Somewhat overlooked among the announcements regarding Silver Lake’s $130 million investment in the Australian Professional Leagues were two proclamations with far-reaching ramifications regarding competition structures for Australia’s national leagues.
Indeed these changes will create the conditions for developing multiple golden generations of Australian footballers.
I have previously argued that we need to redesign our competition structures to maximise player development and provide opportunities for second-tier clubs to play more games that mean something for their fans.
Much of the reasoning about enhancing player development was informed by work done by the players union, Professional Footballers Australia. In its research document Pathway Study it showed the clear link between declining national team results and player quality that resulted from decreased availability of playing time to young Australian players after the NSL ended.
John Didulica, the then CEO of PFA, noted that for young footballers “the link between the volume of match minutes between 18 to 21 and a successful career is profound. We need to create opportunities for players to blossom in those key developmental years to increase our chances of being consistently successful at an international level and to increase the value of our players in the global market.”
(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
The same root problem was identified by Football Australia in its more recent Performance Gap study. The conclusion from both reports is clear.
Young Australian footballers just don’t play enough competitive football when it matters most.
To put it in cooking terms, Australia’s system for developing football talent is like a kitchen that uses some good ingredients and has a few decent chefs but puts its dishes into an oven that is not hot enough and for not nearly long enough. No matter how much innate talent they may have, our players are almost always undercooked compared to their international peers. We need a stronger oven. The system needs to change.
The Performance Gap report is worth reading in its entirety if you’re interested in the underlying causes for why our national teams have underperformed for so long. The problem can’t just be sheeted home to one coach, or our performance in one tournament; we have a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution.
Fortunately the APL and Football Australia are working to remedy this in a very big way. The solution is as obvious as it has been difficult to achieve in the past: more and better games for young players.
The NSL-era National Youth League was a productive league that saw the likes of the AIS teams and a teenage Mark Viduka, among other members of the golden generation, cut their teeth against the very best teenagers in the country. But the NYL was replaced with the Y-League, a sadly neglected competition during the Frank Lowy-era that was slowly reduced down to a very short summer tournament. It’s now in complete hiatus due to COVID, so borderline A-League-talented teenagers are only playing the too-short winter NPL season – not a great development pathway as it stands.
Fortunately something like the NYL will be re-established. APL CEO Danny Townsend advised the Sydney Morning Herald that one of the items that the Silver Lake capital injection will be spent on will be the rejuvenation of the A-Leagues Youth set-up. It is very heartening news to see such a critical development pathway brought back into operation.
Just as important, and for very similar reasons, will be the establishment of the national second division. Football Australia CEO James Johnson has already hinted that FA’s share of the Silver Lake cash will be used as seed money to get the NSD off the ground.
My personal view is that the NSD will have most of the look and feel of the NSL. Most of the clubs will overlap, there’ll be similarly sized crowds and we can expect a talent mix of ambitious youth and professionals at the tail ends of the careers. It won’t be a bad place for young players to get used to the cut and thrust of national league football.
For each individual footballer there will be far greater opportunities available to get competitive football minutes under their belts. And we won’t be as likely to see a player like Cristian Volpato slip through the cracks in the future either.
The addition of the NSD and a full-season NYL will require professional implementation and shouldn’t be rushed. I’m as impatient as anyone to get these leagues off the ground, but doing it right, doing it well, requires intelligent preparation. Measure twice, cut once, as carpenters say.
I was initially sceptical about selling part of the future of the national leagues to a private equity firm. There are good reasons to dislike the idea of the game’s revenue being siphoned off by a third party. But the capital they are injecting into the sport up front will allow us to break the cycle of neglect in player development.
With the new structures in place we have great reason to be optimistic about the future of Australian football.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Brattan not a good investment Classic comment. He cost Melbourne City nothing. They got a few seasons out of him, and then Sydney benefits, and still do. They put nothing into his development. But Rochdale, his junior club, who've produced more than a couple of A League players, and Roar, his youth club, get nothing for their large investment. Little wonder many clubs, who don't have a production line let alone an academy, don't want transfer fees.
Waz
Roar Rookie
@ Pro Rel NSD I think you’ll find that $140m is not yet spent but hey, don’t let facts get in the way. And players can run around in summer snd recover - they do it all the time in other countries where it’s hot, and in World Cups, European championships, Asian Championships, Womens World Cups, Olympics …. all normally played in summer. But hey, maybe Gallop was right, and Australian football is “unique” and our players are sad saps who can only play in 23C temperatures … the great stuff that Roarcelona, SFC, Adelaide in their championship year, and SFC in recent years produced must be stuff of pure fluke. Just can’t believe it keeps happening.
sportstar111
Roar Rookie
Koutroumbis, Galloway and maybe Armiento.
chris
Guest
Club juniors "funding" the seniors is an old chestnut that is promoted by no nothings like Roberto/Pip. That $400 is broken down to: 1/ Field hire (lights and ground) 2/ Referee costs 3/ Admin costs (yes it costs money to run a club) 4/ Insurance costs 5/ FNSW rego fees 6/ Coaching fees (a lot of clubs have volunteer coaching granted). 7/ Gear and balls etc. If you think clubs are making money out of the $400 after you take all the above costs out - well ok. Rugby league in NSW and other sports are able to supplement junior playing fees because they are cash rich (TV dollars) and have very little juniors. Football associations are cash poor and yet have a huge grass roots to look after and cant subsidise any playing fees. Hope that helps.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
I've had similar thoughts. Previous administrations have failed to see clubs as assets to be allowed to grow and prospeer, and instead see them as inconveniences to be micro-managed. When the NSL was canned there were still a number of clubs pushed into state leagues that had important capabilities that should have been maximised (Wollongong, South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights and others). Economists call them "stranded assets". I understand why FFA wanted to give the A-League and the new clubs clear air to become the national league in the public imagination, but a lot of valuable clubs were allowed to whither away when they should have been given opportunity to survive at a higher level. At about the 5 year mark post-NSL the FFA should have come up with a UCL model or a NSD as part of their thinking about how football as a whole can prosper
Pro Rel NSD
Guest
Sounds interesting
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
These are age old issues. Fairly common for clubs to rely on junior fees to fund the rest of the club. The thing is, they charge this sort of cost because they can. The numbers remain strong, demand is strong, so clubs may as well make a few bucks in the process. No club is ever going to say no to easy money.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
they recruit widely, as do many academies. They and Newcastle raid QLD school teams annually. Around 6 or so Toowoomba Grammar kids signed with these clubs two seasons back.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
I did complete a survey a few days back from Keep Up or APL regards a digital certificate and fantasy football. All these are a bonus in my view, get the basics right first, decent matches, club loyalty, fan base, commentary & broadcast. Don't put the cart first, before the steeds.
Jordan Sports Fan
Roar Rookie
The figure I heard was $30mill but it wouldnt be anywhere near that point yet (surely anyway, its garbage). But the next big pieces to be rolled out is fantasy football and then grassroots registration and team management so its a work in progress to get up to that (astromical) figure.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
Why? Because not every player is motivated by money, some just want to play How many players have left adelaide for other a league clubs over the years and can truly say they significantly improved?
Redcap
Roar Guru
Nice article, Simmo. Funnily enough, I'm putting together a piece which suggests, among other things, that the old NSL might have been better off if it had transitioned from state leagues through a UCL-type format to a national league.
Foot and Ball
Roar Rookie
They have measured ten times and have lost the cutter. Sorry, needed to happen about seven years ago.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
is this Detective Midfielder's big break in the journalism world?
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Rowles, and quite a few more, were released from Roar by J Aloisi for nothing. Those who were left were released a couple of years later by R Fowler for nothing. Roar has mismanaged transfers for a long time, cite Brattan, but have apparently done ok with some of the women transfers. Let's face it though, if we had a decent transfer system Roar and QAS would be doing very well on women players alone.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
did they really spend $40mil on that website?
chris
Guest
Mid my club is playing Mariners this weekend. Was meant to be at the sports college but apparently its closed due to Covid? They are now coming down to Sydney. CCM across the juniors play a very similar brand of football. Technical and well structured. For a small area population wise, they certainly punch above their weight in player development.
Simmo
Roar Rookie
Yeah, game time evidence is in the Performance Gap report I linked in the article. It's a critical read for every football fan in this country. We solve that problem, so much good news flows from that. WC performances improve. ACL campaigns become competitive instead of embarrassing. Clubs win more prize money. Players get sold for more cash. With more confidence and money in the sport, we can start solving all the other issues we want taken care of but never had the money for. And the more we examine the root causes for our performance gap, we see that clubs like CCM and Adelaide are doing great things. But there's other clubs that aren't. And there's a layer of politics at the federation level that screws us over from time to time as well. I remain hopeful because some good things are coming down the pipeline. And we no longer have a regime in the national head office that fights to hold onto power without ever doing anything productive with that power.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Students at the school don't play in the Mariners academy ... but many of them double up and play for the school during the week and Mariners academy on the weekend... Also two or three times a week the students go to the COE .... there is a lot of co-operation between the school and the club... Hand on heart not on the other thing... the bigger clubs are sponging off the development clubs.... and the amount of youth talent that SFC in particular has wasted and left on the bench hurt Australian Football... AS an aside twas talking to some WSW fans after the game and they were amazed at how well the players knew each others game... and I said they have been playing together for years its just they have been stepped up and the coaching staff also understand their strengths and weakness.... the backs aside from Rowles have been playing together for about three to four years ... and have often trained with the first team and understand Rowles... I read somewhere that players between 17 & 21 need a certain amount of game time to develop ... SFC have them sitting on the bench and they never develop and its such a waste... another reason we need a second division
HUGHSTER
Guest
I would be interested in Roarer's thoughts on funding structures in Australian soccer. Junior fees in my district are $400 for players 16 and over. Last year, the refund for a significantly curtailed season was $52! I understand that junior football is a significant funder of senior football. I also understand that a significant proportion of those fees goes to insurance costs. In any other insurance arrangement, if the risk to the insurer is diminished because you dispose of the insured asset or elect to no longer insure the asset you are entitled to a refund on your premium. If half the season is cancelled then surely half the risk to the insurer is removed so logically half the premium should be refunded. I have three questions: 1. Do equity investors in the APL have access to this revenue? 2. Where is this money going if it is not refunded to players? (and I accept that there are fixed costs in kitting out and running junior and community clubs but these costs do not represent 87% of total fees). 3. How can a sport be sustainable in the long term if it relies on junior participation to finance the activities of senior teams? What I am positing is that there are structural issues in the game that go beyond issues of pathways. Nepotism, and other issues referenced in this article are not unique to football. Apologies if my questions are ignorant but there does seem to be a lack of transparency in the economics of Australia football. Keen to hear from those who may have a more informed understanding.