Does the A-League do enough to nurture creative players?

Peace out Chris

Why Tufanooo? How do you come up with these new titles? Grand Panjandrum was pretty fancy. GP was simple, as was Nick. Ed Flanders was different and now Tufanooo? Anyway, peace out Tufanooo!

You’re right - the pest is back again. He doesn’t like the league so why does he keep coming back. Have you ever needed to change your title? GP, Grand Panjandrum, Nick, Ed Flanders and now Tufanoo. When will he settle on his most appropriate title - d1ckhed

It depends if you view success as a bunch of old men watching Fox sports?

These same people that call them stars, superstars, megastars even, immortals! are the same people that rubbish the A League and talk of poor standard blah blah blah. Even though there are 8 times the number of players to choose from in football. All the megastars come from a few suburbs in Sydney and Brissie and a few Pacific Islands. A true freak of nature as to how this is so.

"I’d say fragementation of sports broadcasting is really hitting the A-League hard." Absolutely. I could never understand the cheering from ALeague fans when Fox dump the broadcast rights. The single best thing that ever happened to the ALeague was having it on FoxSports. You want to be on the main platform. End of story.

Leon - the heading to this article uses a word that most deep pundits of the game would start to question, I cite the use of the word "creative". Unfortunately creative players are not actually born, or for that matter, nor are they made "creative" by some form of coaching, but to use another word, as they "develop" as players some inner talent emerges, that being the ability to see the game in a manner others don't. So how does one describe the word "creative" when it is used to describe a player, no matter what level he is playing at or, for that matter, playing in a position with expected talents. The ability to see things others don't is usually found in midfielders and it is their ability to see opportunities that others don't that sees them moved into the busiest part of the field that being the middle third where most of the action takes place. Can Australia produce creative players? This is a question that could cause much discussion but the evidence is there for if one cares to look over the past 10/20 years the numbers are not overwhelming. Think for a minute or two before answering that query. Viduca was a centre forward, Kewell a winger, Grella a workhorse defensive midfielder, I could go on but no Franz Beckenbaur, Martin Peters, Bob Charlton, or a host of Brazilian midfielders jump to mind. So can we create a truly "creative" player here in Australia???.The vital learning period has to be between ages 12 to 15 and for years now pundits of the game have been expressing their disappointment in the coaching activity in that age group. Creativity has to be developed among out standing youngsters who are encouraged to do their own thing not to follow those instructions being issued by a well- meaning coach who is trying to improve his own standing in the game. jb

Yes very true CC. The A League has a lot of competition from overseas leagues. The actual match day attendances for A League is actually quite good. Apart from a few sides, a lot of the teams have gate averages of anywhere between 7-15k. If you took out all the leagues globally and people only had the A League, TV ratings would be way higher.

:laughing:

its the hope that kills you, and thats part of the problem with australian football. doesnt matter if its kewell, arzani, irakunda etc, there are multiple players in each group in europe with similar stats people forget it's also much cheaper for a european club to develope thier own players then bring across an australian (having to pay a transfer fee to the club, trainings fees, flights, accomodation etc etc) add to that alot of the australian kids arent used to the training methods, weather or language when they go to these countries - they're already on the backfoot as soon as they step off the planet irakunda may break the mould as you do not get that many australians with that level of power, strength, acceleration, dead ball expertise and the ability to strike a moving ball with such ferocity but then again he has his own demons to overcome, that a lot of australian players before him didnt have. the main thing going for him, is that he is wanted by the coach at Bayern II - alot of boys before him going to europe have rarely had that level of support before getting there. lets see what happens

No, this was a dig at GP, Grand Panjandrum, Nick, Ed Flanders and possibly now a new name!

Star if they play, superstar if they’re very good at it, legend if they’ve been good for a while and an immortal if they were very good and have retired!

its important that any young player has a say in the club he goes to, but that is incredibly difficult when a lot of agents are alligned to certain clubs. I know a lot of the bigger agents in australia quite well and quite a few of them get additional payments for having there clients go to certain leagues or countries (and then they pocket another fee when they go out on loan to a different team or a different club) agents in general is a very murky world and its important that all these young teenagers that we have constantly going to europe each year have one that puts thier clients interests above the financial side of it. its also critical that the players skillset matches up with a country/league that benefits them. g koul was never going to do well in the UK (england/scotland) - his playing style is not suited to those leagues

Superstar NRL player, star AFL player etc..etc..etc... they use that term all the time. It's hilarious. Every person that plays in either of those competitions is a "star".

milusenic for halloran makes 100% sense - both off contract and both want to return home

No not you...Nick/Grand Pajamas/Tuffnose - he likes to change his name.

This is the funny thing though. I would argue that the way the law is worded, applying it absolutely revolves around intent. Keeping in mind that the underlining context of the law and the card system is to keep the players safe. It used to be that Studs up was a red. That was very black and white, no intent or context needed, whereas now the ref has to decide the level of the challenge. Law 12 says “If an offence involves contact, it is penalised by a direct free kick. Careless is when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is needed. Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned. Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off.” This takes the black and white out of the decision and forces the ref to decided what is Careless (foul) reckless (yellow) or excessive force (red). The Challenge was definitely Reckless as he acted with disregard to the safety of the player. Not sure it was excessive force, however, the law says “endangers the safety of the player”. There is no doubt that had Mileusnic’s weight been going a slightly different direction, that challenge was an ankle breaker.

An excellent comment. One comment on players like Kuol etc warming the bench/Newcastle's commitment to the player - I'd say almost no committment. Kuol is just another in a large list of talents that big clubs can afford to pick up and discard if not wanted anymore. There's nothing any more special about him than other players - if he's good enough he'll play. Lewis Miley is there playing at 17. We also need to not be disappointed when players don't succeed; I.e. the McLarens, Tilios etc. They're going over to a football obsessed land from one that treats it as a second rate sport. Highly unlikely we are going to develop a heap of players than can survive that world and to me, that's ok.

Assuming this is a dig at me but I am not sure why...

Not sure we want him back up here.