Ryan Campbell has broken new ground as the Newcastle Jets' A-League Women's coach and believes he is stating a strong case to keep the gig longer term.
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Campbell, who put his career as a primary school teacher on hold to pursue coaching further, has led the Jets to their first finals appearance in six years and only third since the club entered the women's national competition in 2008.
"Overall, I've been pretty happy with how everything has gone," Campbell told the Newcastle Herald.
"As I said from the start, it's sort of been just do your best and try to make it as difficult as possible for anybody to justify that you don't get the position.
"So, with the way things have gone, I'd be pretty disappointed if it wasn't something that happened longer term."
Under his guidance, the Jets have won five of 10 outings, drawn one and lost four.
Newcastle secured their place in the finals with an 8-0 rout of Adelaide in Adelaide on Good Friday - the biggest winning margin in their history - and a club-record third consecutive win.
Now, he is hoping to be the first person to lead to the women's side to their first finals win when they face Western United in an elimination play-off at Tarneit on Saturday night.
"I haven't tried to force it on anybody and I haven't even really asked the question, I've just turned up and done the job," Campbell said.
"But I think the results overall have been what speaks for how things have been going.
"I'm just focusing on trying to make sure we win games and go as far as we can in the comp and whatever happens happens."
Under other circumstances, Campbell may have already been deep in contract talks with the club, but the Herald understands that is yet to happen with its future uncertain.
"Everything has been positive so far in regards to conversations I have had with the club, but obviously the club that is there now isn't necessarily the people that are going to make decisions, based on who buys the club," Campbell said.
"I understand if somebody comes in they're going to want to have at least their own say in what's going on.
"So, the more games we win, the more chance they're going to look at that and go, 'It looks like it's working already. There's no need to change'.
"But I understand that you can't really do much until those people at least have some input into what's happening."
The Jets finished the competition's first full home-and-away season in sixth place by goal difference to line up a showdown with third-placed Western United.
But the build-up to the A-League Women's elimination finals this weekend has been "not ideal" with the Jets moving out of their training base at No.2 Sportsground two weeks ago to make way for local rugby union tenants.
Since then they have trained at Maitland Sportsground, Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility at Speers Point and Croudace Bay Sporting Complex.
They also used No.2 Sportsground this week but the soccer goals have been removed and the ground was "chopped up" after the Hunter Wildfires' first game there on Saturday following torrential rain.
"We don't have No.2 any more so you're sort of moving from one place to the next to try to make sure you get training in, and it's been wet as well," Campbell said.
"It's not ideal because it's easiest to have everything where it is. But, in saying that, the girls are used to just adapting and getting on with things.
"We had the same thing happen in pre-season as well. Unfortunately, it is what it is when you don't own your own venue and you have councils that have a million different people to look after as well.
"But the girls are good. As much as they'd love to stay at No.2, they also understand. They saw what it was like [on Tuesday night] and you couldn't train on that every day either."
In good news, leading scorer Sarina Bolden returned this week in one piece from international duty with the Philippines and is "good to go" against United.
The Jets are, however, still without suspended goalkeeper Izzy Nino for the do-or-die match and Young Matildas defender Claudia Cicco has been ruled out with a long-term foot injury.
Newcastle have beaten United in both exchanges this campaign, including a 3-1 victory in Tarneit in round 20 to kickstart a three-match winning run.
Should they beat them again, the Jets will secure a home semi-final against premiers Melbourne City.
Campbell said van Egmond, who overhauled the Jets roster this season, has kept close tabs on the team's journey to finals.
"He was watching all of the games and was sending me messages with all of the scenarios," Campbell said.
"He's still very invested because obviously it was a team that he put together and he did a lot of work to get them all here as well.
"So he's quite happy. He's happy for me that it's gone well and he's happy for the girls."
Central Coast Mariners play Melbourne Victory in the other elimination final this weekend with the winner of their match to meet Sydney FC in the semi-finals.
