If you had played football for Chelsea, played county cricket for Surrey and scored nearly a hundred goals in England’s top football competition, what would you do with yourself when you retired?

Would you pack away your trophies and medals, and move on into other fields? Would you keep an eye on your old teams and hope they did well? Or would you do what WA’s own Ron Tindall has done, and dedicated the rest of your life to coaching, teaching and mentoring the footballers of the future?

Ron played 174 matches for London’s famous Chelsea Football Club, as well as having stints at West Ham, Reading and Portsmouth. It was at the harbourside club that he first took up managing, initially leading Portsmouth as player/coach and then exclusively as the manager.

His biggest legacy, though, began when he moved to Western Australia in 1977, to take up the position of Director of Football Coaching in WA. In the thirty years since, he has written four books on coaching football, set up the WA arm of the National Coaching Scheme, led countless junior State teams to success and coached some of the best players to ever play in Perth.

Ron has remained in football up to the present day, from scouting South American teams for the Socceroos in their triumphal 2006 World Cup campaign to running junior clinics for Football West. And so it is no surprise that after everything he has given to Western Australian and Australian football, that Ron was awarded an Order of Australia Medal earlier this year, for services to sport in WA.

As usual, Ron has taken the award with humility and a minimum of fuss. However, the entire football community of WA has welcomed the award as nothing less than due recognition for a man who has given everything he has to develop generations of WA footballers.

Ron himself says his greatest memories aren’t awards or honors, but coaching youngsters who have gone on to great things.

“My favourite players that I ever coached were the Naven brothers, Craig and Gareth, Shaun Murphy, Alistair Edwards and Nicky Ward”, he says. “It’s so good to see someone like Nick continue his career, first overseas in England and now at Melbourne Victory.”

“It’s the reason you coach – to enable talented players to take the next steps in their career. I just love seeing someone develop as a player or as a coach, whether they go on to become a Socceroo or just improve as a Sunday afternoon player.”

These days Ron is happy to let the next generation of coaches take over – many of whom he mentored and encouraged. The football community, and the WA sports family, haven’t forgotten Ron or his role in making football in the West the powerhouse that it now is.

Football West, and the whole football family, congratulate Ron on his OAM – the sport owes Ron a tremendous debt, and men and women like him are always needed in our sport and our community.