A-League is poor for now, technically speaking

Roar Guru

By Adam_Santarossa, 16 Mar 2009 Adam Santarossa is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: A-League, football, NSL

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One moment stands out for me in the four years the A-League has been in existence, and it didn’t happen on the field. And it didn’t even happen in this country .

It happened in a cold, miserable town somewhere in England huddled in a bar watching the A-League Highlights show on ESPN (transmits through Asia and USA also), when after an A-League defender seemingly “forgot” his job was to mark his attacker, who went onto score the sheepish pom replied “don’t they bloody teach ya how to defend down unda?”.

Now this comment does seem quite ironic coming from a country that has produced the Neville brothers…but to be frank, in regards to my English pal’s slightly sarcastic question is a resounding case of … No!

The technical aspect of the game is completely overlooked in the local Australian game . Now, this to be fair has been noted, and the FFA are taking the necessary steps to change this, but this is not something you can change overnight. This could take decades, as it requires a complete overhaul of mentality and culture, from the youngest right through to our oldest footballers and coaches.

It has long been said that Australian footballing culture was derived from the English. With many Englishmen coming to our shores in the early days of “soccer” in this country. The days of Johnny Warren where awash with footballing poms plying their trade on our shores. They brought with them a typical game of intensity, physicality and not a lot of skill.

It is an argument that can be backed up still today.

Look at the English National side, which posses brilliant footballers however none that have the silky skills of Messi, Ronaldo or Kaka – who can dribble sides without batting an eyelid.

England however posses the likes of Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham some of the best passers and shooters of a football in the world, all brilliant players but technically pail in comparison to the Spanish, Italian and Brazilian sides when measuring skill and trickery.

The English mentality (much like Australia) has only ever had two phases. Phase 1 – build it in midfield, get it wide, cross it and hope to nick a goal. Phase 2 – route 1: The Long Ball!

It has only been the last 15 years with the introduction of the English Premier League, that has seen some of the worlds best footballers ply there trade in England, that has seen technical skills improve in England.

Yet while the Lampards, Gerrards and Beckhams adapt and improve, the others who cannot crack a spot in the side (Arsenal once played 11 foreigners in their starting side), do not.

This impacts the quality of local players and it is something the FFA have identified. They have brought in two measures that shows they are serious about improving Australia’s quality of football:

1- Is the rule limiting the number of foreign players each team can sign, meaning the up and coming Australian players are not languishing in reserve teams like their English counterparts, and are obtaining a football education where it matters, on the pitch.

2- The second is a rule adopted for this year’s National Youth League competition, where each player in the squad must play a minimum of 45 minutes in a game. This means all the young up and comers are exposed to high pressure, competitive football and not just the bright young stars of the sides.

Another thing the FFA has identified is the need to change the footballing culture. Take a walk down to any local park and you will see what I mean.

Local football is simply a game of kick and chase, and a lack of composure on the ball is evident, with defender after defender simply kicking the ball anywhere, when in reality there is plenty of time to put a foot on the ball and look to pass.

I remember one such example in my youth league career. I remember watching a speedy striker of mine get the ball on half way all by himself, lacking support. Instead of holding the ball up and waiting for the midfield to offer support, the striker simply turned belted the ball forward and then ran after it, seemingly playing a long ball… to HIMSELF.

A broader issue that I do not think the FFA has looked at is the quality of coaches in the country.

Anyone who watched the Socceroos prior to 2005 would hopefully understand my view.

The Socceroos mentality was as above all, longball , longball , longball. I once discovered the playbook of the Socceroos and Plan A , B & C were simply LONGBALL. I do not often agree with SBS’s Craig Foster, but he and I shares similar views on the country’s footballing education and Australian football’s overuse of the longball.

The Socceroos were coached by Eddie Thompson (Englishman), Terry Venebles (Englishman) and Frank Farina (Australian). These men all coached the Socceroo’s with the same mentality and subsequently saw Australia fail in repeated World Cup attempts.

Whoever decided to hire Guus Hiddink in 2005 will go down as the man who saved Australian Football. Hiddink overhauled the Socceroo’s game, playing “Total Football” filled with Wall Passes, Trickery, Structure, Technique and more triangles than the pyramids of Egypt.

But more importantly, the Socceroos were multi-faceted, squads where changed in relation to opposition, as was formation, tactics and game plans. For once it seemed we were actually thinking about things…and as a result we not only qualified but outplayed the sides of Japan, Croatia, Brazil (for a period) and Italy.

On the back of Hiddink, came Rob Baan and various other Dutchman, who with them bring a different culture where football becomes “The Beautiful Game” where the ball is kept on the deck and real football is played.

My point above about quality coaches is simple, many going around in Australia currently have been educated and have played under the old culture and mentality.

They are good coaches, don’t get me wrong, but they could be better.

Take Frank Farina. To be “Frank”, when coach of the Socceroos at times they played awful football (which was masked at times by the opposition of NZ , Solomon Islands, and the occasional 31-0 win), however since he has coached the Queensland Roar, his sides have been the most enterprising, exciting, and true football playing sides in the A-League and Frank Farina has looked a far better coach.

Has he learnt from the introduction of Hiddink, Neeskans, Baan, etc into the Australian coaching fraternity? He may very well have.

With Sydney FC bringing in Vítězslav Lavička, his technical outlook may rub off on various other local coaches.

I shared a conversation with a couple of lower grade coaches earlier this year on some of my thoughts and theories I think could be introduced into the game.

For the past 5 years I have spent some time around the game of AFL and have seen some areas which I think could help sides if introduced into football.

Players in AFL are coached in the art of leading. It is a skill in which is evident in a way in football currently but I feel not embraced to its full affect. Leading encompasses skills such as dummy leads (leading the defender away from the ball, even though you have no intention of receiving it, opening up space for other players to run into) and double leading (making an initial lead, propping and then making a second lead, hopefully losing an unaware defender, footballers generally only make the initial lead) and blocking (opponent makes a run, you run at opponent, blocking his defenders run legally as you criss cross around each other).

The expression on the faces of these coaches told the story: it was a bit too technical, and they preferred to coach a simpler game. Now these ideas don’t have to be embraced, but at least by bringing in high quality coaches, they can be shared and looked over .

The FFA has broken new ground this year with a program designed by Rob Baan, to overhaul the former “Roo-Ball” program. Young U6-U10 will have a new system to play under. Games are completely modified to new 3 a side game for the U6′s, 6-A Side for the older kids, smaller fields means shorter passing, triangles and more emphasis on technique and mentality.

The A-League which also is improving year upon year – the standard is far superior than that of the old NSL – and although some highlights of the A-League could be produced into an educational video on How Not to Defend or How Not to Finish, the A-League does produce exciting, fast paced, high intensity games with plenty of goals.

We know the technique of the local players leaves a lot to be desired, as was shown from the other night’s dismal performance by the Australian based Socceroo’s vs Kuwait. But Pim Veerbeek is right, the experience gained and lessons learned will make those players better for the experience.

Along with the A-League players now competing in the Asian Champions League and potentially World Club Championship, this allows players to explore another stratus-sphere of footballing knowledge .

The programs are in place, the problem has been found, and Houston have been notified, but with a little time, we may be exporting coaches overseas to teach others of the “Beautiful Game”.

In 2003, Frank Farina led the Socceroos to a 3-1 win over England. I say to my pommy friend: in 2023 , you could be in for a lot more trouble!

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The Crowd Says (26) | Page 1 of Comments

Pippinu said | March 16th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment

Adam

this was an interesting read, if a touch too long, and you did sort of stray in some unusual directions at times (which I didn’t mind, but many readers may find that a bit too much).

Also, I have to admit that I was not exactly won over by your one example of poor defending to illustrate how poor the A-League is (when your main argument is not actually about the defending).

However, I found your introduction of AFL coaching and tactics refreshing. I know both games quite intimately, and understand only too well that many, many tactics cross over the two codes (allowing for the many obvious differences).

Your discussion on “leading” is a great example – a fantastic example. The tactics that go into creating space in the 50 metre arc are at times mind numbingly complex – more coplex for your average fan, let alone anyone who knows nothing about the game (and as we all know by now, the TV does not do aussie rules any favours).

Your discussion on ways of impeding the opposition marker are also spot on – and to be honest, given the alleged “robustness” of the Australian game, you’d think we were prime candidates to introduce such tactics, i.e. legally using bodies to check other players – it can be done if players are taught correctly.

I once had this discussion with Towser – we believe that we play a physical form of football (soccer), but in truth, there is yawning gap between just being physical, and using your physical presence intelligently (as a side like Gamba was able to do against AU).

It also has occured to me many times that the physical mayhem that occurs in the box during the taking of a corner is ripe for the aussie rules coach to look at (since it actually resembles many aspects of an aussie rules game).

But be careful!! To seriously suggest in a forum that the world game could learn absolutley anything from a shitty little game played at the arse end of the world will only invite derision and invectiveness!!

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Robbos said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:09am | Report comment

If an intelligent man can learn from a small child, there should be no reason why the world game can not learn from a minority sport.

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aussie_sly said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:12am | Report comment

i agree with cross sport tactics actually, when playing park football in my youth we used to play netball in training to help with positioning and marking and also encouraged the one-two touch passing game we played, personally i dont follow or know much about afl (apart from not being able to work it out no matter how much i watch it) but have no doubt that it would have beneficial tactics that football in aus could learn from, in saying that i highly doubt that many other countries would actually need vn learn anything from afl being that they already have a system that suits their strengths but aus has such a physical mentality that it would fit in the game quite well

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Vicentin said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:32am | Report comment

No not really Pippinu – because I think what Adam calls “leading” is not something that is exclusive to AFL but it is clearly not something that the majority of football coaches in Australia bother thinking about too much. My opinion is that it is not something I’d neccessarily coach to juniors anyway beyond the idea that one should always support the play and try a create space for yourself to receive the ball or to make your defender think you are going to recieve the ball to create space for others. As we’ve all observed in the A-League there is no where near enough movement off the ball – only Farina’s Roar with Murdocca and Mackay (lots of movement but little product perhaps) are the only team that seems to always have multiple players constantly moving round creating space etc but ultimately it goes to Zullo or Minniecon for a cross from the wings anyway …

We’ve discussed the “hoof” culture before and it really does start in junior football with well-meaning but clueless coaches and parents who praise Johnny for his “big kicks” etc. I’ve said it before but if there was only one rule that I’d give a young team to help them develop as footballers it would be that they should never kick the ball away. Once they are forced to think about (and prize) possession, creativity and technical ability will follow ie they are forced to get better if they’re not allowed to kick the ball away. They will make mistakes but that is only a big deal if stupid parents make it one. More likely they will learn to use (and develop) their individual skills and work with their teammates on the same wavelength to get themselves out of tricky situations. They’ll develop calmness and an ability to think under pressure in spades…

Just on coaching and styles of play, a friend of mine who sees a lot of junior football spotted a kid that our kids regularly play futsal against – the kid is small but very quick, skillful, can turn on a sixpence and has a fierce shot etc, playing in an 11 a side rep team trial game the other week. So how did he play? Barely touched the ball and spent all this time trying to chase down long balls from his team mates. Why is a rep team coach asking his players to play this way – these kids are supposed to be some of the best in their age group? Forget the fact that they shouldn’t be playing 11 a side anyway (yeah, sorry to go on about it all the time) but this is just a waste of good resources. Competition is great but until the wider Australian football community values development over results in these age groups we’re not serving our interests at all.

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jimbo said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment

Nice article Adam,
where are you located in the UK or in Victoria? The Victory fans talk like that.

“Leading” is used in all sports and I don’t think AFL can claim that one. If you watch very closely a lot of footballers and rugby players do that all the time anyway. I certainly do.
Viduka did it against Japan to create the space for Aloisi’s goal in the Germany 06 WC match.

The Australian youth are turning into the A-League’s answer for a lot of their issues – like player replacements for the drain overseas, coaching skills and lack of player skills and a source of income for clubs as they sell developed talent.

The FFA and the A-League club’s support and investment in the Australian Youth League will be re-payed many times over.

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Redb said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:43am | Report comment

Whether the AFL claims ‘leading’ or not ,it is one of the prime ‘cat and mouse’ skills any good footballer needs to be able to execute. Some of the best forwards couldn’t run out of sight at night, but over 10-15 metres they were lightning quick and always provided a forward option when the middle fo the ground looked congested. Tony Lockett for example.

Redb

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jimbo said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:47am | Report comment

Redb,
leading is part and parcel of the AFL game, especially kicking into the attacking 50. Judd and Cousins are very good at it and so is big bad Bazza, if only he could catch the ball.

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Pippinu said | March 16th 2009 @ 11:50am | Report comment

Vicentin
fair enough – but I don’t think what you’re writing is contradictory to anything I’ve said.

What you want to imbue at a young age (and I have no problem with your enthusiasm, and understand what a hassle parents are at this age group) – can be a little different to what you want to do with a more “senior” group of players, where you’d hope the foundations and quality of ball control are already set, and you are really working on game day tactics – and this is more where I am coming from.

Once you move to the question of game day tactics at the elite level, it’s a different kettle of fish (I’m sure you would know that).

So things like set pieces, are things where teams can see notable improvements on the field within a very short space of time (assuming they already have the basics down pat). And most definitely, this is an area where it pays to think outside of the box, to look for an advantage where ever you can find it – and for a very modest investment in effort, the pay back can be huge (if you’re able, for argument’s sake, to increase goals scored from an average of 1 per game, to 1.5 per game, solely on the strength of set pieces – well – that could be the difference between a successful season and a poor season – I just use that as an example).

But if they don’t have the basics – well, you can forget about it!

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Pippinu said | March 16th 2009 @ 12:07pm | Report comment

“Leading” is a term that goes back to the very origins of the Australian game (ie 150+ years ago) – not sure if it’s our term, but it is certainly tightly linked with the Australian game. I’m also aware that Netball use the identical term (which is no surprise, because Netball and aussie rules have very much in common).

Prof John Maloney has expressed the view that it can be traced back to the Ballarat gold fields, and that the game is very closely linked to Ballarat, because other terms come directly from the gold rush of the time (not sure about this myself, but it is true that right up to the late 1880s, the Ballarat league was almost an equal of the then VFA).

The various tactics that have evolved in the modern game, are perhaps more possible in the Australian game (than any other game) because:
1. the field is much, much larger, so it’s not out of the question that some players, especially in a very tight game, will embark on a 70 to 100 metre lead to lose the defender – but that’s clearly only a luxury that is possible on an aussie rules field;
2. following on from the last point, bigger field, more players, more lines – allows for more variations of dummying, so there are more possibilities of criss-crossing leads, knowing that there is always someone behind you – in soccer, you quickly run out of blokes behind you! (unless you can hold onto the ball deep, and then all of a sudden, you can bring all 10 outfield players back into the action, and therefore open up such variations); and finally, also related to the last two points
3. the possibility of delivering the ball accurately over a distance of 50 to 60 metres, opens up endless variations again about what is happening as the ball gets looped over a stack of players running hither and thither (that’s generally not available in other games, because 60 metres is a fair proportion of the size of the field, and soccer in particular has to contend with the off side rule).

But that said, absolutely no harm in exploring such tactics that at the end of the day are about creating space for players to receive the ball.

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The Bear said | March 16th 2009 @ 12:08pm | Report comment

Adam, a reasonably non-inflammatory piece on a fairly incendiary topic. Congrats for the good yarn. Perhaps the Australian game will _eventually_ produce the most total football of all, reflecting our diverse cultural mix, and (hopefully) innate desire to become the most innovative and complex footballing nation on Earth. Hey, it’s a thought.

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