With all the hype and excitement around the new West Sydney football team, there is hype and speculation about who should be signed to play for the team. I am thinking more longer term.
What the club needs to do in the long term is recruit straight out of the NSWPL team for players (particularly youth), and if there are none up to the required level (which I find hard to believe) then look overseas or to off-contract players.
They should aim to make the NSWPL, a feeder league to the A-League club (for appropriate compensation obviously).
The club could even supply or partly contribute prize money to the winner of the NSWPL, in an attempt to have a proper affiliation with the league.
There is a similar model to this in rugby league, which works quite well. Particularly in Parramatta and Penrith, where they have their allocated districts with teams, and they recruit youth directly out of that league at the required age level. Once they have selected their players, the club continues their development.
This should not be implemented this season because given the short turnaround, the team needs A-League-ready players as soon as possible.
But from their second season onward, this would be the optimal choice. It would allow all NSWPL players something to strive for.
The club should also have each of its training sessions rotated at some of the larger clubs’ grounds of the NSWPL like Marconi, Sydney United and Blacktown. This would allow the club to always be in the face of its target market and allow for optimal community engagement.
Young kids could see their local heroes on a weekly basis as opposed to the one-off visit they would get at school.
This is how we can marry old soccer and new football in the west.
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