Getting the best out of the A-League – we shouldn’t expect anything less

Roar Pro

By Millster, 15 May 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: A-League, football, Jade North, K-League, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos, Sydney FC, Vitezslav Lavicka

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In an interesting recent article concerning his early impressions of the K-League, Jade North has given SBS some insights which lend weight to the controversial assessments made by Pim Verbeek last year of some aspects of our own domestic league.

Far from leaving me downcast, this article gives me cause for hope and positivity in terms of the A-League.

What it underlines to me is that, quite apart from the ‘big’ structural things which we need to develop in order for the League to improve in quality (those things which are much-debated on The Roar such as salary caps and club finances, competition structure, talent identification, foreign poaching and the like), the A-League has some real inherent room for improvement based on training quality and intensity.

Put another way, even while we need to keep changing our domestic code at the macro level, if we’re not going as hard as we can to get the full potential out of our current clubs and players we are selling ourselves short. And its evidently clear from the comments of North, Pim and others that there is a great deal of further work that could be done in this area.

Jade North importantly points to “what you do during the week which makes you a better player”, and to the massive contribution to player technique, tactics and mental toughness which is brought by this higher quality, more intense training.

I see no reason why starting the implementation of such training would an unachievable goal for clubs.

We are not talking about large investments across many star recruits, or huge facilities. Investment in one or two skilled coaches (who, thankfully, sit outside the salary cap) combined with a club-wide culture of dedication and improvement, based on global best-practise, will point us in the right direction. And of course the payback is multiplied many times over because the effect is felt across the whole team.

Already, while clearly not yet at the level that North is describing, indications are that Sydney FC under their new Czech mentor Lavicka is starting this journey, with more technical training, higher intensity, and a more scientific approach to monitoring player fitness.

I hope not only for Sydney FC’s own interests (though I am a fan) but also for the sake of the whole league that very clear and demonstrable rewards come from this, both on the scoreboard and through possibly greater opportunities given to the players, such as Socceroo squad spots and/or more foreign interest.

In conclusion, we are all motivated to expand the code, improve it, and make it more than what we have. But let’s also make sure that there is a sharp focus on getting the best of what we have. We’re not there yet, but this is a goal that we can immediately start to work on, and a key part of the overall recipe for success of football in Australia.

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The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments

Tifoso said | May 15th 2009 @ 7:33am | Report comment

Good article Millster

Ive always said better trained foreign coaches must come into the league if we are to raise the standard of the A-league.

Like its been said in many previous posts here on the roar, it will take time, but it will get better.

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Ryan Steele said | May 15th 2009 @ 7:34am | Report comment

I never thought this was such a huge secret, but having said that, I’ve also never known why training within Australia hasn’t been up to scratch with many of its counterparts.

Even though I’m not a supporter of Sydney FC, I’m also hoping their on-field performances jump up a level or two, to give other coaches in the nation a push in the right direction. Last season, you could see in the likes of Adelaide that such a busy schedule will quickly take its toll on players. With a longer season, hopefully all the teams will take heed to and benefit from all criticisms and suggestions.

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NUFCMVFC said | May 15th 2009 @ 7:48am | Report comment

Nice article,

One issue I find is that I think slowly we have to develop the ability to invest in quality training facilities. I think with Gold Coast they now have them and MVFC with new Stadium/VIS, but I also recall seeing once on TWG I think about how Newcastle’s facilities aren’t all that great. Good that CCM are building Academy but what of Adelaide and Perth?

Football freaternity needs to invest more in infrastructure

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Tom said | May 15th 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment

Yeah good article.

Of course, the way these things get improved is that one team (could well be Sydney) adopts better training practices and starts doing very well. Every one else in the league finds that they have to copy it and improve it in order to be competitive, and the best possible training practices evolve from that.

You would expect that as the competition becomes longer and more teams are added this evolutionary process gets accelerated.

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Pippinu said | May 15th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment

Millster
When Jade says:
“It’s what you do doing the week which makes you a better player more than anything that happens on match-days, whether it’s tactical things with the coaches or something just based on fitness levels.”

surely that’s hardly a revelation?!

That tactical and skills sessions might be below par in our local league is probably self-evident – but I put this to everyone – there can be no excuse for fitness and recovery sessions to be below par compared to anywhere in the world – and I do mean anywhere – absolutely no excuse at all.

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DS said | May 15th 2009 @ 9:53am | Report comment

I am concerned that this whole “A-League clubs don’t train hard enough” argument is part of an overall pattern of negativity towards the A League. Time and time again I read this criticism, but where is the evidence? Why doesn’t anyone talk to Ernie Merrick or Vidmar or Farina. Vidmar and Farina have certainly played at the highest level in Europe and should have an informed perspective on the issue. I personally can’t believe that Farina and Vidmar don’t train their players as hard as they were trained.

As for Jade North, here we have a player who has gone to Korea for two reasons: firstly, money, and secondly, because he faces a national team coach who has no regard for the A League and thus North believes that by moving overseas he will be more in the frame for the World Cup. North therefore has a very strong vested interest in negatively comparing the A League to the K League, and I don’t think his comments should be given any real cred under the circumstances. What do you expect him to say? That his move was a mistake?

The real test is results of A League teams against K League teams in the ACL, and in that arena there seems to be very little between the Leagues.

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David V. said | May 15th 2009 @ 10:45am | Report comment

Isn’t that what I’ve been saying. Japan and the Middle East, as well as Africa, were open to foreign coaching influences for decades. So why not ourselves?

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Millster said | May 15th 2009 @ 12:39pm | Report comment

Pippu, Ryan – yes and thats exactly my point, its not a huge secret and is reasonably self-evident so why are we only now starting to do it? After all, at my work when the division that I run has some performance issues one of the things I instantly look to is whether the skills balance and training/development regime is giving us the results we want, and change things or make investments if it isnt… it seems a pretty simple proposition to me.

DS – I think you miss my point. If there’s “very little difference” between us and the K-League now, yet we know that we’re only training at (say) 65% of world standard in quality and intensity and leaving the remaining 35% of potential training benefits unrealised, surely that is a position that we should seek to address… To me its a matter of making sure that our clubs and players do the things that allow them to reach and maintain their full potential.

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jimbo said | May 15th 2009 @ 12:47pm | Report comment

Excellent article Millster and opens up another very good question.
Many people have argued that the level of intensity of overseas professional training sessions – which are more like actual games and the number of times they train every week and the number of games they play each season are contributing to a high injury toll and a more widespread use of performance enhancing drugs.

The overseas based Socceroos have a very bad record of injuries and missing games compared to the A-League players.
Kevin Muscat managed to play every minute of the A-League season for MV at his age – would he have done that if he was still at Millwall?

I guess too the Australian culture doesn’t really lend itself to the great increase in intensity or attitude – we aren’t playing FA Cup games or European Champions League semi finals every weekend, so maybe we don’t need to apply such intensity and train 3 times a day every week?

Like some other people, I like the lifestyle of an Australian footballer and that’s a big attraction of the A-League for some overseas players. To approach the game with the same intensity as overseas leagues and passionate fans, might not be that healthy an approach.
Maybe we should just focus on the strengths of our A-League and make the most of what we’ve got and stop trying to imitate other nationalities.

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Ryan Steele said | May 15th 2009 @ 2:31pm | Report comment

Can’t say I entirely agree with you, Jimbo. It’s not so much about trying to imitate other nations, as it is to become as successful as them. It’s a matter of finding and filling in the gaps that are preventing us from reaching the next level, and perhaps the pinnacle.

We may not necessarily need to “train 3 times a day every week,” but we should not be as relaxed as many amateur/bottom-tier clubs around the world. I’m not implying that we are; we just need to avoid being in a slum.

Evolution is the key to success, and training schedules play a large part in that development.

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