Ricki Hebert leaves head coach role in Hamilton Wanderers

The New Zealand football legend Ricki Herbert, former All Whites coach is no longer the head coach of the ISPS Handa Premiership side Hamilton Wanderers. The start of season is being very harsh to Wanderers that currently sits at 10th position of the league, the last placed team.

In a statement, Hamilton Wanderers chairman Dave Douglas announced the departure of Herbert of the major staff role of the team. “Due to the growth of his Football Development Manager role at our club, the growth of the Ricki Herbert Football Academy, his technical role at Cambridge FC and some outside business opportunities that have presented themselves, Ricki has felt that he needed to reduce his ISPS Handa Premiership Team coaching duties so as to be able to concentrate on his other roles as they continue to expand. This was a very tough decision for Ricki and it’s important to note that Ricki will still be involved in a coaching supporting role for our ISPS Handa Premiership Team until the end of the 2019/2020 season“, stated Douglas.

With the departure of Ricki Herbert of the role, It is already known who will be taking the job: “I am pleased to announce that Kale Herbert, our current National Youth League Head Coach and National League Assistant Coach, will be taking over as our Head Coach until the end of this season“, said the chairman.

Despite leaving the spot, Ricki Herbert stated: “whilst it is sad to be moving away from the Head Coaches role in the National League, I’m really looking forward to continuing to support Kale, the coaching staff and players in the background. Likewise the chance to continue to expand on the opportunities and good work done this year in our junior/youth football areas is something that I can’t wait to be able to dedicate even more time too“.

“On behalf of the club, I would like to thank Ricki for his time as Head Coach of our ISPS Handa Premiership team over the last two and a half years, in which he lead us to a club high position of 6th in the 2018/2019 season, having been in the top four for a large part of that season and who introduced players such as Tommy Semmy and Derek Tieku into both our National League and Northern League teams“, said Dave Douglas.

Hamilton Wanderers side will be taking on Waitakere United in the next round of ISPS Handa Premiership, now coached by Ricki’s son, Kale Herbert, at Porrit Stadium.