Northern Redbacks are delighted to announce that Carlos Vega Mena will be taking over the reins of our NPLW squad for the 2021 season, as current coach Conrad McKelvie moves into the technical director role.
Club President Tony Mullen paid tribute to Conrad’s work at the club as senior coach.
“Conrad has been with the club for a number of seasons and took over the reins as coach of our senior team for a second time in 2019, guiding them to a league and cup double and winning WA Premier League Coach of the Year in the process. In 2020 he maintained these high standards despite having to manage a high number of injuries that resulted in 25 players representing our senior team in the inaugural NPLW season. The team made the Top Four Cup finals series in the final round of the season and went on to win the top Four Cup in what will go down in history as one of the most courageous victories in WA football history.”
Conrad’s new role will see him take on a co-ordinating role within the club to further enhance the club’s fine tradition of coaching, and we are delighted he will be staying with the club.
Carlos Vega Mena played professional football for 13 years in Chile, Switzerland, Mexico, Columbia and Indonesia. He attended the National Institute of Futbol in Chile in 2003 and studied coaching before arriving in Australia in 2004, where he played for Sorrento in the Premier league.
Since retiring from playing he has coached both male and female players at Sorrento, Chile Nuevo, Ellenbrook and Perth Saints. Carlos completed his C class licence in 2017 and came to Redbacks in 2019 to coach our U14 squad. The team enjoyed great success and six of the squad were selected for the NTC. In 2020 he assembled another squad of players in the U16s which was again extremely competitive and only missed out winning the title by goal difference.
“Carlos has shown in his time with us that his teams play an attractive possession and high pressing form of football, and we are very excited to be able to offer him the opportunity to continue this style of play with our senior team” said Mullen.
Carlos will be joined by Michael Rosa as an assistant coach. Michael is currently the coach of our Metro Division 1 N team and he took an incredibly young side to second place in the league.
We wish Carlos, Conrad and Michael all the best in the dawn of yet another exciting era for our Club.