9 august 2018, the canberra a-league bid made public the appointment of ron smith to the role of director of football. ron smith is the former head coach at the ais football program between 1986 and 1996 that developed future national team players such as mark viduka, lucas neil, john aloisi and brett emerton among others. ron smith's role with the canberra a-league bid includes orchestrating talent identification, coaching appointments and the development of a high performance program and local player pathways should the bid be successful in gaining an a-league licence. bid leader, michael caggiano, told reporters present at the unveiling in front of the ais “ron has a vision for football in the canberra and capital region, a blueprint that has worked on a national level that he knows can be replicated throughout the wide talent base that exists in our community,”