Danny Hay is no longer the All Whites head coach. His contract runs up at the end of the month and he’s chosen not to reapply for the gig. He was invited to do so after a routine review into the World Cup cycle was completed but it’s often a bit frisky inviting an incumbent to reapply for their own job and there was clearly already plenty of friskiness at play in the relationship (or lack thereof) between Danny Hay and New Zealand Football.

This development also comes hot on the heels of a few notable All Whites players voicing frustrations about NZF, most prominent being Chris Wood who is likely to be the next full-time captain now that Winston Reid has retired. That was mostly about frustration at not playing in the November window but it’s also gotta be said that Chris Wood spoken in strong support of Hay remaining as coach of the team and the tricky thing about this situation is that it’s very hard to disentangle the objective truth from the subjective truth. The he-said/she-said. The politics. Permeating all the way through this drama to where it’s hard to even know where to start.

The letter to NZF seems like a decent starting spot. As revealed in an exclusive from Michael Burgess for the NZ Herald, four leading All Whites players sent a missive to NZ Football back in July putting forward their case for games in the November window. Chris Wood, Winston Reid, Joe Bell, and Bill Tuiloma were the dudes. The All Whites may not have qualified for the World Cup but lots of other teams did and a couple of them apparently even reached out to Aotearoa for friendlies. It would have been a difficult one logistically with only players named in World Cup squads technically required to be released by clubs at that time, not to mention the limited funds available without that World Cup windfall... but it could have been achieved.

Unfortunately NZF’s response was a letter in return which left the players feeling that they’d been shrugged off. Rather than opening a dialogue it had the opposite effect. When the existence of that letter became public, NZF released a statement reaffirming their commitment to the All Whites using the usual PR jargon chatter. Including a stated desire to play games as soon as possible in 2023 (though no fixtures are yet confirmed). Next came another Herald exclusive claiming that Chris Wood had considered international retirement due to all these annoyances.

Now, Chris Wood’s not actually gonna retire. A bombastic headline doesn’t quite capture the yeah-nah nature of the actual quotes in the article (“It would have been a shame and I hope it doesn't come to that and I don't think it will – but there was a part of me thinking that way.”). This is a bloke who has gone out of his way to represent his country at all points of his career, he’s the top goal scorer in AW’s history and a very good bet to become the first kiwi male to 100 international caps someday. There’s no way he’s quitting over some hurt feelings. Nope, this, ladies and gents, is what is called: leverage.

Because when you step back and look at it, what Wood et al are doing is fighting for more games. They’re trying to build up the All Whites programme which is the opposite of quitting on it. Wood knows his value and this was him flexing that... purely as a means to a desired end.

Ideally they’d have won the battle and we’d be seeing the All Whites playing a couple World Cup bound teams in November, sweet as. But there are also valid reasons why that’s not happening. Some of those are NZF tightening the purse strings and hitting pause during a review process. Some is also, let’s be honest, the consequences of the All Whites’ own failures.

Had they beaten Costa Rica there’d be no dramas, lots of footy games to be played. Except they didn’t qualify for the World Cup hence they’ve got non-qualifier problems to deal with. That happened on the pitch rather than in any NZF board meetings. Regardless of all else, if the All Whites had succeeded where they intended to then this wouldn’t be an issue.

That’s the primordial ooze from which this Danny Hay news emerged and we can’t ignore that context because the same thing applies to Danny Hay as head coach. It’s clearly a bit stink to have to reapply for his own job but on the flipside why shouldn’t he have to? What exactly did he do to put his standing in such an irrefutable place? Hay’s All Whites did not qualify for the World Cup. They lost both those high profile games to Australia. They haven’t scored a single goal in any of their past five matches. Some tidy wins against the likes of Bahrain and Gambia hardly signifies the top of the mountain. And they certainly don’t overshadow the fact that this team has so far failed to live up to their enormous potential.

Lots of mitigating factors involved, of course. Injuries, travel, inexperience, refereeing decisions... all sorts. Hay has gotten this team playing an excellent and entertaining style of footy and the playing group seems fully on board with both him and his tactics. Given that the pandemic left them with roughly nine months in which to squeeze an entire World Cup cycle you can understand them being undercooked and the positive signs under Danny Hay’s guidance do suggest that with more time they might have gotten where they’re going.

But suggestions aren’t enough. It would have been negligent on NZ Football’s side of things had they not at least surveyed the landscape to see what all their options were. Danny Hay could have been a part of that if he’d chosen to but instead he’s walked away.

A quick squizz at the Mackinnon Report, released concurrently with Hay’s withdrawal, helps to explain that decision a lot more. Following interviews with a number of players (two-thirds of the squad) and staff, the review found that the All Whites were as well prepared for the intercontinental playoff as they could reasonably hope to have been given the state of the world. They played in every window between the Tokyo Olympics and the Costa Rica game... although the eight missed windows prior, due to the pandemic, were a significant set-back. Games against England and Belgium were cancelled that could have helped raise the bar for the All Whites so that Costa Rica didn’t end up being the best team they played over that span.

The review continues in praise of the coaching staff for a progressive style of play which had the full support of players as well the cultural foundations established within the wider group – from an acknowledgement of its history to an emphasis on “kiwi values” (you often head Hay use the word ‘mana’ in interviews). There is an admittance that Hay is an “autocratic” coach although with the caveat that this wasn’t an issue for the players, many of whom are used to that sort of management. There was a feeling that the assistants should have taken more of an “obvious lead role” instead of leaving everything up to Hay... yet there was also a feeling that training sessions and camps were extremely well organised. Chuck in some hype for the future and it all reads pretty well.

Until...

“The All Whites and NZF’s high-performance staff operated almost entirely independently of each other, in silos, for much of the campaign. Some of the New Zealand coaches and senior players had little trust in NZF’s high performance staff (the CEO being one noticeable exception), and there remains a strong sense within this group that NZF as an organisation lacks sufficient professional football experience.”

There were also some nice words about CEO Andrew Pragnell building bridges in an attempt to overcome past damage - admittedly mostly from previous NZF incarnations. A lot of the current players didn’t feature for the All Whites during the Andy Martin days but some did and reputations can be sticky. The line in there about lacking sufficient professional football experience is actually something that Chris Wood also brought up in that Herald article so read into that what you will. (He’s right, by the way).

But it’s that separation between the All Whites and NZF which is most concerning. As the report states, this is not something that happens with the Football Ferns. It’s an All Whites issue where NZF’s High Performance staff have been “severely restricted in their ability to have any material influence on the direction of the campaign, [and] have found it very difficult to constructively challenge or add value”. Much of this was shielded from the playing group, the younger ones in particular, so it’s pretty obvious where it stems from. NZF hired Englishman Gareth Jennings as the new General Manager of High Performance last year and guess what? He’s already quit. No reasoning given as to why he left after only nine months in the gig but it has been reported that Hay and Jennings did not exactly see eye to eye, so to speak.

NZ Football were Danny Hay’s employers and he apparently iced them out of large swathes of this process whilst seemingly slagging them off behind their backs (the CEO not included), influencing his players in turn. That’s... not good behaviour. Especially not from someone hoping to be automatically re-hired despite not achieving his number one objective. Even if he was completely right in that those folks are all rubbish and his team knew better at every corner... the complete lack of collaboration still reflects pretty poorly on Hay, to be honest.

Mackinnon also mentions that the 2010 and 2014 reviews found a similar lack of any close working relationship between the team and the governing body. That’s a massive problem. Unfortunately wherever you go at whatever level in kiwi footy there’s a common theme that everybody thinks they know better than everyone else. Whether they do or not doesn’t even matter – nobody’s sailing this ship alone.

Here are the ultimate recommendations from the review...

• The need for proactive investment in coach development at All Whites level

• Possible ways to introduce greater professional football expertise within NZF including potentially adding high profile former All Whites to the High Performance and Player Welfare Committee

• Suggestions in relation to how the role of GM of High Performance could be filled

• The need for the communication style of the coaching group (led by the Head Coach) to evolve to meet the needs of a wide range of players from a cross-section of backgrounds

• Placing a greater focus on creating a strong culture of transparency and honesty, including ways to improve the scope for player feedback and collaboration (such as the establishment of a more formalised leadership group)

• Ensuring that the team rituals become part of the DNA of the All Whites and that they are passed down from generation to generation

• Having the team play as often as possible (ideally in every FIFA window), to set a plan in place to target higher quality opposition and to have the team play in New Zealand more often.

Those all seem like very reasonable ideas. Also none of them are particularly drastic which certainly left room for continuity, as long as Hay’s regime and NZ Football were both willing to evolve in a few of those highlighted areas. NZF doesn’t have a choice. Hay did and he’s chosen to seek alternative career opportunities... seemingly because of his beef with NZF more than anything else, which is a bloody shame.

Danny Hay can play the political games, this is known. Think back to how he replaced Des Buckingham (who surely must be a candidate to replace him in turn now) as coach of the Olympic team after Buck had already guided them through qualifying. Hay leveraged his power as All Whites boss to incorporate the Olympics into the wider World Cup cycle. Bit rough on Des... though there was method to the madness for sure with a number of that Olympic team also being emerging All Whites fellas at the time (it was also the case that the Olympics had been delayed a year and Buck’s contract was up... but the same thing happened with Tom Sermanni and the Footy Ferns and they simply extended him by a year).

The point isn’t whether it was justified or not – the point is that it was a Danny Hay power play. Like a back three and a selective high press, that’s a tactic he’s willing to use. And in similar fashion he did kinda go to war against NZF over the last few months via the media.

Hay played the ‘well, I might just quit’ card ahead of the Aussie games, way before Chris Wood followed suit, in relation to the empty November window. He repeatedly emphasised his distance from NZ Football. Consider what followed with the letter and the Woodsman’s leverage and this was obviously a coordinated media strategy.

By the way, both those NZ Herald exclusives were written by Michael Burgess, who also happened to be one of the kiwi journos who travelled to Qatar for the intercontinental playoff. He was on the ground with the team, no doubt solidifying a few relationships. Then he picked up a couple insider scoops from the Hay/All Whites perspective which put exaggerated pressure on NZ Football.

Predictably, look what arrived a few hours after it was announced that Hay had stepped aside...

Burgo’s a top quality journalist and there’s news value to all of this so I’m not suggesting anything underhand. Merely pointing out that journos have sources and it’s rather blatant who his are.

One idea that keeps lingering is that Danny Hay could have simply reapplied. He could have done that. Nothing was stopping him, he was literally asked to do so. The worst that could have happened was a stitch up where his application was only a formality within a sort of soft firing process. In which case some time would have been wasted and some egos bruised. But egos aren’t what should be determining those things. If egos are the hurdle then that’s also a bloody shame.

Because, assuming an honest process, his candidacy would have been tough to beat. He had the support of senior players, he’s a proud home-grown New Zealander, he played at a high level and can relate to players that way, he offered continuity in the role, he has experience in other areas of NZF from coaching youth teams. Heaps going on in his favour. There’s literally nobody else who can tick all those boxes.

But Hay’s refusal to play nice with others meant he basically slashed up all the life rafts so when the boat went down, by not making the World Cup, there was nothing left to save him other than trusting that NZF were being genuine when they offered him a spot aboard their boat, at least temporarily. Which they very well might not have been. We’ll never know now.

Danny Hay has laid a great foundation for this team moving forward. Perhaps that’s where his destiny ends. Professional sports are full of examples of coaches who set things up only for the next coach to come along and take it to the next level. Hay’s definitely done the first bit. Whether he was capable of the second is another thing we’ll never get to find out but whoever takes over will benefit from that work, no doubt about it.

After all, Danny Hay is not the guy who matters most in this equation. He’s gone. His watch has ended. But whenever the All Whites next play a game of football they’re still going to have Chris Wood and Joe Bell and Marko Stamenic and Liberato Cacace and Bill Tuiloma and Oli Sail and Matt Garbett and Alex Greive and all these blokes. Should have Sarpreet Singh back by then too. Not to mention whoever else comes outta the woodwork between now and March 2023 (which is the next international window).

The coach is merely there to get the best out of their players on the pitch. So far we haven’t seen that with these All Whites. Still awaiting that first major statement result. But it’s coming, don’t you even worry about it, this train is still only heading for one destination and dammit when it gets there everyone else had better watch out.

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