The AFC Women’s team will not have their current co-management team next season – because Harley Hamdani is emigrating to Australia.

Co manager’s Emma Hunter and Harley led the AFC Women’s team in their inaugural season to the SWFL Division 1 North title – going through the whole league season unbeaten. They also took their side to the Semi-Finals of the SWF League Cup and Quarter Finals of the SSE Women’s Scottish Cup, defeating a number of top sides along the way.

At the recent SWF Awards in Glasgow the SWFL Coach of the Year Prize went to the AFC Co-Managers Emma and Harley and Aberdeen were named SWFL Team of the Year.

However, as the women begin to prepare for life in the Scottish Building Society SWPL 2 in 2020, the partnership will come to an end next week as Harley explains:

“My partner and I are going over to Melbourne to emigrate. It has been on the cards for a couple of years now, but we probably thought it was going to be another year away.

“It was one of those moments where we had to take the decision whether it was now or possibly never. We didn’t want to be looking back and regret not taking that risk in life.

AFC WOMEN

“I will definitely be keeping an eye out on the scores and following the team!

“It’s such an exciting time for the women’s team. We have just gone through the first chapter and what a privilege it has been to be a part of such an historical time at the club.

“With that comes that feeling of leaving with unfinished business as there is still that hard work and challenge to come in the SWPL 2. With such an exciting squad you want to be working with players like that, you want to be working with a team like that.

“The future is so bright it will be up to them to go and take it to the next level.

“That’s what we want to attract at Aberdeen Football Club; players within the North-east who want to go and make it as professional footballers. Whether that is eventually in this country, at this club, or whether that is going down the road and playing in England and achieving a playing career.

“We have a few of those within the squad now that want to go and make a career out of this game and they have every chance of doing so. As I said, the future is bright, but they have to work even harder now to make that possible. The good news is that they’re in best hands possible with Emma.”

As Harley prepares to swap the Aberdeen weather for the ever so slightly warmer climates of Southern Australia, he reflects on what was a ground-breaking season for the women’s team:

“We were always expected to come in and win.

“We have spoken a few times that with the expectation comes pressure and we felt that initially at the start of the season, that bit of added pressure. The first few games we didn’t quite know what the squad was going to look like personnel wise and quality wise is the detail we do now.

“The way that we have done it has probably been the most pleasing. We have taken the blank canvas that the Club gave us, gone and implemented a playing style but also a wider philosophy and personality in terms of how we want to be not just as players and coaches but as people within that team.

“We’ve been in a fortunate position to have met that expectation of winning but we have done so in a way that has built for the future and encouraged the development of young players, which is so important when you have an average age of 20/21 within the squad.

“There are games where we have gone in with an average age of 19 on the pitch but done so with a thought to the future and trust in those young players.

“We have now got what I feel is a strong base with a couple more still to come in that will hopefully strengthen the squad ahead of next season.

“Aberdeen is a club that always needs to win. It is difficult at times finding that balance where you are developing the next generation and the future players that are going to play for this club.

“At the same time, we have come in at a time where we have actually been able to put young players in that environment where they can go and play senior football, because of the level the team found themselves in.

“We have taken advantage of that to an extent. I think the very first interview myself and Emma gave when we came in here, we said what an exciting squad of young players this is.

“It is still the case, but they are now a year older, and with that comes much more experience. We have seen that a few times this season already, in terms of game management.

“That is all going to bode well for their future careers and some of these players have every chance of going and making it in the future of this game, in such a dynamic time in this country for women’s football.”

Joint Co-manager Emma Hunter spoke to RedTV recently about Harley’s departure:

“It is a bittersweet feeling.

“It is extremely disappointing, but we are all very pleased for Harley.

“It is a great move for him, getting the opportunity to go and live in Australia.

“He will be a great loss and he has been my partner in crime. We have developed a great relationship over a short period of time.

“We will really miss him – in the AFC Community Trust as well as the Women’s team – but he leaves behind a legacy. He was part of something right from the start, part of history and that will not be forgotten.

“As a squad we have to recover. We will continue to work really hard and as a group we know that we will be there for each other and

Harley will be keeping in touch from Australia, I am 100% sure of that!”

THE TRUST

Harley has combined his role of co-manager of the women’s team with his day job of working for the AFC Community Trust which he has seen grow massively over the six and a half years he has spent at Pittodrie:

“When I came in full time it was already in that fast growth stage. There were only four or five full time staff when I started with the Trust in 2013. It had already risen to seven or eight full time staff when I came in full time.

“Now we are almost at 30 full time staff members. Plus, on top of that a core group of sessional coaches and a bank of amazing volunteers.

“If you look at the number of participants and participations over the last year alone, over 20,000 participants in 2018/19, that is massive. Reaching nearly 1 million participations over the past 5 years is such an achievement that we should be proud of.

“What we have been able to show over the last year or two is the actual impact in those communities, whether that be with kids kicking the ball for the first time or the older generation still leading a healthy lifestyle. When we are in local communities and working in schools, working in community settings, supporting the next generation, we are now able to show that impact.

“My role at AFCCT is as the Education Officer. I look after our education-based programmes where we have coaches embedded in schools across the North East.

“We effectively use football as the hook to support pupils to re-engage with their learning. That can be to help young people increase their school attendance, improve their wellbeing, maybe their behaviour within a class setting isn’t great but football is that hook for them, so we use it is a tool to help them re-engage with their learning again.

“A huge aspect of this work is around helping those pupils in targeted areas but the other part of it is building an affinity with the badge.”

One of the major changes that Harley has noticed throughout his time with the Trust is the number of children who wear Aberdeen strips throughout the city and he believes that building an affiliation with the club badge is very important for the work the trust do:

“We have seen that over the past few years that the number of kids and young people that are wearing the Aberdeen strip out in different communities has grown enormously.

“When I first came in if you were up at any of the holiday camps or you are out coaching in schools the amount of Aberdeen kits you have now is night and day.

“Of course, the success of the Men’s First Team in recent years has been crucial to this, but part of the growth is because the Community Trust has been so prevalent in local communities. We haven’t had that facility where we are bringing people in so it has probably been to our benefit that we have been going out to schools, we are out delivering activities in local communities within the city and shire.

“When you have got that contact time, when you have got that personality of the coaches actually engaging with young people on a personal basis you are going to create that bond.

“There have been a lot of proud moments throughout my time with the Community Trust.

“The amount of growth that we have seen particularly in the education role over the last couple of years stands out to me. We have gone from three or four Partner Schools where we had staff based to 13 last year to 20 plus this year, delivered through six full time partner school coaches, along with two or three other coaches who are also delivering in schools.

“The scale to which we are doing is really proud, the fact that we have been able to build a working model that we can prove does impact positively is great and I think it will continue to grow over the next couple of years as well.

“That has definitely been a proud moment and I think if you look at the individual case studies that we have had, where children and young people have made huge progress and made such positive steps forward in their own journey, that is what makes you really proud, that’s why we do it.

“At AFCCT, we have got that ethos of working hard for each other and working hard for the people that we are there to support.

“And I believe that can be two-way, when you can show that we genuinely care and work for our participants, you build that strong relationship and I think it does come back the way and people want to give back to this family Club.”

Everyone at Aberdeen FC and the Community Trust thanks Harley for all his hard work over the years and wishes him and his partner all the best for their move to Australia.