National Junior Championships - Under 13 Girls and Boys - Who is doing the Assessment?

The following press release has been issued by the FFA. Han Berger makes it perfectly clear what he is looking for and the composition of the FFA Technical Committee for the 2010 Westfield FFA National Junior Championships for Girls and Boys is listed.  This is a must see tournament - make time to get see a game.

"FFA Technical Director Han Berger believes that the championships are an important part of the Talented Player Pathway within the National Football Curriculum.
“If we want to take our football in Australia to the next level, our youth development programs should focus more on development instead of results,” Berger said on the eve of the tournament.
“We are now looking for the skilful instead of the powerful, with mistakes being learning moments instead of being punished.
“We need to encourage individual play, initiative and risk taking."
FFA Media Release: 2010 Westfield FFA National Junior Championships for Girls and 2010 FFA National Junior Championships for Boys kick-off in Canberra this week


Canberra
4 April 2010

Australia’s top junior footballers will descend on Canberra this week for the 2010 Westfield FFA National Junior Championships for Girls (5-7 April) and 2010 FFA National Junior Championships for Boys (8-10 April).

348 Under 13 representative players from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern NSW, Northern Territory Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia will have their first taste of national competition at the O’Connor Football Fields.

FFA Technical Director Han Berger believes that the championships are an important part of the Talented Player Pathway within the National Football Curriculum.

“If we want to take our football in Australia to the next level, our youth development programs should focus more on development instead of results,” Berger said on the eve of the tournament.

“We are now looking for the skilful instead of the powerful, with mistakes being learning moments instead of being punished.

“We need to encourage individual play, initiative and risk taking.

“With these principles in mind, we have added a number of innovations to assess how the various teams have adopted the new National Football Curriculum that we began implementing last year.

“These innovations were successfully trialled at the recent 2010 FFA State Institutes Challenge and will also be used at the National Youth Championships later in the year,” concluded Berger.

Among the innovations to be used at the Championships are that the teams are placed into groups of similar ability (based on performances from previous championships) to ensure that fixtures are evenly matched and competitive. There will be promotion and relegation from these two groups from year to year from now onwards.

The tournament matches will consist of two (2) equal periods of twenty (20) minutes, and teams will play two (2) matches a day over three (3) days. Teams must also use all of their 16 players during the tournament, with all players having to play at least half of the team’s total playing time.

Although teams will still gain points in the traditional manner for wins and draws, an FFA Technical Committee will also assess the technical performance of each team during the tournament and will award an extra five (5), three (3) or one (1) bonus point(s) based on the manner in which the teams played throughout the week and in relation to their adoption of the principles of the National Football Curriculum.

Another innovation for the competition will be the selection of an “All-Star” team for each group which will play the team that finishes at the top of each group on the final day of the tournament. The selection of players in the “All-Star” team will be also be done by the FFA Technical Committee. The coach of the team that receives the maximum number of bonus points will be appointed the coach of the “All-Star” team for that match. Individual awards will also be presented to outstanding players within positional groups at the end of the tournament.

This second edition of the tournament will also be used as part of the selection process for the Under 13 Girls and Boys national teams who will participate at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Festival of Football (ASEAN) tournaments which will be held from 24 May to 6 June 2010 in Sabah, Malaysia for the Under 13 Boys and 20 June to 3 July in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for the Under 13 Girls.

Newly appointed Westfield Australian Under 13 Girls Football Team Head Coach Nicola Williams will be a member of FFA Technical Committee for the 2010 Westfield FFA National Junior Championships for Girls along with Tom Sermanni (Westfield Matildas coach), Robbie Hooker (Westfield Matildas Assistant Coach), Paul Jones (Westfield Matildas Goalkeeper Coach), Mike Milovanovic (ACT Academy of Sport Head Coach) and Spencer Prior (Former English Premier League Player).

Qantas Australian Under 13 Boys Football Team Head Coach Ante Juric will join the FFA Technical Committee for the 2010 FFA National Junior Championships for Boys alongside Han Berger (FFA National Technical Director), Gary van Egmond (AIS Senior Assistant Coach) , Arthur Pappas (AIS Scholarship Coach), Ron Corry (AIS Goalkeeper Coach), Mike Milovanovic (ACT Academy of Sport Head Coach) and Paul Bentvelzen (Football NSW High Performance Manager) .

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