Papua New Guinea are on the lookout for a new coach for the women's national football team.
Australian Gary Phillips resigned suddenly this month, not long after helping PNG win gold at the Pacific Games in Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea won a fourth consecutive Pacific Games gold medal in women's football in Port Moresby. Photo: Oceania Football
That set up a home and away qualifying series against New Zealand for a spot at next year's Rio Olympics.
The CEO and General Secretary of the PNG Football Association, Dimrit Mileng, isn't sure why Phillips resigned but says with those fixtures touted for March next year they don't have much time to find a suitable replacement.
"He did a good job of getting them to the Pacific Games and won the gold medal and he resigned three weeks ago and we're now looking for somebody to take charge of the girls again. That's another situation that we have to work on and now we have to go back to the drawing board and find a coach. It will be difficult to find somebody outside [Papua New Guinea] but if we can get someone to agree for the period yes we might look outside but if we cannot we will have to get a local coach to do the job".
The PNG women's team had been in talks to play friendly matches in Thailand and Australia later this year but Dimrit Mileng says those plans are now on hold.
