Calgary Wild FC hires Australia's Leah Blayney as new head coach

Calgary Wild's Jaclyn Sawicki, left, and Vancouver Rise's Samantha Chang vie for the ball during the first half of an NSL soccer match in Burnaby, B.C., on Saturday, May 24, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Calgary Wild FC have hired former Australian midfielder Leah Blayney as the soccer club’s new head coach.

The 40-year-old from Katoomba, Australia, was most recently an assistant coach of the Japanese women’s team.

Lydia Bedford, who coached the Wild to a 9-14-2 record in the Northern Super League’s inaugural season, departed earlier this year to coach England’s under-23 team.

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Assistant Sinead McSharry served as interim coach with the Wild starting this season 0-7-2.

Blayney played 16 career games for the Matildas and also professionally for Boston in the National Women’s Soccer League before starting her coaching career with Australia’s under-20 women’s team.

Wild FC hired a firm to search for a replacement for Bedford and attracted more than 100 candidates, the club said Monday in a statement.

Blayney will join Wild FC this week before Saturday’s home match against defending NSL champion Vancouver Rise.

“Leah is a respected and progressive coach in the women’s game,” Wild chief executive officer Lara Murphy said in a statement.

“Her experience at the highest levels of international football, her proven ability to develop players, and her commitment to building high-performance environments made her the clear choice to lead Calgary Wild FC into its next chapter.”

As an assistant coach, Blayney helped navigate Japan to an AFC Women’s Asian Cup title this year, a 2025 SheBelieves Cup championship and qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“This opportunity stands out for me because of both the potential of the club and the league,” Blayney said. “The Northern Super League is at an exciting stage of its development, and the chance to help shape a team in it is something that really appeals to me.”

“For me personally, this is also an opportunity to be a part of creating something meaningful, to build an environment and a team with a clear identity, with elite standards, a culture and a style of football the players believe in, and the people can identify with.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2026.

The Canadian Press