Former Santos striker Danian Wareley, now coach of Norway Ladies, gave the club the perfect ‘thank-you’ for throwing him a lifeline.
Warely, who was given a bit of a raw deal at Hellenic, has against all odds reached their objective by winning promotion to the Regional Women’s League (RWL) at the Cape Tygerberg LFA – where they did the double by winning the stream and of course the playoffs to progress to the Third Tier of women’s football.
But the success of the former Magic player with his Norway Ladies outfit does not tell the full story.
The 37-year-old Wareley explained to No Bones with Jones about his rough ride he had to overcome initially: “I joined Hellenic last year and most of the girls were there and I dealt with them across two teams. Half of the team was in the Regional Women’s Development League (RWL) team that Hellenic had and the other half was in the CT Tygerberg side.
“Luckily the girls wanted to stay together in the new season and the parents wanted the same as they have built-up a good relationship amongst one another – they were also in constant contact with me after I left to find a solution or a team I could link up with or start something where they could all be together,” Wareley added.
“Luckily Norway Parks offered us that option because that is also where I’m from. After the season finished I had to wait patiently and try to convince everyone to come over – and once they did we could finally start. We started last October already with a five to six-month pre-season where I laid out the goals to the parents about our objective to win promotion out of the Regional Women’s Development League (RWDL).
“But also because I spent one season with Vasco in the RWDL and last year in the RWL with Hellenic, I could kind of gauge what the level was and what I needed in the squad to be successful. With the girls coming over from Hellenic I kind of knew what we had already.
“But honestly speaking the girls were fantastic and put in the work during the five months of pre-season – they deserve all the credit. The parents too as they were also very committed throughout the season and their support was fantastic. We always had 12 to 14 players on the training and that is very rare in ladies football as a lot of the girls come from disadvantaged backgrounds so they can’t necessarily be in training. I was lucky in that regard and the girls did what they had to on the field and everything just came together,” a proud Wareley concluded.
