Apologise for this long post. But for now, stay with it and work through the detail. Its a tricky subject.
Where do our better ACT Junior Players go to, when do they go, for how long, who do they play for during the normal football season and do they get to play for their Club and if so when?
The more we talk of developing the talented player, the more it seems we fail to ask these questions and if we do, we seem to be much less certain of the outcomes for Clubs and community based football.
The talented player focus which seems to have beset us seems to owe more the the gold rush days than to good balanced strategic decision making.
Where's the balance? Who's being developed and who is not?
there are a lot of forces at work in football now and more reason to think carefully about what is best for the ACT Region.
Here's an example on the table right now for all the PL Clubs - use all options to develop talented 15 year olds (away from Clubs), or, give playing in season a priority to Pl U16? Go to ur podcast this week with CEo Capital Football to listen to the competing interests, all of which seem to take away from PL clubs and undermine the Premier League structure at the PL16 level (which in turn impacts on PL18's)
In this brave new world of national curriculum based player development, with a focus on high technical development and "develop" not "win", we face some important development issues of our own in the ACT Region. We have become dangerously fascinated by the false god of the "talented player" development stream contained in the new curriculum - forgetting that there is another stream - the community based football stream. Community football is Club football and it doesn't come second it comes first and it is the first place, not the last to focus on talented player development.
The options created or accumulated around the talented player abstraction are as dazzling as they are so often lacking in substance. We seem to flutter from one thing to another, but at what cost and what benefit? Are we incapable of thinking this through in the ACT for ourselves - developing players and the game in our region at the same time and in partnership with our Clubs? Doesn't look like it at the moment. You just can't keep implementing "develop" by means of taking players away from clubs, for the sake of slavishly implementing a doctrine put down by the FFA. The FFA may be focussed on the next Socceroo, but it should mean less than it does by comparison to strong community football here in the ACT.
Consider some of the options and influences in play right now; the universal introduction in each State and Territory of a Football High Performance Program under the direct influence of the FFA National Technical Director,the use of HPP Playing Squads in the ACT at Capital Football, Capital Football makes itslef a Club to compete in the very competition(s) it is meant to develop, then joined / overlapped by the further development of some players at the State and territory National Training centres (eg ACTAS), attendance of NTC's at the NTC Challenge, identification of State and Territory playing squads for Junior players by age group to compete at the FFA's NAtional Youth Challenge, Sports Australia National Championships to name a few of the obvious ones. And so it goes. And we run around all these options here in the ACT, constantly picking away at a small parcel of players, with seemingly little concern for how this impacts on our Clubs or the impact on the development of community football.
We need less numbers of options, and instead, limited high quality options that work at all levels for the development of players and Clubs. We are at presnt "an inch thin and mile wide"! This way doesn't work, it just looks pretty! Do we want it good or pretty!
Questions for you.
1 When among all these competing and overlapping options, which continually harvest our best from our Clubs for protracted periods of time, do you think they come back to their Club, any Club, to play with their mates, at age or level and contribute to the general development of the game at the grassroots community level?
2. How do they socialise, develop and gain endearing community based affection for the beautiful game, which can only be found through Club, a vital consideration which as they get older and have other options to hand outside football, sees them stay with the game and just play for the love of it and help develop others ???
3. Do we really have a "High performance Program" here in the ACT at Capital Football? (would someone care to define the term high performance program so that we may know precisely what it contains)
How about this - once they go and get on the football elitest path (call it by any clever name you want) they don't see a club again for many years. Maybe not till they are 18 year of age. There is good chance they walk away from the sport. The second question - nothing comes close to a good football Club and development programs are not Clubs and nor should they be. And the answer to the third question - no, we don't seem to have a high performacne program and I can say that because neither Capital Football nor the FFA have told us what is meant by the term and what is contained therein (periodised programs for the year, detailed curriculum to examine, what other related development inputs such as other core training, sports psychologist etc) - not there yet and it should be. I reckon a number of Clubs and Club coaches could claim to do just as good a job at Club, if we are take what is being deliverd now as the starting point.
Talented player programs in organisations remote from Clubs cannot do what clubs do for the game, but clubs can do the development of players if supported, trusted and developed. So where is our effort best placed in order to develop the game and talent? Surely not on a minority of players? It's a no brainer - Clubs!
We risk the young player departing the game because the development program stops. They sometimes think the journey in football has ended because they have nothing else outside the limited sphere of the development program. What a unforgivable societal and sporting waste!
We have lost our way and there is only one way back - Clubs, and a rationalisation is necessary of our current "development options" and it must at least see the return of players to Clubs for their ordinary playing in season.
The one talented player initiaitve in the ACT which makes a contribution in this context is the John Mitchell coached, ANU, Under 20 Elite program which plays in our Premier League. A productive amalgamtaion of football interests. We should pay careful attention to this example. Other Clubs are well place to the same thing and some have demosntrated player development capaibilities.
How does this top down talented footballer development smorgasboard help football? Its a question we should take a real good look at. It must be possible to develop all our players and our better players without losing the enduring connection to Club football.
This concern is at the heart of meeting next week between the ACT Clubs and Chairs of the Capital Football Standing Committees, and, the Capital Football Board.
I wonder if the one justification used by the Capital Footabll Board members who are runoured to have advocated and carried the day on the decision to continue playing squads, was that they did not believe their was a suitble capability among coaches at Club level. What an insult if true and what have they done to make it better and transfer the responsibility to Clubs? Any arguement of this sort carelssly dismisses the progress made in coach education, game development at the operating level and does little to encourgae Clubs to do more. Its the sort of myopic arguement that holds the game back - forever! So ask the question.
Get stuck in!
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