We have the biggest amateur and semi-professional sport in the country, not just counted through official Football Australia stats but also through the large ecosystem of futsal, indoor soccer and private school leagues and so forth that sits off to the side.
We are comparable in playing numbers to a fair whack of top-tier countries, and if quantity of people engaged in competitive football alone was a factor, we’d probably be a top-30 country year in, year out.
So why do we under-perform at national team and international club level? This is a question of quality, rather than quantity. And a question of quality at the pro level, not necessarily the levels below.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Do we have a strong enough production line at grassroots? Sort of.
Here I’ll resort to anecdote. At an AAFC meeting in Canberra not long after the organisation had been formed, I heard a president from a Capital Football NPL1 club remark that kids who had come up through the Skills Acquisition Process (SAP) couldn’t play alongside their counterparts who were just one year older, but had missed the SAP boat.
The SAP players had been instilled with skill levels, tactical nous and mental fortitude that is frequently missing from their non-SAP peers. This isn’t surprising. SAP’s ten-month commitment to three training sessions per week is a big step up from amateur club football, which has maybe a quarter of the annual workload.
SAP has been great step forward, and the NPL is big enough to create opportunities for young footballers. More than 100 clubs playing semi-professional football is a real asset to the game.
The problem is that the talent gap between the NPL and the A League is still too big at first-grade level. If young talents miss the cut-off to get into a 16-player A-League academy age squad, then they’re more or less out of luck.
The NPL’s talent development still isn’t as good as the A-League equivalents, so players’ chances of eventually carving out a pro career are seriously diminished.
(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
But the NPL clubs could become a productive pipeline if we let them. Many of them have the pedigree and facilities to produce professional footballers to the same level as A-League clubs.
So what can we do to make the NPL as productive as the A-League? These clubs certainly have their problems. They make player selections not just based on talent, but also on whether the player can pay the hefty rego fees. Successful football countries actually pay young players to stay in the system, not force them out if their parents aren’t rich enough.
This begs the question of why NPL clubs charge so much?
First, coaching for such long seasons and with the frequency Football Australia wants does cost a lot of money. It ain’t cheap, and there isn’t much fat to cut, beyond some notorious examples of siphoning off to first-grade player payments.
The bigger issue is to find out why NPL clubs can’t or won’t subsidise their junior programs.
In essence, they have no incentive to do so. NPL clubs don’t have much income beyond boosters, sponsorships and selling coaching services. They don’t get much at all from the gate, let alone TV revenue. There’s also no real transfer fees.
By comparison, clubs like Western Sydney Wanderers earn more than enough from TV, match day and memberships to cover their academy costs.
James Johnson has identified that re-introducing transfer fees will bring more money into the football economy, and incentivise NPL clubs to compete with lower coaching fees.
(Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
That’s probably true but he’s missing the bigger ticket item: earning money from playing games. Bums on seats and eyeballs on TVs is the greatest source of income that NPL clubs don’t have.
And they don’t have that because Football Australia deliberately denies these clubs the opportunity to play games their fans would actually care about: games of higher standard and competitiveness that would also aid talent production.
It makes macroeconomic sense too. The 11 A-League clubs have been given the responsibility to develop our footballing future. That’s too much work for them. We can see how bottle-necked their talent promotion from academies to first grade has become.
No productive industry would place so much burden on so few such small businesses. England has a massive 92 pro clubs to work with. As Australian football fans, we are all the poorer because of Football Australia’s short-sightedness.
If we want our massive football ecosystem to become more productive in talent production, then we need to re-design our competition structures to maximise player opportunities and match fan desires.
If we do that, a slow cascade effect takes place. More fan engagement equals more money. More money leads to longer seasons and more competitive player production. Better player production leads to better on-field results against other countries at club and national-team levels.
Confidence will be restored in the sport.
It’s time to uncork the talent production pathway, Football Australia.
jbinnie
Guest
Will - Sorry for the belated reply to your latest comment but like many, many others you have been misled into believing the SAP, the "Curriculum", SSG's etc,etc, are all part of a super plan to put our coaching up with the rest of the developed countries. In the early 1970's a sporting establishment in England undertook a very expensive investigation into how when, and why, organised coaching (any sport) should begin. Relating to football their findings were that young players 6-12 should be allowed to have great fun when "kicking the ball" or "scoring a goal". From those findings developed games and practices 3v3, 4v4v, 5v5 played on smaller areas of ground thereby allowing a kid to experience more than normal touches at the ball. It was in this area that any Skills Application would have to be taught for after the age of 12 a youngsters psychology towards the game changed and he became more aware of the fact that he was sharing a ball with 22 players and therefore had to change his/her thinking as to how the game should be played. This was deemed the tactical time of education. Why did Australia not get the benefits to this wealth of knowledge, They did, but an organised "put down" by established figures in our game chose to belittle this information and carry on with their solutions, which, by the way, to this day have never come to fruition. So you see Will ,our development into how the game should be coached "lost" almost 40 years progress due to this inaction, until F Lowy ordered the Dutch coaching body to come up with a "Curriculum", which they did, and it is amusing to find the knowledge contained in this "new" document greatly resembled the findings gained in that College investigation all those years ago. Cheers jb.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i have a bad habit of dragging articles into muddy waters, with my controversial views; that's why i stopped on yours lol
Simmo
Roar Rookie
FWIW I'm enjoying the conversation
Micko
Roar Rookie
Every sport lies to get access to more federal government funding. There should be some sort of audit performed as it's our money at the end of the day!
Randy
Roar Rookie
I like how every advertisement and promotion for AFL has dark skinned and ethnic kids holding sherrins then you watch a game like North Melbourne vs Collingwood there is hardly a single non-anglo person on the field lol
Simmo
Roar Rookie
That makes sense. If you look closely at South American cities on your favourite satellite mapping website there's not much greenspace at all. Full pitch football is a luxury over there
Punter
Roar Rookie
Yeah, not sure from this comment about $1M from SBS, how did you get this FACT; To play football in this country is a rip off from grass roots up to senior level, There are no incentive for indigenes kids to stick with the game and the refugees and ethnics are all moving towards AFL now FACT!..
NoMates
Roar Rookie
It was on SBS site that the game (A-League) is only worth $1m a season. Lets see what the next TV deal brings in.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
@ NoMates:- I am trying to understand your point of view, and it is difficult. The FACTS you go on about should be quoted, along with their source so the rest of us can see what those FACTS are? I truly suspect that you are a bit of a fisherman, throwing out 'bait' to see how many take a bite. If I am wrong, prove it with FACTS!
Will
Guest
I'll make a final take on this, in my opinion i'm seeing more of the younger players coming through look technically better than from say the past is it down to SAP, the curriculum, private academies, futsal, the multicultural influence or just how the game is played these days it doesn't matter they look better technically and that is something Australian players are not known for.( well from my experience anyway!) But of course there are always ways to improve and close the gap against tradition football countries where they eat and sleep and to improve technically and creative play. From evolving the curriculum and SAP programs, to evolving the SSG formats which is already happening in European where they moving towards 2v2 or 3v3 formats to even encouraging more futsal or street football to be played at tender ages there is always ways to improve things. But with the young talent breaking through at the aleague and even at NPL level I think we can turn the corner, there is also good young talent at overseas clubs as well which should keep an eye on too. We have to remember you cant make it only on technique and tactical understanding you also physical and mental attributes to back it up and ive seen many with the later struggle with the former aspects too. But it's not all that bad in fact with a bit of improvement especially from the FFA's performance gap report which have been obvious for at least a decade we can improve again because Australia doesnt lack in talent.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
the only way you will ever know if the younger players are good enough is if you give them minutes or several games in a row. i'm pulling this convo away from the original posters intent. feel free to jump on any of my article to discuss all things youth related
jbinnie
Guest
AA - For one who passes comment on so many aspects of our game you appear to be possessed with this idea of playing young players for the sake of giving them time on the field. Can I put a different slight on things. Personally I would love to see football get it's rightful place in Australian sport but I am not scared to admit that to achieve that position we have to have a successful national team. It is some years now since our under-age teams were a force to be reckoned with in the world order and with that demise we have also seen the senior Socceroo team fall drastically in the World Rankings and this in itself is not helping to gain new interested parties in our game. So where has this left us this year. For the average onlooker we have noted comments saying this is the best season in the A League ,when I suspect it is the levelling of standard in teams that has lifted the excitement factor. Sadly this does not help the previously mentioned national teams. so that the imagined improvement is actually a myth. for we are seeing less and less quality imports coming to our local comp. and although this helps vacate space for local kids it does not address the problem if the question is asked, are our kids ready and able to improve our quality of football? I stopped at a local ground last weekend and watched 22 kids run their guts out trying to win their game. Honestly the standard of their play was abysmal and yet they had to be given full marks for trying. The thing that caused me a problem was there was one kid playing, a 14 year old playing with under 16 lads, who towered over him, and yet this kid, from a technical point of view, was so far ahead of the field it was almost unbelievable. My problem ???. I wondered where he would be in 5 years. That's our Australian problem space, time, and money all being used to hopefully produce another Kewell, or Viduca. while faced with a host of other attractions. jb.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
oh dear
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
leaked? Roar are openly talking about allowing Young and Gillesphey talk to other clubs. It is a standard practice.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
the point im trying to make is how do you think it was leaked to all the media outlets? it was somebody from inside the club. All this was well known weeks before any of it came to light Thats 4 players who wont be there next year now, there will be another 3 or 4 going as well, thats more than half a team gone; anyway you look it at thats an exodus of players
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
AA it's hardly worth a reply. You refer to an article written in FTBL. There won't be an exodus but certainly Roar players are highly sought after by a number of clubs. Everybody wants our players, they're quality.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
There is a reason why i am critical of brisbane; its due to how they are coached and the style they play. I have no issues with there youth development, many of there players have been on my radar since there early teens. now that some players are confirmed as leaving at seasons end, its time to act with the youth. For starters i wouldn't be playing young, give freke the gloves until the end of the season and see if he can make the step up to #1 as for gillesphy, he wouldn't be getting a look in now if i was manager (regardless of his wage). Brisbane have the best young CB in the country that is barely getting minutes, he is a player who was on the list of ones rumored to be leaving at seasons end. If he leaves the club, that falls squarely on the manager (who should be axed regardless because of how they play) what about the other end? the one where brisbane offer minimal goal threat? change systems and give young players like hasanovic, kjalcic, kovacevic etc minutes to see if they're good enough at bursting the old onion bag regularly. why not give asian australian sensation nat nguyen some playing time? he could bring a new fanbase to the sport. the future is bright for brisbane, but while they have moon and keep on playing the boring dross they do; you wont experience the success that is literally at your door step already
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
absolutely agree JB, standard is lower, particularly defence and not just in front of goal. But I for one much prefer to see our youngsters given a go over imports or discards from other clubs, unless they're quality. Not sure that Masato is, and I don't think much of Mebrahtu either. Wasting striker spots, but I expect that will be addressed, maybe not this season.
Winter A League is Awesome
Guest
Great post. Looks like AA's English System comments are quite valid :stoked:
jbinnie
Guest
AA -You are certainly getting points for pushing the talents of these young centre backs on Roar's books. But put yourself in the coach's position. Last season Fowlers "back 3" had the second best "goals against" stat in the A league conceding only 28 goals in 26 games bettered only by winners Sydney FC on 25 in 26 games. This season with the return of Neville, the same building blocks were available and once again ,with goalie Young ,are proving a hard wall to scale. You reckon that should be shelved to accommodate an untried youngster in one of the most important positions in a team.??? Roar's problems are not in the defensive set up but in netting the all important goals and that is another story altogether, and not yet fixed . cheers jb.