Brisbane's academy closure a Roaring shame

I understand the point of the list of supposed Roar Academic graduates but Wensel-Halls only played in the Roar Academy for one season (2016). He played 2 years for the Olympic NPL Academy before that and then the Western Pride NPL (Ipswich) Men after the single year at the Roar Academy. He was signed by the Roar from there pretty much straight into their A-League team, not the academy although he did play a few games for the Roar Academy NPL Men’s team before getting a permanent place in their A-League team (2 or 3 games). I’m wondering how many others of the players you named were actually developed by the Roar Academy? DWH was developed by other clubs, except for one season at the Roar Academy.

Academies in England, what like the top 6 sides?!! Funny! They hardly produce any players for their own teams, they only buy players in.

Perharps FQ and FA could take a good hard look at this failing and see it as an opportunity. For too long FA and FQ have ignored the grassroots game in rural and (to a lesser extent) regional Australia. In our country town, some 3 hrs’ drive from Brisbane, we have a six-club competition from U6 through to mens and ladies. We have only one rugby league club. Our town as produced six NRL players and yet no soccer players despite both codes being operational in this relatively same capacity for 100 years. There are NO pathways for our children to develop their game - other than to travel to/board in Brisbane. Surely FA and FQ can develop inter-zone representative competitions on Sundays (say) such that bottom-heavy grassroots towns can support their children to develop their game. Come high school, we lose our talented kids to footy or they lose heart because they have no opportunities (other than one Community Cup per year) to play against people outside their town. Frankly, players and parents are peeved that well over half of their registration fees go to FQ and FA without any perceived benefit other than insurance. None of that money is invested in providing any opportunities to which our children can aspire. Nine million people live in rural and regional Australia. What a massive pool from which to draw talent! It is untapped. But even FQ and Roar - during their peak - ignored those west of the Great Diving Range. One need look no further as to why NRL is so popular in Queensland. I would implore FA and FQ to look at the loss of this metro-centric academy as an opportunity to re-think and engage with our untapped footballing resource. A parallel inter-district competition for talented players on Sundays; traveling academies; regular carnivals where individuals register and random teams are made to play mini carnivals in Brisbane/Cairns/Townsville overseen by A-League teams or state bodies for both talent ID and grassroots engagement for those west of the Great Dividing Range: all of these options and more are feasible. Please give our kids the opportunity to grow; to engage with and love a game currently beyond their reach.

Yes, SA, which is different to Adelaide (which I assumed is the A league club)

WMM -A lot of what you say is 100% correct, I too know that the Rangers academy has changed dramatically over the years, it had to, for with a coaching staff in those early days consisting mainly of ex-players, it took the management a long time to recognise that being a good player did not mean the "chosen one" was a good coach, and it meant in the long run mistakes were made and so the "jobs for the boys" attitude had to change to something much better, in other words get coaches who were good at player assessment and "teaching" in the true sense of the word. Let's be honest most of today's academies at the high end of the game are just another tax write off with precious few players getting to the actual pinnacle of the game, and that my friend is the danger in placing too much faith in "junior coaching" at ALM level, many of whom you suggest may be "running an academy" without knowing what is really involved. We in Australian football have had 3 "curriculums" forced upon us since 1974, (yes 10 years before Rangers developed Milngavie), and yet while in those 46 years it would be nice to say our coaching has improved, many would debate that point very seriously. Cheers again jb

Hi JB, I didn’t mention Hutton, Burke, Fleck and McGregor as that was so long ago when the academy wasn’t operating as it should nor did it have the current expenditure and investment that it currently has. I’ve also been fortunate enough to see Auchenhowie operations close up and it’s impressive. You are 100% correct that no A league club could match that level of investment in their academy but that doesn’t change the fact that the level of Brisbane Roars investment prior to shutting the juniors part of the academy was inadequate on every level. Rangers as I’m sure you are aware also have a seperate company call the RYDC that raise funds to help with academy costs as well as contributions from their pools. I guess the point I’m trying to make, and Apologies as I’m not as articulate as you my friend, is to develop professional footballers in the modern game, the game needs academies, yes Rangers might not produce 1st team players, but they’ll produce first team players for other clubs, as wil Celtic, Barcelona, Real Madrid Chelsea etc, all these academies are part of the football ecosystem. What the Roar have done is removed themselves from the ecosystem at junior level based on the fact, which has been stated by myself and others, is because they’re skint plain and simple and it’s time the Barkeries were removed…..no amount of wordsmithing or clever statements from the club can hide it. The truth of the matter is they weren’t doing it very well anyway, because most of the more talented players were doing additional training elsewhere anyway, so as Waz pointed out, as things currently stand in QLD it won’t have a great impact on the limited development that is currently taking place there atm. But until there is greater investment in youth development across the entire country, and we bring in experts to educate what a modern professional environment looks like, we will continue watch our best you players leave at an early age and prehaps even loose them to other national teams of the passports they hold

WMM - It was never my intention to belittle the Rangers FC academy simply to describe the cost and operation of such an organisation. After all there is no rule in Scottish football (as there is in the a-league) that forbids the sale of young players and in operation of that rule Rangers FC have roped in around $60 million . for the sale of 17 players over the 40 years the "academy" has been in operation. I mentioned a few, McGregor, Hutton, Burke and Fleck all of whom had long careers in English football. Your nominees are mostly from the present day. What also has to be considered is the costs in running such an academy. The staff listed at the club's website number around 70 bodies so can you start to calculate the wage bill, and that does not include their scouting systems positioned all around the UK. With all due respect to Australian football there is not a club in the ALM that could meet these expenditures. Cheers jb.

not at all, thanks. I used advanced as in their plans are very advanced. They've been working on reshaping the organisation for a couple of years. By no means do I think any academy in Australia is advanced, and the FQ Academy is completely different to the normal use of the term - it's an organisation, not a club. Insofar as the model put up by FA, the FQ one that is the most advanced, as I understand it. I do have a slight insight to the UK system through a friend of one of my kids, whose kid (15) is on scholarship at a club academy. We don't compare, I know that.

Look, I didn’t put a lot of effort in to that list but the original comment was so far off the mark - Adelaide, CCM & Roar are the three most prolific generators of youth players (mainly out of necessity to be fair). That wont change now, QLD will push young talent through the FQ Academy system, Roar will pick them up and develop them, Victory will sign them and stall their development. Nothing has changed. Just a name.

He came through SA NTC that’s a system….

JB, King, Lowry, Devine, Mcann all Youth academy products of Rangers and all currently getting minutes for first team. Leon King in particular is 18 and playing champions league football. Nathan Patterson another academy graduate was sold to Everton for £16m pounds last season and prior to his injury for Scotland was a first team starter for Lampard. Then there’s Billy Gilmour another, so I think you can look at it any perspective based on the narratives one is trying to convey

Couple of typos adult, replaced with audit and are replaced with aren’t …..sorry

Lionheart, please stop using terms like very advanced in the same sentence as football academies in Australia, like SS, I’ve also seen academies in operation in the UK, we are so far from advanced it’s not funny. You are a good loyal fan, every football club needs them, but just because FBQ put a statement up regarding adults etc doesn’t mean they’re advanced. The fact is very few TD’s, coaches or administrators in Australia have had played at, or had exposure to what an advanced modern professional environment actually looks like, so how can they be expected to produce professional players ? And the ones who have had that exposure are listened to by the people who think they no more. Truth is if we want another golden generation, the kids with talent who have passports for other countries have to do what what the golden generation did before them, and that’s get overseas as early as possible. Australia has the talent but from the age of 16, which is the age you sign pro in Europe/UK the contact hours increase dramatically. They begin training, 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 50+ games a year in an ADVANCED environment, and then gap between them and us gets big rapidly.

Brisbane Market is to big to fail the Roar arnt going anywhere unless the league adds a 2nd Brisbane team to replace them

Adelaide don't have a system

In fairness Waz, Jay Barnett wasn’t a product of the Roar system, he was signed by Drew Sherman a few months after the academy opened….I believe he came through Adelaide’s system prior to going to the FFA CoE

Hey, same at Roar - what do you want, violins to go with your tears :laughing:

Well, there’s a couple Lionheart. But I agree with your assessment - The Bakries aren’t going anywhere (unless they’re pushed).

it's not happening Waz Bakries aren't leaving there is no white knight out there waiting to pour $millions into Queensland football as fans seem to think

so you'll include other clubs with no junior academy in that