Gary Phillips (born 9 June 1963) is an Australian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach and former professional player, who is coach of the Cook Islands women's national team.

Playing career

A central midfielder, Phillips played for more than a decade with Sydney Olympic in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

before joining

Brisbane Strikers Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season. Brisbane Strikers ...

, winning titles with both clubs. He retired after the 1996–1997 season.

Coaching career

As a coach, Phillips was in charge of Sydney Olympic in the 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 seasons, winning the title in 2001–2002, before he was extraordinarily dismissed the following season. Phillips was the inaugural coach of

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

during the 2008–09 W-League season. After working in a coaching capacity for the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Phillips took over as head coach and technical director of Malaysian Premier League side

Sabah FA Sabah Football Club () is a Malaysian professional football club owned by the Sabah Football Club Sdn Bhd. The club represents the state of Sabah in Borneo, and competes in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football. Thei ...

in December 2009 and guided the team to Super League promotion in 7 months. After a tough start to life in the Super League as the team was rocked by injury and forced to play eight of their first 12 matches on the road, Phillips was dismissed on 5 May 2011, replaced by former Sabah player and coach of Sabah President's Cup team Justin Ganai. In February 2015, he took over as manager of

Papua New Guinea women's national football team The Papua New Guinea women's national soccer team is controlled by the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA). Its nickname is the Lakatoi, ''Lakatois'', which is a Motuan sailing vessel. Their home ground is the Sir Hubert M ...

. Shortly following the conclusion of the

2015 Malaysia Premier League The 2015 Liga Premier () was the 12th season of the Liga Premier, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia.

season, Phillips returned to Malaysia and signed a contract with

NS Matrix F.C. Negeri Sembilan Football Club (), commonly referred to as Negeri Sembilan or simply NSFC, is a Malaysian professional football club based in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. The club competes in the top division of Malaysian football, the Malaysia S ...

Some of his first signings were all former

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

players. He coached the

Davao Aguilas Davao may refer to: Places Cities and metropolitan areas *Davao City, an independent highly urbanized city in the Davao Region of Mindanao island, Philippines and Davao del Sur's largest city *Metro Davao, the metropolitan area centered on Davao ...

during the 2017 season until he was replaced midseason in September 2017 by

Marlon Maro Marlon Maro (born June 21, 1965) is a Filipino football coach and former international football player. He was the head coach of the Philippines women's national football team in 2021. Club career Maro played as a player for U.S F.C., US. Int ...

. In July 2019, Phillips was appointed Technical Director for the Nepal national team. He was signed on a one-year contract, with his salary paid by the

. Phillips was appointed coach of the Nepal women's national team in February, 2021. In May, 2022, he was appointed coach of the Cook Islands national women's team.

Television

Gary currently is an occasional football pundit on Malaysian television network

Astro Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (born Terence Wilson) (1957–2021), rapper and member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie ro ...

and its twice weekly

FourFourTwo TV Show {{Use dmy dates, date=December 2024 ''FourFourTwo'' is a thrice-weekly football magazine television show on Asian cable channel, Astro SuperSport, broadcasting to Malaysia and Brunei in association with global football magazine, FourFourTwo. In it ...

, and also Fox Sports in Australia.

Honours

Club

''As coach'' ; Olympic Sharks: *

Premier: 2002–03 *

Champion: 2001–02 Sawty Scorpions 2016-

References

External links