It had been a long time coming when Lachlan Barr stepped out on the hallowed turf at Coopers Stadium last Friday night.
Barr is possibly the best NPL-level centre back in Australia. He is calm and collected on the ball and has the ability to read the play ahead of him, and his aerial presence in both boxes is well known.
He’s had stints in Germany and England but is more known for his time in the South Australia NPL.
In 2021 Barr was named Adelaide City’s club champion, player’s player of the year and also the man of the match on grand final day in City’s penalty shootout win against the Adelaide Comets.
Barr finished off a great season by coming third in the Sergio Melta, NPL SA’s player of the season award.
There’s been a lot of A-League interest in Lachlan Barr for the past few seasons – he ticks all the boxes as a centre back – but A-League clubs have been reluctant to move for him.
Adelaide United signed Barr as an injury replacement for the rest of the season. It was a signing nine years in the making – Barr was a United youth team player in 2013.
His performance against Sydney yet again proved that transitioning from the NPL to the A-League can often be a culture shock.
The normally reliably Barr struggled with his passing range – for a player who normally makes these passes with his eyes closed in the NPL, many were under or over hit.
Positioning, which is a strong point of his game, seemed to go out the window. His more experienced partner, Michael Jakobsen, spent as much time fixated on Barr’s positioning as he did on Sydney’s attackers.
While Javi Lopez wears some blame in relation to Elvis Kamsoba’s opening goal by not getting back into position, Barr was also guilty.
Kamsoba accelerated at pace and looked to shape for a shot on his left foot, which turned Barr inside out. The Sydney winger then moved the ball on his right foot and hit a low struck shot that went through the recovering Barr and past an unsighted Joe Gauci’s near post.
Barr also was caught out of position for the matchwinner struck by Bobo. Sydney were able to move the ball around quickly at the top of Adelaide’s 18-yard box and get the ball out to their left side, where a simple pass was played into Bobo, who couldn’t miss even despite Jakobsen’s late lunge.
Barr seemed to follow the ball, and he moved out of his defensive line as the ball was played to Sydney left. He had a glancing look back at the player he should’ve been marking, almost as if he then realised he was several yards ahead of where he should’ve been.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
It was a debut to forget, and Barr will more than likely head back to the bench after this performance. Barr is strong enough to mentally recover from this performance, but having toiled away in the NPL for all those years for a debut like this will hurt.
Going from the NPL to the A-League is an incredibly tough thing to do. Players like Andy Pengelly, Travis Major and Marco Jankovic have dominated their state NPL competitions for years but have struggled to convince A-League clubs to sign them.
Many players who look like Ferraris in the NPL end up looking like battered Datsuns once they start training and trialling with A-League clubs.
It’s a massive step up going from a semi-professional competition to a full-time professional league. Infrastructure, training and recovery are just a few things NPL players struggle with.
A lot of the time it’s just too far to climb, no matter how talented you are.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
The fact that we are seeing the first signs of NPL players making the step up suggests that training techniques and training quality, technical development and even coaching standards are working toward a level that will make us more competitive on the world stage. When we eventually establish a second division, my hope is that the message broadcast by James Johnson and Danny Townsend to the world is that Australian football is a great place not only for you developing players and coaches, but a great place for older players to share their knowledge and experience. You can then imagine the next level when we eventually have pro/rel. Any honest football supporter will tell you that it takes time to build, it doesnt happen overnight, as much as we want it to. This is another building block in the establishment of football in Australia, may the progress, development and evolution continue
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
We need the NSD to be pro but the money just isnt there
jbinnie
Guest
AA You appear to have done a fair bit of investigation into the paths available for youngsters. Based on previous conversations we have had I decided to do a bit of investigation into the top two teams in today's league leaders, Melbourne City and West United, Here are my findings. City's apparent run on team have quite an extensive past, Glover- has been overseas at 2 countries and also played at CCM Galloway- been at 4 A-League clubs. Jamieson - been to 2 overseas countries and 4 A-League clubs. Griffiths - been to 12 senior clubs in Oz,England,Asia & Denmark. Good - been to EPL & SPL the A League and Socceroo Berenger -French Leagues 1 and 2. ONeill - Burnley, Oldham, CCM & Roar Metcalfe - Local one club man. Nabbout -Victory ,Japan ,Asia,& Socceroo. McLaren -Blackburn, Perth, Roar, German clubs, SPL, Socceroo. Leckie -Adelaide, German leagues (7 clubs) Socceroo. Western Utd (new club) Young - Various clubs in England,Roar. Risdon -Perth, WSW, United. Topor Stanley- Sydney, Jets, Perth, WSW, Garuccio -Melb Heart, Melb City, Adelaide, Melb City . Lustica - GCU, Roar , o'seas, Adelaide, WSW, United Diamanti -.13 different clubs in Italy and England. Kilkenny - Melb.City,Perth and United. Wales - CCM, Melb. City and United Prijovic -Clubs in Eng, Swiss, Sweden ,Poland, Greece & others. Pain - Victory, CCM, United. Now AA if you or anyone else can navigate a "path" for youngsters from that lot you or they have missed their calling. Cheers jb.
Megeng
Roar Rookie
Is it true they charge the kids parents thousands a year?
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i think its as simple as balance of the team. its highly unusual for a side to feature 2 left footed centrebacks in the side, (i actually cant think of a professional side that has that - could be a good google question haha)
Football Fan
Roar Rookie
I think a semi-pro NSD would not be a big enough improvement. The gap will still be significant with the A-League. I know it costs more to run but a pro league has to be the aim for the NSD. I would rather an 8 team pro NSD and expand later rather than a 16 team semi pro league or any UCL style playoff league which will not be much different to the current National NPL comp.
Football Fan
Roar Rookie
Do you know why Timotheou wasn't used against Sydney? I think his performances were ok and significantly better than Barr who needs time to get up to A-League speed.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
bisbane has a proper academy set up from under 13's to the first team, adelaide as an example doesnt have an academy it does differ from state to state - the pool of players is much larger in adelaide, brisbane, perth, wellington as the junior clubs arent aligned to the states a league club. these 4 clubs can go what i like to call 'cherry picking' - they can pick the biggest, most plump, excellent colored, juiciest cherry from the farm without any form of resistance. However NSW with its multiple teams, will see different junior clubs fall in 'catchment areas' for a league clubs - as an example westmead is wanderers territory, while narrara would be mariners territory
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
the cup games are once off don't forget only a few months ago melbourne victory (who were in season) played adelaide city (who had only started pre season training) and got completely dominated by city (coincidentally barr was immense in that match) and could've lost by several goals - city werent clinical and ended up losing 1-0, thats cup football though. the talents there at under age levels throughout australia, its how its nurtured in the early teenage years where issues start to happen. if the australian national teams U12/U14 boys teams played thailand or vietnam, alot of people would be surprised to see how technically superior those 2 small asian sides are in that age group. theyre catching up to our boys and have overtaken them in certain criteria - both countires FA's have invested over 10 millions dollars into there underage programs by comparison australia hasnt even invested a quarter of that into theres......
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
100% in agreeance. QNPL was the best state based NPL league in the country last season, by a long way. i've spoken previously on here about jez lofthouse as i did his initial scouting in his junior days for multiple east coast a league clubs - every single one passed on him. glad that brissy finally took a chance on him, but as you've seen he's struggled with the pace of the game (and hes a quick player himself) - players are much stronger, faster, fitter as you'd expect being a professional. you can't dwardle on the ball in the a league, in the npl you might have a second longer to assess options - decision making has to be faster by default. Mikkola is another one from QNPL that im surprised no a league club has signed yet, he's had admirers each season - but no one has taken a chance yet. he's now moved onto south melbourne (who are a really defensive team) it will be interesting to see how a player with his creativity does in the weaker VNPL with a former giant.
Aiden
Guest
Meant to say NPL
Aiden
Guest
Adelaide Andy could perhaps answer this better, but i think that is how it’s done. The A league clubs with academies grab talented kids around the 13 to 15 year age and then flog them in that environment to get them ready for the higher intensity of the A League. Whereas a talented kid who continues in the NSL pathway can coast along a bit, surrounded at times by less talented players, a less demanding environment.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Trouble is there isnt the Money for a Professional NSD and Semi Pro would at best maybe 5-10% better then NPL's
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I would disagree, the Melbourne Victory of last season under Brebner was a lot easier to score against than NPL teams they could have set a new record but then when Brebner went that stopped. CCM and Roar 2018-2019 were certainly disaster zones as bad as NPL teams. Brisbane Roar in particular were full of experienced players. These teams didnt sack th e When you say the top teams last year, no doubt Melbourne City were much superior to teams this season when they had the right team on the field and used the young subs. Sydney FC however only finished 2 points behind them, , and that was because Kisnorbo at the start of the season chose the wrong team, injuries to some players meant he then won the title. The old players in other teams provided the defensive weakness for Sydney FC to finish in second. This season is managers have gotten rid of a lot of the older players so defenses are better. Old players are the reason A-league teams stopped being compettive in the ACL. You can go to a NPL game and there will be always a couple of players that could be of use at A-league level. The thing you dont know is whether players when they go full time will take to it and train get better and get fitter. Others will use that full time status and leisure time to bad effect.
Tezza
Guest
Andy, I believe the level of skill is the same in a lot of the divisions, the difference is that as you progress higher it is able to be done at a higher speed, Players speed and reactions in the higher division are more developed probably due to the facilities they have available to them. I’ve watched a lot of QLD NPL and there are a lot of very good footballers running around, but when you go and watch an A-League game you can notice the difference in the pace and intensity, thoughts
Megeng
Roar Rookie
How else are our younger players supposed to come up through the ranks? I'd have thought NPL makes sense, but maybe the A league clubs need to sign the talent earlier. They need to train with the best to get better.
Redcap
Roar Guru
I don't support an A-League club (Brisbane Strikers fan), but I've always liked Adelaide for the reasons you've mentioned, especially the crop of youngsters who've come through in recent years.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
all i can say is for adelaide fans and supporters of other a league teams, that new ownership will not make adelaide a giant in the a league the clubs principles will remain the same (develope youth, give local players a chance first) - there will be no 'daniel sturridge' like signing. it is an exciting yet scary time, but the new owners are well aware they are buying the best club in terms of infrastructure outside of the 'big guns' - that each year always makes a profit on a shoe string budget
Redcap
Roar Guru
Wow - any news on incoming players, Andy?
Redcap
Roar Guru
Good point. Plus the players doing the pressing are likely to be a shade quicker, which simultaneously puts your control and passing accuracy/weight under increased pressure.