The NYC for this age group will be held in the ACT. It was held at O'Connor fields last year for this age group - lets hope it's the AIS as for the recent NTC Challenge. If you managed to get to this event last year you would know what terrific football is ahead. Changes trialled at the NTC Challenge will be employed in the NYC - see comments below.
This year the Under 13 Girls age group has been introduced and good thing too! The NPL understands that an inaugral Australian U13 Girls team will be selected. We have players in this age group who are likely to be contenders for the squad. If the U12 Girls National Futsal Championships in January 2010 is anything to go by, this age group is highly competitive across the States and Territories.
The ACT Team are selected and in training. They are very well coached by the highly regarded Junior Coach (Woden Valley SC) Colin Johnstone.
The squad comprises the following players:
- Hayley Armstrong
- Emma Bestek
- Freya Brent
- Brigette Calabria
- Caitlin Cantrill
- Julia De Angelis
- Jessica Giovinazzo
- Mikaela Goldstein
- Hiwot Johnstone
- Ruth Kravis
- Melissa Leary
- Edwina Nelson
- Siena Senatore
- Madelyn Whittall
- Phoebe Worth
- Georgina Worth
- Clea Porteous Borthwick (standby)
- Hollie Massey (standby).
Roving NPL reporter Simon Kravis (who is also the father of one of the players) sent the following to the NPL following the team's preparation games in a region torunament in Bathurst:
The Proctor Park Challenge Ladies Football tournament was held on Bathurst on the 28th and 29th of February. 31 junior girls teams in Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 age groups took part, including an ACT Under 13 squad fielded by Capital Football as part part of preparation for the national U13 girls competition to be held in Canberra after Easter. All the other teams came from NSW, with many clubs and regions competing in all age groups, and the standard of play was generally very high. The ACT Under 13s performed well, coming 2nd in their group of 6 teams and holding the U14 age group winners, the Macarthur Rams, to a 1-1 draw. Their short passing, strategic style was sometimes overwhelmed by older, taller and faster players but they maintained their style against strong and sometimes very physical opposition.
Proctor Park was close to the centre of Bathurst and provided an excellent venue with 6 well levelled fields in good condition in a compact space. Very reasonably priced bunkhouse style accommodation was available some way out of town, as well as a range of motels and guest houses closer by.
The "Technical" Connection
Another matter of importance- if you think these Nationals are all about "winning" then think again! The recent NTC Challenge trialled a new format. The teams will be assessed (as are the coaches) for technical merit each game; that is to say, how well are they demonstrating the preferred playing system and style required of the new National Curriculum. In an important sense, this is also a technical judgement which reflects directly upon the quality of our Football HPP. Points are awarded to teams for their technical proficiency, without regard to the result of the game.
There is considerable room for improvement by the FFA on this new and highly commendable innovation.
At the NTC Challenge, the information provided to spectators and other coaches / team officials (including coaches who went to the tournament to be become educated by practicial example) on the preformance of every team , per game, was non existant.
Communication of this crucial aspect of performance was commincated to the "great unwashed on the sidelines" by medium of whiteboard, leaning against the Men's toilet. All class lads!!
However, this information listed only covered the three top teams at that specific time in the tournament. No information on how the scores had been accumulated or for what and absolutely nothing on the teams that were not in the first three places.
For those that watched and gave considerable attention to the technical performance of the teams, as best they understood the FFA's intentions, no effort was made to provide information then or later. No doubt Coaches of the teams got debreifed, but how does that help all the rest of us? There are no secrets here - surely.
The FFA simply must provide this detail by team by game in a timely manner, if we all are to understand what we are seeing. They would have to do it anyway in order to arrive at decisions and points. The really disappointing aspect with regard to the implementation of this element of assessment was that no points were really added to each team (other than win/loss/draw) unitl all game had been played, all technical scores accumulated, then a small bonus points adjustment made at the end and added to win/draw/loss scores for each team. Some wil say that this decided the overall winner between the ACT and SASI at the NTC Challenge, but the truth was obvious to many - if the technical scores had accumulated each game, ACt would have been no threat at all to SASI.
So why not take the importance of technical assessment scores a bit further? In fact, take it a good deal further - give points on a game by game basis for the technical score and have it match the win/loss/draw scores each game - then we would have something that makes a real difference to outcomes. The FFA's first attempt was too conservative. No sense in being hesitant, there's too much invested and we must make progress quickly and in the right direction. And to the FFA - do it with a bit of style!!!
On the plus side, the dialogue on the sideline at the NTC Challenge was much more focussed on the "way teams played", which was just terrific. Win or loss was still important, but the focus had shifted. That must happen at the National Youth Championships if the new national curriculum is take hold.
There is considerable room for improvement by the FFA on this new and highly commendable innovation.
At the NTC Challenge, the information provided to spectators and other coaches / team officials (including coaches who went to the tournament to be become educated by practicial example) on the preformance of every team , per game, was non existant.
Communication of this crucial aspect of performance was commincated to the "great unwashed on the sidelines" by medium of whiteboard, leaning against the Men's toilet. All class lads!!
However, this information listed only covered the three top teams at that specific time in the tournament. No information on how the scores had been accumulated or for what and absolutely nothing on the teams that were not in the first three places.
For those that watched and gave considerable attention to the technical performance of the teams, as best they understood the FFA's intentions, no effort was made to provide information then or later. No doubt Coaches of the teams got debreifed, but how does that help all the rest of us? There are no secrets here - surely.
The FFA simply must provide this detail by team by game in a timely manner, if we all are to understand what we are seeing. They would have to do it anyway in order to arrive at decisions and points. The really disappointing aspect with regard to the implementation of this element of assessment was that no points were really added to each team (other than win/loss/draw) unitl all game had been played, all technical scores accumulated, then a small bonus points adjustment made at the end and added to win/draw/loss scores for each team. Some wil say that this decided the overall winner between the ACT and SASI at the NTC Challenge, but the truth was obvious to many - if the technical scores had accumulated each game, ACt would have been no threat at all to SASI.
So why not take the importance of technical assessment scores a bit further? In fact, take it a good deal further - give points on a game by game basis for the technical score and have it match the win/loss/draw scores each game - then we would have something that makes a real difference to outcomes. The FFA's first attempt was too conservative. No sense in being hesitant, there's too much invested and we must make progress quickly and in the right direction. And to the FFA - do it with a bit of style!!!
On the plus side, the dialogue on the sideline at the NTC Challenge was much more focussed on the "way teams played", which was just terrific. Win or loss was still important, but the focus had shifted. That must happen at the National Youth Championships if the new national curriculum is take hold.
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