Shepherd, who arrives in Ipswich from Calgary’s Ambrose University, replaces Gabor Ganczer after he left the club earlier this year to become the State Technical Director at Football Queensland.

Previous to his role as the inaugural Victory women's coach, Shepherd was the inaugural head coach of the Girls NTC program in Victoria. He has also held roles with Football NSW and the Canadian Soccer Association.

Shepherd decided to join Pride due to the club’s focus on youth and coaching development.  The club has a number of players come through the ranks to their senior men's and women's teams in recent seasons.

“I hope I can encourage our coaches to remain true to the club’s philosophy of ‘if you are good enough then you are old enough’,” Shepherd said.

Shepherds dual roles with Victory and the NTC program allowed him to assist young players to make the transition to from youth football to the W-League. He has worked with current Matildas defender Steph Catley and former Melbourne City goalkeeper Brianna Davey.

“(The NTC) came at a great time for young hopefuls like Steph Catley, Brianna Davey and a number of other players who went on to play for Young Matildas squads,” Shepherd said.

“I was able to create a solid link between youth football and senior football and give young players a chance to shine,” he said.

Shepherd will start at Pride in the coming weeks once he finalises a permanent move to Ipswich.