Gary Phillips (born 9 June 1963) is an Australian football coach and former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 d ...

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 and was one of two ...

, 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 Australia ...

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

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

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

Sabah FA Sabah Football Club ( ms, Kelab Bolasepak Sabah) is a football club with ownership by Sabah Football Club Sdn Bhd. The football club competes in Malaysia's football league representing the state of Sabah in Borneo. They currently compete in M ...

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 football team is controlled by the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA). Its nickname is the ''Lakatois'', which is a Motuan sailing vessel. Their home ground is the Sir Hubert Murray Stadi ...

. Shortly following the conclusion of the

2015 Malaysia Premier League The 2015 Liga Premier ( en, 2015 Premier League) was the 12th season of the Liga Premier, the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia.http://www.rsssf.com/tablesm/malay2015.html 2015 Liga Premier The season was held from January an ...

season, Phillips returned to Malaysia and signed a contract with NS Matrix F.C. Some of his first signings were all former

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

players. He coached the

Davao Aguilas The Davao Aguilas Football Club (abbreviated as DAFC) is a Filipino professional football club based in the city of Tagum, Davao del Norte. From 2017 to 2018, the club has played in the Philippines Football League (PFL), the highest level of fo ...

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 Philippine Navy. ...

. 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) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band * Astro (Japanese band), ...

and its twice weekly

FourFourTwo TV Show {{Use dmy dates, date=September 2013 ''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 Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigrant ...

: *

Premier: 2002–03 *

Champion: 2001–02 Sawty Scorpions 2016-

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Gary 1963 births Sportsmen from New South Wales Association football midfielders Soccer players from Sydney Australian expatriate soccer players National Soccer League (Australia) players Sydney Olympic FC players Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Sabah F.C. (Malaysia) managers Living people Australian expatriate soccer coaches Tonga national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Vietnam Philippines Football League head coaches Davao Aguilas F.C. managers Australian soccer players Expatriate football managers in the Philippines Australian expatriate sportspeople in Vietnam Australian expatriate sportspeople in Nepal Australian expatriate sportspeople in Tonga Expatriate football managers in Tonga Australian expatriate sportspeople in the Philippines Australian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Expatriate football managers in Malaysia Expatriate football managers in Papua New Guinea Australian expatriate sportspeople in Papua New Guinea Women's national association football team managers