We can either sink or swim in the AFC Champions League

Punter - What you are actually saying here is that we need more coaches to "educate" the "volunteer" coaches way down deep in the "grassroots" of the game. This is the real heart of our problem in football, I have gone along to many junior,schools and youth games and have literally been appalled at some of the sights I have seen,well meaning ,mostly volunteer, coaches, trying to emulate what they see on TV, men prancing around like dervishes on the sideline, shouting instructions to their young charges,many of whom look, and act, as if they are totally confused.. Surely we don't think this behaviour is teaching our kids all that is good in football,for at that level results don't matter,what we should be looking for is what young Johnny does with the ball,how he uses time and space,how he demonstrates basic skills, then and only then will he improve as a player provided of course that his coach has the necessary qualifications to teach those skills. Back to the question -----Who teaches the teachers?????? Cheers jb.

Punter - Don't forget the time factor involved.17 years have passed since the GG was in it's prime and tactically the game has moved on since then, from what is loosely termed the "possession" game of Barcelona to the now highly organised retreating defence tactic, based on speed and cleverness in getting the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. This has put huge pressure on young players having the necessary skills to work in this "new" environment. A simple sloppy attempt at killing a ball "to feet", or worse still a sloppy pass straight to an opponent, today can be punished very severely in the modern game. A fact of life. Cheers jb.

"Ever" is a long time, however the pace of change does feel glacial at times. A good point is Mr Griffen who, after much public airing of grievances regarding the value for money of Asian players, has landed a gem of a player on his first attempt. That's not a bad batting average and hints that perhaps we are not as constructive in our scouting of talent to the North as we could be.

They have a better retention rate than we have, partly due to the salary and also due to the cultural pressures, however their best players are plying their trade in Europe (primarily in the big leagues).

Here's a thought. Perhaps the golden generation success is down to isolation from Australia. Guys with no prospect here at an early age have a total cultural change. No media, no money influence, no sub standard league, all of which now more evident. Just maybe take out our culture and these guys saw success. Not what we hope for but maybe our culture and the game don't mix? Yet again it's Friday night and maybe not explaining it clearly.

Some have been very vocal criticising some Well know leagues as nowhere near the standard of the a-league. On flicking to another game whilst WSW were playing their fixture to one of the highly critisised I did not flick back to WSW. The first rule in development is understanding where 'it' is at. Rule number 2, don't critisise other league as our own soon enough is found wanting. We do not have a level of talent in this country that delivers what the game is about.....scoring goal. We have workman like players who do well enough from goalkeeper to the very edge of the middle third but we do not have players in the final third that can march it with our regional partners. Face this fact first and we may be able to move forward........maybe. The game needs money first, talent pool second(and I mean players with flair, not clydesdales). I hope beyond hope both can be achieved,

Perhaps you might want to follow the link below about reforms to major sports leagues in China and see how commercial realities apply regardless of the political system in place. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1828317&page=9 scroll to the bottom of the page , the article about seperating the control of sporting leagues from government control to NGOs run by major stakeholders .

Very important points Jeff, this is why we need more academies. We need more Josep Gombau's in this country.

JB, The Golden Generation, some of the best players to grace the green & gold & some of my heroes. Now let's have a look how many had this attribute you mentioned, the first and second touch capability, the appreciation of space and how it is to be used whether in attack or defence,and most importantly the ability to move a ball quickly and accurately to a team-mate. Definitely Kewell & Viduka, without doubt our best 2 technically gifted players to don the green & gold, Bresc, yes, Okon & Zelic. I would say that would be about it at a fairly high level,

I tend to agree with you that we should do more to focus on Asia. Agree that we also need a good program of youth development. There's an awful lot about many things that I think should be done better than it is. But I guess I don't actually know what is being done, not having a seat on FFA. Still, sadly, everything seems to moves at glacial pace, and maybe that's for the good, but it doesn't satisfy me. I want to see the future of football in Australia now. At this rate, I'll be dead and buried well before we come of age. Still, it's a far shout from where we were 40 years ago when I first came to these shores - and strangely enough 40 years ago Asian teams would have been wondering if they'd be competitive with our sides. By that measure, we certainly seem to have gone backwards.

I think under 14's to under 21's should be mandatory in the next few years

in Australia, we do have a production line issue to be fair, we currently have only 1 player playing constantly in the big 5 leagues, compare that with japan and Korea. (altough i feel next season itll be 4, with Mooy, Ryan and Langerak all expecting upgrades)

I am glad a lot of the comments have turned to youth development, because that is an important issue. One of the problems here in Australia is that we have focussed our effort on A-league academies. There is nothing bad about these except we only have 9. Yes, you read correctly - nine. There are only 9 tier one training programs in Australia. Possibly 10 if you also count FFA COE, which while excellent focusses on a very small group. Youth development really should be involving a bigger number of facilities and coaches.

exactly, if we replaced adelaide & the wanderers with either city, sydney or victorywe would be much more competitive. The CSL, j&k league have the advantage of always submitting their strongest teams as their is always consistency with who makes up the top of the table in those league

i agree. if teams were given easier travel schedule/less frequent games during the ACL period, all aspects of the ACL would improve, players would be rested and more competitive and crowd interest would be up. why couldn't the WSW and Adelaide match next round been played in January or earlier?

Griffo, this is why I don't mind Mike asking the questions or Ange or Rudan. Youth development is something that we hear very little about. However I do see lots more young players with strong technical skills, eg that young BR central midfielder. But Tom Bayer says Australians are well behind the Japanese in youth academies, skills, developments I believe we can do a lot more. Maybe get Wenger to be the TD.

Having read most of the comments here can I dare to make a suggestion?. Teams,victories and losses are not really the best way to analyse as to who is producing the best players,to do so one has to look at the techniques of individual players and assess from these findings as to which country is further ahead in development. Most of our teams in top Australian football are peopled by players who have learned their trade elsewhere and it is these players who show a definite advantage in the basic skills of football technique and tactical application. If you then try to apply the same "measuring sticks" to the young local player you begin to see how deep is the chasm between both sets of players. In general the Asian teams appear to have mastered the three most important factors in modern football,the first and second touch capability, the appreciation of space and how it is to be used whether in attack or defence,and most importantly the ability to move a ball quickly and accurately to a team-mate. In the Roar game in China there was a player who showed all these attributes,he is an 18 year old bench player!!!!!!!. What does that say about our system of "making" players???. It is in this area where most of our local players are to be found wanting ,so much so that it is almost possible for an onlooker with no local knowledge to pick out what players are locals simply by registering the numbers of their "unforced" errors. I think this is what Bosnich and Rudan were referring to when they discussed the two recent ACL games where our teams were found wanting. Kaks mentions players now coming through who are the result of the National Curriculum but as someone else mentioned an 18 year old today was only 10 when the NC was introduced so the claim could have some merit,but then poses the question who or what created our so called Golden Generation of players in the late 1990"s early 2000"s? Food for thought is it not? . Cheers jb.

It's a good article Mike, thanks. Disagree or otherwise, you've sparked a few decent comments in areas we don't read much about here on The Roar. Certainly the Fox Sports crew gave our system a serve after the losses, saying we're dropping behind year on year. The question's got to be asked - how can our reigning champion team and the next best side, have slid so far so fast? Was the ACL alone not enough incentive for them to recruit well? it's not as if they are rebuilding, but they need to. Personally I love the ACL - extra games mid week to watch and a chance to show Australians who aren't football fans yet, another unique dimension to our game. I'd love to see some more games on TV, especially coming opponents, but there's only highlights on You Tube. I heard ABC TV news 24 Sports report on the ACL - they did not have a clue about the competition, group stages and the opponents, despite the commentator saying it was his favorite competition. The low crowds are not just indicative of how the fans rate the ACL, but also the amount of news coverage it gets. Imagine if the AFL or NRL boys had a League like this - wall to wall coverage and decent crowds guaranteed.