown around quite a lot and I'm a big believer in culture is just the the people that you have around the club and around the team and it grows from there and you know she had a big part to do with everything that we created last year as a club it wasn't easy but she managed to overcome hurdle after hurdle and she did a great job here with the Wanderers yeah and you look at her team at North Carolina Courage the players that she competes against every day and to try and get a position in that start in 11 and she was able to do that for huge parts of last season before she came to the Wanderers and that was a big thing there was a lot of names getting thrown about for us and I watched a lot of games and to be honest Kristen wasn't a name that came up from anyone and the more games I watched of other players there was Kristen always just performing always doing well always working hard selfless runs tracking all the way back in the 90th minute of the game scoring plenty of goals as well and that's the kind of player I like they need to be selfless and put the team first and she definitely did that and we're lucky to have her what about this facility it's just extraordinary and I know that from Kristen Hamilton's perspective and Lynn Williams and players that came to the club from other parts of Australia they just cannot get over how good the facilities are we were very lucky we're very lucky and this is something that's been in the works for a long time for this club and there's been some players that have come through these doors and some players from you know eight years ago across the road where we're training and some legends of the game that helped lay a platform for the club and council and supporters and and everyone involved to be able to provide something like this for the future and for now and it's been great we're very lucky to have these kind of facilities bank west stadium as well you know it's all set up for something special for the wanderers in terms of the w league the a league we've got an academy of players coming through you know consistently good players coming through that young academy system as well into the first team so in terms of the club as a standpoint in infrastructure and everything around it it's set up for something special and it's just now time to execute it really is an extraordinary place isn't it I would think that a lot of the the women that have come from other clubs would find this extraordinary and that's the thing and like I said before Tim in regards to the work and the professionalism of these girls and and the amount of sacrifice they made throughout last season to be professional footballers and to perform at their best every day and and on the weekend for the game they deserve this every female player deserves to have something like this to help them be the best that they can be and and perform and look where we're very lucky it was great for these girls to be able to experience that last season and you know hopefully a lot more to come what about the world cup how exciting is it to have the women's world cup coming to Australia yeah like you said we needed some good news around the game a world cup here on our own on our own footsteps on our own door it's going to be great and we know that the Asian cup that we had here for the Sokaroos and how much of an advantage that was for the Sokaroos we spoke about I remember Ange speaking about other teams coming here and possibly not realising you know the the trip from Perf to Sydney or for a group game or you know kind of underestimating the weather and different things like that and how hard the grounds were compared to Europe so a lot of little advantages that we can take from that and I'm sure whoever's in charge will have one eye on that as well and and surely give Ange a call because he's won a major trophy on our shores and hopefully that's what we can do for the girls and a generation of girls now who who have something to strive for and you think about the 10-year-old girls who are going to be in the stands watching those games how many footballers we're going to get out of that and all it takes is that little spark to to get someone going and to love the game and with the way the game is now and grassroots level and as an organisation it's getting better every year so you know so much good things to come in the women's space for football. You must have learnt so much in that period of your playing life that you can take now into the coaching role. Yeah look it's so many ups and downs in football that's for sure and I think the main thing is you got to try and stay neutral in all of those moments things happen that's that's a given especially in football you're going to lose some you're going to win some you just got to try and stay in the moment and and focus on on what's next because that's what's going to give you an outcome of what you want to achieve so if you dwell too much on things in the past it's it's just not going to help so that's something I learnt as a player for sure yeah it's it was an amazing journey as a player one I'm very grateful for the the opportunities along the way probably a bit of a late starter not playing my first game till I was 22 as a professional 22-23 so yeah there was opportunities along the way I just couldn't say no to purely because of my age so like going to Germany at 26 what was that like yeah Germany was great it was cold but an awesome experience you know some some fantastic players we're on a training camp in Austria and I think we had 14 players from our squad at the 2006 World Cup so and slowly they just stream in from straight from the World Cup into our training camp and there was no Australian players there at the time because we obviously went into the round of 16 so Michael Beecham wasn't there Josh Kennedy wasn't there just yet so yeah it was an interesting time but you know I'm still friends with a few of the German players from there and a couple of the Brazilian guys as well so yeah it was a great experience and one that yeah I'll never forget what was it like playing for Australia when you finally put the Soccer Roos Jersey national anthem being a part of the Australian team after fighting hard making you debut late yeah look it was it was an amazing time something that you always want as a player and as a kid growing up I used to draw pictures and coloring in and you know there was always a dream to do that but I you just don't know if it's ever going to become a reality yeah obviously after I injured my leg as well I thought that it would be a difficult time to try and get back from a broken leg and and into the national team and not even so much that just by playing well at the Mariners again and you know I was lucky enough to have good people around me guys like Andrew Clark who was a strength conditioning coach at the Mariners at the time Lauren McKinna who would just help you in a way like you were talking about before in a mentor and and help get the best out of you and focus on what was next and you know getting that opportunity to play for Soccer Roos was yeah fantastic one that I'll never forget that's for sure. What about yourself what about that broken leg on your brother's wedding day yeah look I think never a good time to to break your leg I remember every moment in that game as well because luckily I was able to be at the church and I was able to be at the wedding for my brother and stand next to him at the altar when he married his beautiful wife so you know that part was is there and I'm very thankful that I could be there for that jumped in the car straight after the church went up to Central Coast to play in that game against Sydney I think we ended up losing 5-4 but we're up 2-0 and we're cruising and then I remember Alex Brask and Danny Vukovic coming out and I thought to myself I was thinking at 2-0 60th minute yeah Laurie will take me off I can go down for the reception everything will be okay Danny Vukovic got sent off we copped two goals just before half time so it was 2-2 man down and I kind of felt yeah I'm gonna have to finish this game off and it wasn't until the 90th minute that the tackle happened and I broke my leg and you know these things happen yeah everything happens for a reason I'm a big believer in that it set me on another path and changed my mentality a lot as well in terms of you know when you feel as though you've something's just there and you might take it for granted a little bit so coming back early re-injuring the leg the same place breaking it again definitely taught me a lesson that you know I might not be able to play again and so it really changed my mindset on being a professional making more sacrifices I always found that as a professional it's it's not so much what you're willing to do it's the things that you're willing not to do and from that moment on I was willing not to go out and have a social life I was willing to miss Christmas I was willing to miss New Year's Eve weddings the amount of friends weddings and things like that but these are the things you have to do if you wanted to get back to that level as we wrap it up and bring it back to the women's game and your role that must help when you look back you think well that's helping me now because I've seen it yeah yeah look I think I think the biggest thing that Michael and I always talk about is we just can't forget what it was like to be a player that's that's key and early in my coaching career I feel like I did that a little bit I forgot what it was like I forgot that I definitely wasn't at my best every day you know so why wasn't I at my best and why wasn't I training hard enough certain days and maybe had a quiet game on the weekend and these are things that I have to think about now as a as a manager when I see that in a player that we can't expect them to always be at their best something might have happened on the way to training something might have happened the night before at home with their family and these are the questions that we need to ask or just be mindful of the fact that you know no one's ever going to be at their best every single day and if they are then that's fantastic but you've got to be able to expect that there's other things happening in people's lives and that's what we need to be mindful of what about this team and where it goes to next season look I think for us as I said at the start we've definitely built a foundation now that there's an atmosphere here that there's an expectation that we want to finish higher than what we did this season that's for sure I think in terms of our style of play and having a year of experience in the job that we're definitely more than capable of doing that I think the new players that come in straight away they'll feel the atmosphere and they'll understand after the first couple of sessions what it means to be a wanderer and to play for this club and to play for this team because we've got driving force of the core group of players back that want to get better every day and want to try and improve and we've got the facilities to do that so for the new players coming in it's they're going to know straight away they're going to feel it and they're going to be a part of something we're not so much creating anything new anymore it's more so heading in the same direction but just trying to get better it's just an exciting time you know really really keen to see all the players hopefully we can finalize the squad over the next month two months and yeah have a start date and get ready to go congratulations on re-signing thanks Steve thanks very much Tim