Whilst sitting in a boring university lecture, I was thinking about youth player development in Australia. There must be 80 percent of coaches out there who are just completely rubbish. But how many heroes of the youth game are there?
I think I can name about two that I know, both unknown outside of local circles, but both who have achieved some amazing feats in football.
First, Mr. A.
And I call him Mr. A for protective purposes. Mr. A coached his son’s team at a local club from the time he was a young tucker at 6.
Through the years Mr. A saw many players come and go through the system, but from 6 to 16, a 10 year span, he has developed some quality players.
A fan of the Coever system, Mr. A has produced several representative players. I can count 7 who have made Gold Coast Representative squads, one of those whom made the Queensland State squad and later the QAS.
Of those players, others went on to play for representative teams, such as Northern NSW Reps, TFI (an independent football association taking young players to play in the Dana Cup international youth competition), and all of which now play high level football.
One player is now in England playing at a high level local side (probably the equivalent of Australia’s local federation’s premier league competitions), and the remaining players are all semi-professional players in the Gold Coast Premier League, across all tiers; firsts, reserves and youth.
Mr. A was partnered by Mr. B.
The pair came from footballing backgrounds and are both football purists.
Mr. B played NSW state league in his day as an indigenous player, and achieved high level coaching accreditations.
Mr. A played as a junior, but excelled as a referee.
In his 20s, Mr. A was appointed an assistant referee for NSL matches and has an officiating career spanning almost 10 years. He tells me stories of how he officiated many famous players, such as current Socceroos, Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill.
From these backgrounds, it seemed almost destiny that their sons would fall into football, and both men start coaching.
After many years and many coaching courses later, Mr. A and B took the helm of their son’s teams and coached for several years, taking a group of mostly bit part soccer fans to first division final series in consecutive years.
Although not winning a trophy (despite coming painfully close, finished second several times, losing two grand finals over the years), the pair had achieved something much greater than a premiership; they had shown a group of now young men a love for the game, and produced some good young players.
Atop their mantle would be one player in particular.
He was offered a trial for Gold Coast United’s youth squad last season but was pipped at the post in the final rounds of cuts before the team was finalized.
With my personal connections to both MR A and B, it got me wondering, of all the other local coaches I know, how many would even come close to this par’s ability?
I can think of none.
So I am interested to know if anyone else on The Roar knows any of these seemingly gods amongst men, at least in local circles, who have actually got their coaching accreditations and properly developed some players.
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