It's time for the Socceroos next golden generation

As the ALeague continues to improve yearly on and off the field, we should be asking if one day half the team will come from here instead.

Griffo - A couple of things in your offering that need further explaining.Small sided football on small pitches was not a Dutch idea it is thought to have originated in an examination into sports education undertaken by a college in England around 1970.These people went into areas never previously examined,they looked at the psychological development of youngsters and found that up to the age of 11/13 the average youngster was not really into the winning of leagues.cups,trophies in general but were stilll more inclined to "copy" players that they had heard of or seen on TV. With this in mind the development of the SSG's on small pitches from the age of 6 -12 was seen as an ideal "forum" for kids to be taught the basic skills in the game and by using these innovations a kid was given more touches on the ball,creating more situations to be overcome,while at the same time not being "lost" on a full size pitch with perhaps 10- 20 touches in a full game. Now I have in my possession football magazines dated between 1974-1980 where these innovations are widely discussed. I have also witnessed a display put on by a fully qualified Hungarian coach which was masterly in it's content on how to coach 8 year olds and keep the sessions full of fun while decreasing the number of players in each group and playing in an even tighter area. Unfortunatey I was the only coach (out of 22) who bothered to turn up. That was in 2004. My "team" at that club played in groups of 6 with 2 subs, on a field one third of the normal size. In 1975 I was advised by a national Director of Coaching to test out the "psychology " of kids by getting a group of 7 year olds together,settle them down,and ask them what they like most of about playing football. He advised me the answer would invariably be one of two,"KICKING THE BALL" or "SCORING A GOAL". He was almost 100%correct.He also advised me to try the same exercise with a team of 13 to 14 year old kids and again supplied the answers,"WINNING A GAME" or "WINNING THE LEAGUE" or "WINNING THE CUP".He was so right. If you have the chance try this exercise at a local club and you may be astounded at the replies you get.Cheers jb

This is perhaps the first group of players that have come through the A-League ranks as we have them today (with NYL, clubs with technical philosophies etc). Obviously, the 2004-2009 gap's effects have just been realised, and brighter days lie ahead.

...and because there can never be too much football (spam) 8-) - another link on 2014 growth in junior numbers in the Hunter Region.

NNSW Football pathway for Juniors & Youth outside of Hunter Region

NNSW Football Youth and Senior pathway

NNSW Football Junior & youth pathway

For interest on pathway from grassroots to A-League and Australia: The pathways between /Zone/NPL (termed the 'best'), Emerging Jets ('best of the best') and AIS (the 'elite') in Newcastle and Northern NSW are shown in the following posts under this one. To complete the picture the grassroots clubs here provide players from U8 level both to the zone/regional level or Emerging Jets for the Skill Acquisition Programs; NPL sides come into the picture later. Emerging Jets U12 side is over in Japan at the moment

The FFA are looking likely to put more energy into grassroots coaching education: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/dct/ffa-dtc-performgroup-eu-west-1/National%20Community%20Coach%20Development%20Manager%20July14_1oytdgku5aqng18grih7iimh95.pdf

A-League academies are on their way! Sydney are opening theirs in 2016

You really think they'd be looking for another keeper? He's 21 and has already been voted the best keeper in their league. Do yourself a favour and watch some football instead of thinking "we conceded three so the keeper must be rubbish"

Oh god... Let's see the kid actually play some games first before we start talking socceroos.

Awer Mabil has the potential to be brilliant. And let's not forget how beneficial it would be to see someone of his background playing for the socceroos

For me the goal should not be to improve the standard of the national team, it should be to rise the technical and tactical standard of the local over 35's. Do that and you have raised the standard across the board for the whole country for several generations and that will of course flow into to national team. A-League teams should be the tip of the pyramid in each local area and they should be investing in coach education to all junior coaches in their catchment area in conjunction with the NPL teams in that area. Under 12's is too late, under 6 and above is all in need of coaching improvement.

Agree with what you are saying Brendo. For the first paragraph it is becomming less. I think seeing the need for competition is outweighing the size of the field but I believe that too will change in not too distant future. A few years ago I had the forethought of trying to booking my U8's into their schools excellent, covered, basketball court for training (lot of bad weather cancellations that year as it turned out). Principle looked like he considered it until he heard 'soccer' then said the local basketball club had it the nights I mentioned (they didn't). Schools have infrastructure that is under-utilised by the community outside of school hours (and fenced off). Kids are a captured audience during the working week so can get more hours for the whole year with football not just the 6-months (to me increasing winter football to year-round football is key). After school hours for activities that includes (mostly) 1-1.5 hours of training just isn't enough, and schools will help here. Are you trying to implement something in schools in your area? For me I see a lot of potential in local schools playing each other weekly throughout the year here - large number of primary schools in close proximity that could fill a number of teams for boys and girls - a mini gala afternoon every week.

agree completely. Jedinak is "Big 4" not our best player

4. We need a much broader high performance focus than just 20 kids in the AIS. This is the area to be addressed, maybe its a academy system as each A-league club from U12 onwards. We need to identify talent better and nurture it better. - Curriculum driven MiniRoos, SAP, NTC and Coe programs is a great start - particularly now that NPL 'preferences' younger players and will increasingly do so as the FFA ratchet down the PPS. True that we need more 'places' in these programs, but the program design, alignment and QA are in place. 5. We need an across the board uplift in coaching standards. There are not enough qualified coaches out there. We have hundreds rather than thousands and too many of those are doing it for the money not the love of the game. It is driving up costs at clubs as its a buyers market. FFA need it to be cheaper and more accessible to get a C level license. - To have a high standard first you must have a standard. We have this now. But not just a high, global standard, but for reasons of the quality of our education administration in Australia - an AFC licence to design and deliver our own programs. This doesn't sound like a big deal - but it essentially means if we can grow revenues we can expand opportunity/access to an already excellent (and QA'd) coaching education system. Look at the early FFA documents on this stuff - they know that scale is the problem. We have solved scope nicely. 6. We need to embed the game into the primary school culture. If you have 50 Grade 1 boys at a primary school we need 25 of them playing football at snack, lunchtimes every day. Fill the playgrounds and you immediately uplift the skill base to another level. - Agree. It is very early doors on this issue, but our game has aver significant cultural advantage - one that is often portrayed as a criticism of our sport. The FFA have started with a brilliant strategy (just as they did with the FDS and the NC) and in time, and as resources allow, I expect football to make huge progress in schools. Don't forget, football is already huge in some states schools, but we need to lift the quality in these places while taking it increasingly into the schools south of the Murray)

No controversial - spot on.

Exactly. When those boys left, sure they had bags of talent, but the football world was a much smaller place from a European perspective. In the intervening years the world game has gone to a whole new level. Quality young Australian's have many more options around the world - but the 'flip side' is there is so much more quality opposition for European places. These kids deserve a fair crack. I, for one, am glad they are getting it.

A couple of comments " Have heard even recently and in past that ‘smalll sided soccer’ and ‘mini roos’ is “just not soccer” I believe this attitude is changing, I was speaking to some of my Under 9 parents on the weekend and they were astounded that the boys moved to a full pitch at U12. SSF is the norm now and it is only a few of the older generation who still think kids should be playing on full sized grounds. The primary school culture is something I am passionate about. The decline of the migrant club as a social hub has left our game with too many kids that play football 3 hours per week. Without a complete cultural change within our primary schools we will never produce the number of players we need to rise above average as we simiply don't have enough kids touching the ball enough. I also believe the school grounds are the silver bullet for the sustained growth of our game. If we can unlock the school gates and gain access for clubs we have all the infrastructure we need (we just need to light them for training).