The "Message" may be getting through - but to how many and how soon?

Source from Youtube and SBS World Game websites.


There is no doubt that the FFA National Football Curriculum is having a positive effect on the development of young players. In many ways, the best thing that has happened to Football in decades. The driving force is to produce more of the best at the elite level. Now to do that, there must  be a serious cultural shift in the way we coach, train and play the game. This is big change. A change that will take a generation or two. Not something you can start and fail to pursue diligently over time.

The development process, in its widest context (not just COE players) in the ACT region is very patchy. That's to be expected this early in the change process. Expected, not accepted!

The primary focus of Capital Football has been directed toward those young players selected in what was the High Performance program and is now the Centre of Excellence. The reason for that is simple - there is a serious playing / competitive obligation to the FFA, in so far as Capital Football must prepare and campaign boys and girls age teams at the FFA National Youth Championships (NYC) each year. All part of the "big plan" you might say.

Now this is what the Northern NSW Football Technical Director (David Smith) had to say about the recent NYC (very good use of social media by this organisation):



The harsh reality of the FFA's National Curriculum is that the greatest burden is shouldered by Clubs, our Junior Clubs. The Junior Clubs in particular, must pick up all of the rest of the FFA player development ambitions. Capital Football supplement the process with Centre of Development training, but in order to improve the overall technical capabilities of young players, to make a real difference, then Junior Clubs must be at the forefront of this change. The Junior Clubs are very aware of the magnitude of the task in front of them. That's where the FFA and Capital Football's efforts must be directed. Not just to the small number of players who make it through to the elite programs. But that's not the way it is.

Take our own region as an example. It's probably no good blaming the Capital Football Technical Director - his job is to get the elite player development process working from his level in order to meet obligations to the FFA through the NYC playing obligations. There is a lot of work involved in this process, from one year to the next. It seems to me that this doesn't leave a lone hand Technical Director (and a part time Skills Acquisition Coach) much time to do anything else of an equally substantial level with our Junior Clubs. So, much as before, we have a process that is very much still in two parts - Capital Football and Clubs. In this respect, I am not sure we have made much progress since the former High Performance program and the Ron Smith review of this subject. Seems to me we are moving back to the Capital Football Academy playing squad days. Opinions are certainly divided on that matter, particularly at the Clubs.

So who helps the Junior Clubs? The answer is they help themselves, just as they always have done, through their army of parents, volunteers and coaches. No one gets paid. They get nothing back form the FFA and they financially underpin Capital Football through their registration fees and other payments. Capital Football provides the administrative / operational structure that enables the Clubs to operate at all  community levels. That is substantial for a sport in Canberra which boosts more than most of the rest of the sports rolled up together, and much more than any single sports, summer or winter, a total of approx 18,000 football players and 6,000 futsal players.

The vast majority of our young Football players train. play, gain their technical and tactical competencies and have fun, develop their passion for the game, through their Junior Club. The talented players emerge at different times. We get more of them if the general football playing environment is improved, this is not news to anyone. These Junior Football Clubs are the real Football engine, the real Football powerhouse in the ACT region (and anywhere else in Australia).

And why the Junior Clubs? Well. its obvious isn't it. That's the place we all take our children to start to play the game. They do everything. This is the strategic point for the FFA and in particular, Capital Football, to intervene in a positive and productive fashion. The Junior CLubs are a part of the process, not apart from it.

With that in mind, the first critical shortfalls in implementation of the FFA's new direction appeared very quickly and still stand:

1. Insufficient coaches qualified and learned in the technical and tactical requirements of the curriculum (and subsequently 1-4-3-3), and
2. A paucity of coaching resources (teaching and learning materials)to underpin the "curriculum". that coaches and Clubs could call upon to make effective progress with those they coach (at every level). 

The first shortfall, coach education, has been attacked with some vigour by the FFA and Capital Football have made a productive impact, with many people moving through coaching courses (by comparison to past years). Junior Clubs usually appoint something akin to a Technical Director, but they receive precious little assistance to undertake their important work. Again that divide!

The second shortfall remains a serious, glaring deficiency. To be frank, to call it a "curriculum" is just a bit thin. This would simply not satisfy any teacher in our schools. There is nothing to work with at the community Club coach level! The entire FFA development strategy was released without the underpinning resources to support the document titled "Curriculum" and so very necessary to  enable effective coaching at community level. Its still that way. This is the one area where the FFA should give resources and effort. And get educational specialists (curriculum development) to do the work, with the football subject matter experts providing the technical / tactical information. Some member federations identified this shortfall early and got about creating these resources to support their programs and coaches. But why are we all doing it from scratch. Madness!

If I were to ask Capital Football to publish the current COE periodised program and supporting coaching resources, what response wold I get? A good one I hope. We need to share this knowledge. What has been done to obtain and publish good coaching resources from other sources?

Where the FFA has created good coaching resources it should publish the lot, no charge to anyone, so that every coach and every Club can get hold of it and use it. I'm talking about a substantial online coaching resource available to our football community. You may recall that the FFA trumpeted the solution S2S as the means by which this would be achieved. Of course we had to pay. I wonder how many Clubs anywhere, but in particular in the ACT are using this product or some other like it? What is the COE and COD programs using?

I don't expect Capital Football to shoulder this vital resource issue alone (although I think we should be able to view every session practice used in the COE and COD age programs), but wouldn't it be good if we took the initiative, collaborated with other member federations and created something of enduring value to our football community? One thing is certain at this time - the FFA isn't doing it! (please don't tell me the resources are with the coaching courses - if they were not it would negligent. But why not simply make all available right now to anyone, on a coaching course or not ?)

The video below is good to watch. So much to talk about on this matter. This journey had just begun.





Craig Foster recently commented on the sort of play you see in the video above. He makes some good points.  Have a read of his article, its well worth it:

About the All Stars U14 Boys team at the NYC 2011 (attributed to National Assistant Technical Director, Alistair Edwards):

"Through learning football in a system, which has an easily definable style of play, positional roles and the application of space and movements, the best youngsters were able to come together as a team and very quickly play together to a high level, because they each knew their specific role and that of those around them."

About the uptake of the changes implicit in the National Football Curriculum, Foster observes:

"From my recent experience around the country, we are now well beyond the initial cultural change process and every educator and coach is hungry for information to improve.

The real challenge, however, is that while many have recognised and accepted the need for change and are now seeking to play the 1-4-3-3, the actual deeper detail about the movements and timings within are yet to disseminate satisfactorily and remains an issue of coach education and information availability."

Craig Foster's article is below, please read.

The message is getting through

• 127Comments

21 Oct 2011 | 00:00

A question to begin with: Shall we assume that with the ongoing success of Brisbane Roar playing the 1-4-3-3 system – with particular emphasis on the word ‘system’ with the automatic movement patterns inherent in the formation proving a handful for other A-League teams – that the issue regarding Australia’s youth teams adopting the 1-4-3-3 as part of the National Curriculum is at an end?

With most things in life, we all need concrete evidence before our eyes to both understand and thereafter believe in the efficacy of something and, aside from the system’s ubiquity across the world at all levels of the game and the inherent principles that are logical and effective, the record run of Roar is the perfect tonic at the ideal time for the implementation of the National Curriculum across the grass roots.

The question then becomes whether the message is actually filtering down to the youth game, where the National Curriculum is to take effect?

I believe it is. Let me share a couple of anecdotes.

Last week I received an email from a mother who had, apparently, previously written several years ago. Her son, aged 11 at the time and of diminutive build, had excellent technique but was being overlooked for representative teams. The disappointed mother was seeking guidance.

Be patient, continue to work with good educators on his technique and particularly his insight, on becoming a ‘footballer’ rather than merely a skilled individual, and the game will come to him, was my advice. 

Change is happening quickly and Australia is moving towards a technical style where physicality and size no longer have the value they once did. In short, I told her, we are moving from ‘fightball’ to ‘football’.

The purpose of her latest email was to say that her son had been selected for a representative team that played recently in the National Championships, that his ability was now so prized that his size had ceased to be an issue, and to let me know that she can indeed see change under way.

I was delighted to receive the correspondence, because it indicated that progress is occurring lower down the game, where it is sorely needed.

Looking for further confirmation, I canvassed a number of educators from the recent Under 13 and 14 Nationals, as well as National Assistant Technical Director, Alistair Edwards, who oversaw the technical group at the tournaments and found almost universal praise for the style and level of play.

"There has been a complete transformation in playing style in just the last two years," was how Alistair described the situation.

"As every State is now at least trying to play football and are focused on playing the 1-4-3-3 as the educators are under pressure to do so, knowing that nothing less will suffice."

Additionally, I am told that the All Star team of the Tournament in both age groups had a far higher number of small, technical players who are now quickly becoming highly valued.

Through learning football in a system, which has an easily definable style of play, positional roles and the application of space and movements, the best youngsters were able to come together as a team and very quickly play together to a high level, because they each knew their specific role and that of those around them.

“If you saw the All Star teams play, you would have had a lump in the throat’, Edwards said.

"These boys all had sound technique, there were a couple of really exciting prospects among them, and they played beautifully as though they’d been together for years."

In return, I relayed an anecdote about a recent visit to a youth tournament run by former Socceroos striker Scott Ollerenshaw in Malaysia, at which I was thrilled to see a youth team of Marconi playing the 1-4-3-3, which was light years from some of the disgraceful ‘kick and rush’ I’ve seen from the youth game in recent years.

There was work to do on some of the mechanisms of playing out and in attack and it would have been good to see a higher focus on possession of the ball, but the basis and basics were present and this at club level rather than representative, a further step down the game. Extremely encouraging.

From my recent experience around the country, we are now well beyond the initial cultural change process and every educator and coach is hungry for information to improve.

The real challenge, however, is that while many have recognised and accepted the need for change and are now seeking to play the 1-4-3-3, the actual deeper detail about the movements and timings within are yet to disseminate satisfactorily and remains an issue of coach education and information availability.

Nevertheless, the evidence is that the message is getting through, real progress is being made, and Australia is increasingly, whether at HAL or youth level, learning to truly coach and play football.

Amen to that.