Capital Football intend to charge the ACT "Football Family" an entry fee to attend the Mens and Womens Grand Finals.
The Capital Football website advises:
ADMISSIONAdults:
$8 Concessions:
$5 Under-12:FREE Souvenir Match Program: $2
This really does take the biscuit!
And what do you get for your entry fee, aside from the Football games you planned to watch anyway at either Hawker enclosed or Deakin Stadium, that you didn't get at any other Premier League game at either location, including the semi finals? Answer - bugger all!
What genius thought of this little "financial touch up" on those of us that go to Mens and Womens Premier League throughout the season? It's not as though they will make a big dollar at gate, so why impose this little cost on supporters and families.
The Premier League Clubs haven't charged a cent this season for entry to their venues for the Premier League games, so why does Capital Football feel it needs to slip its hand into the "football family" pocket? "Football Family", strewth, with relatives like this, hmmmm!
Charge for the program, well I guess so - no, hang on a minute, the Premier League Clubs are required to put a program out for every game (don't always do it) and they don't charge the public, just hand them out or pick one up at the canteen.
These are Capital Football run events, so why don't they just follow the example set by the Premier League Clubs, who have generously provided programs for the spectators throughout the season. Print them, put them at the entry points and let spectators take them if they want one. Free of bloody charge!
Capital Football should not try to make a quid out of the "Football Family" come grand final time. This is not necessary and nor is it good public relations. Must be some sort of precursor to the carbon tax!
Now this is a good start to the Canberra United season!
Canberra United trials and training – commencing Monday 19 September,
6.00pm at Hawker Football Centre
Interested players can now seek to be part of Canberra United through a
training and trial process over the next three weeks. Training will start on
Monday 19 September, 6.00-7.30pm at Hawker Football Centre, Walhallow Street in
Hawker. If you are a new player, please introduce yourself to the assistant
coach, Nik Damjanovski before 6.00pm at Hawker FC.
Monday 19 September – training and trials commence
under guidance of Nik and Paul at Hawker from 6.00
Wednesday 21
September - training and trials continue under guidance of Nik and
Paul at Hawker from 6.00
Thursday 22 September –
meeting with staff followed by meeting with players (venue to be
finalised)
Friday 23 September - training and
trials commence under guidance of Jitka with Nik assisting at
Hawker
Saturday 24 September, 4.00pm
– trial game against ACT Boys U17 at Hawker after the JL
presentations
Monday 26 , Wednesday 28 and Friday 30 September –
training with Jitka at venue tba
Saturday 1 October – trial game against Newcastle
Jets at venue tba
Week commencing 3 October – training moves to
Radford College (with daylight saving) from 6.00pm.
Further clarification of training sessions, including gym sessions and
interviews with players will be made after discussions with Jitka next week.
Staff appointments
The following appointments have been confirmed by the Management
Committee:
Continuing for another season with the
team:
Team Manager – Maria Worner GK Coach – Paul
Jones Physio – Julian Russell Jones and Katrina Staniforth Team Doctor –
Wilson Lo
New staff:
Assistant Coach – Nik Damjanovski
The assistant coach, Nik Damjanovski is a graduate of the University of Canberra. He completed his UEFA B licence (which is equivalent to the AFC B licence) in Europe and coincidentally he has worked with clubs in the Czech Republic. He’s also been a Coerver coach in Canberra.
Skills Specialist Coach – Jason Lancsar
The skills specialist
coach is Jason Lancsar who is also the head of Asia Pacific Coerver Coaching. He
is an outstanding coach, particularly of individual skills and a former national
Futsal player who has demonstrated a willingness to support women’s football
wherever possible.
Players Already Offered Agreements
Thirteen players have now been offered Agreements which leaves seven
positions to be finalised by the Head Coach following the training and trial
process over the next few weeks.
This program was broadcast on 2xxfm (98.3mhz) across the Australian Community Radio Network on Tuesday, 13 September 2011 at 7:00PM.
In this program
we have a very informative discussion with Adam Castle, the Capital Football Event organiser,
concerning the 2011 Kanga Cup. Adam is a first rate organiser and this is one
monster of a football tournament. We range across a lot of issues around the
Kanga Cup which you should find well
worth a listen.
The Kanga Cup has tremendously strong links with the development and enjoyment of Football among our junior / youth players in the ACT region. Its a prize possession! But will it stay that way going forward?
The Kanga Cup needs to step up a notch in the future and that
is Adam’s objective, but there are some real big issues to resolve in order for
that to happen. We cover them in this interview. But grow it must. If it does not, its most likely that the Kanga Cup will make a slow decline in a regional football tournament, attracting little more than ACT, near NSW regional teams. That must not happen.
With appropriate investment the Kanga Cup can grow into a large international Football event, bringing with it a tourism bonanza and a very significant injection of new money into the ACT economy each year and in a very short period of time.
The costs associated with running the Kanga Cup are increasing and the financial return to the ACT Football community is slim. This equation has to change.
The Kanga Cup already generates approximately $2.5 million in new expenditure for the ACT economy every year, but the ACT Government's financial involvement is minimal. Someone, please remind me just how much AFL generates in the ACT at a community level.
We need to start thinking Dana and Gothia Cup! To do that, there is an urgent requirement for investment in playing facilities - you cannot promote the Kanga Cup as a top flight Football tournament and play teams on the rubbish surfaces we inflict on our players (all ages) every weekend in season. It just does not sell! There are other issues which Castle covers int his interview.
We always keep coming back to the inadequacy of the playing surfaces around the ACT in support of Football. It gets in the way of everything in Football until it is fixed. A modest investment over time by the ACT Government, in recognition of the significant dollars introduced into the economy by the Kanga Cup would do things - it would enable the Kanga Cup to become more attractive to Clubs / teams around Australia and overseas, generate very significant tourism dollars to the ACT and it would make a massive contribution to the development of the game in the ACT region. And all for a damn sight less than the $26m over tens years to an AFL team in Sydney.
If the ACT Government can't be shifted quickly or more substantially on the subject of a "Football Hub" in the ACT region (and two more at Melrose is nice but near enough), using the obvious and substantial argument that the game is growing apace and grounds are in decay and fewer in number, then perhaps we need to take a more strategic business approach.
The Kanga Cup should be a serious component and is already a major value add tot he Tourism economy in the ACT. Perhaps the CEO CF can talk to the CEO FFA and have the Age National Junior Championships relocated to the ACT (and how did the FFA manage to dud us of that one and is the NTC Challenge next). It would bring more new money and a good way to give the ACT Football community a tangible lasting contribution to assist in building the game in the ACT. And so on...
And why don't we find a way to use the AIS grass pitches - all of them - there a five in total - for the Kanga Cup? The AIS Football program is struggling to maintain funding and relevance in the Football development hierarchy and this would be a way of connecting with the ACT and wider Football community each year. The use of the pitch inside the running track at the AIS was inspired and so good! Parents and kids loved it and the football was fantastic.
Surely the end game must be to have a first rate, international standard Football hub that will support the development of the game in the ACT, enable the ACT to conduct a highly profitable international junior / youth football tournament(s) each year, become the focal point for the FFA's talented player competitions (NJC / NTC). In doing so, create a new business model at Captial Football that has real prospect of generating significant income, that is not based on the income generated from ACT "Football Family" alone.
But keep this in mind - without the changes we need in support of the development of the game here in the ACT - we will not grow the Kanga Cup. And the Kanga Cup is worth growing and developing.
This is a job for the Capital Football Board. I seem to recall one of those new Board members, elected at the last AGM, advocating his suitability in substantial part on his ability to acquire funds from Government. Well crack on mate - not a minute to loose!
The thing
I like about interviews with Adam Castle, is that you get just the right
mixture of promotion and candor in the discussion. You will enjoy this one.
So polish
your football boots for next season, stick them in the cupboard for next season
and ready yourself for a grand final weekend. When too much football is never
enough, this may come close. In the meantime, enjoy this fascinating insight
into the Kanga Cup 2011. Start planning at your Club for participation in Kanga Cup 2012.
This is very big issue as the FFA National Curriculum and Development plans roll out across the nation through every community based junior football club in the nation. The point of agreement is clear - the more quality training you do at a young age, the more likely you are to reach higher levels of performance in the game in later years. Well, you could say that about anything in life. Quality learning environment and large amounts of time dedicated to achieving excellence. Easy to say, not easy to do and for parents, bloody costly!
Easy to forget these young players are just that - young. When the "fun" goes, so does the desire to play the beautiful game. And not every young player is good enough to get to the top at age or later in open competition, but this is hard for some parents to accept, but I guess that's another story, but examples of it are on display every weekend at every playing field at every club in season.
Football, like the other big participation sports, with a professional playing opportunity and national profile seek to claim our children for the best part of a calender year. After all, that's how you get closer to the magic 10,000 hours. When you see a young Japanese or Korean team play, you are struck by their superb technical competence. How did they get to be so good is the usual question. Well, they train a lot is the response - lots and lots. There are certainly other cultural and economic imperatives, but there is no argument about the fact that the amount of quality training they do each year when young ensure that all those wonderful football habits are established as preferential behaviour, the sort of good football habits you revert to when under pressure during competition.
Those young players that get tot he top have something else that for the rest of us is not present in our football endeavors (except in spirit of course) - they are driven young people, determined to make all sacrifices that will be demanded of them in order to become a player of high ability. This could be said of any sort of high performance. But the fact is, not that many have it in football and plenty that do when they are young, loose their enthusiasm / drive to achieve, or simply change their interests in life. No problem. Too often, they stop playing and that is a tragedy. AS they say - easier to pass through the eye of a needle etc. Worth keeping in mind.
One coach shared these wonderful thoughts with me several weeks ago as we watched a Kanga Cup final (I just stood and nodded and thought that this coach had absolutely nailed it, so here it is):
"there is no substitute for a lot of good training, but it has to be quality and it has to run over the entire year at a pace and intensity that the children can cope with and still smile, but every parent has to work out for themselves what is best for the child and I do mean the child, not the parent. Good coaches manage the young players and help develop them as a person not just as a footballer. Football is more than a game or getting into rep teams or making lots of money. Its more than the Socceroos or Matildas. None of us know for sure what our children will be good at or what it is in this life that will capture their heart. Hope its football, but I am happy if football just stays a part of their life, they keep playing at any level and they remember it with pleasure, make friendships that last, know what it is like to commit to a Club for the long term and see it through the good and bad seasons, just like the rest of life, coach others and manage teams or do other volunteer work at the Club, so that they take their children to football when the time comes. We build football and we build community. Now how much of that is about whether you train 10,000 hours?"
Then I remind myself, that the best Football I have attended this season has been in the Capital Football Womens and Mens Premier Leagues - specifically, the Mens games, my Club's first round Woden Valley FC and Canberra FC , and the clashes between Canberra FC and Canberra Olympic. They were better than anything the Socceroos have turned out in 2011. On the Womens game, you can do no better then the clashes, all of them, between Belconnen United FC and Woden Valley FC, and they have been sensational. Now, a lot of these players have done a lot more development training since they started playing than most and it shows. There we are again - a higher level of training is necessary to deliver higher level performances. These players are now coached well and continue to develop. All this at the Club community football level. This is Football!
Is My Child Training Too Much?
There is more than one
school of thought about how often and for how long young players should
train. Some coaches clearly
subscribe to Malcolm Gladwell's theory that virtually anyone can succeed at
virtually anything if they put in at least 10,000 hours of practice. These coaches are the ones
that ask their players to attend three or even four coaching session every week. But can this model really be
applied to youth soccer coaching? Mr Gladwell cites pop band
The Beatles as "proof" that his theory is correct. Between 1960 and 1962, before
they became famous, The Beatles went to Hamburg to play in the local
clubs. They played eight hours a
night, seven days a week, they weren't very good and the audiences were largely
unappreciative. So what did The Beatles get out of the Hamburg experience? They
got non-stop hours of playing time and were forced to get better. They had to to
improvise, learn new material quickly, play all types of music, etc., just to
keep their audience engaged. By 1962, The Beatles were
playing eight hours per night, seven nights per week. By 1964, the year they
burst on to the international scene, The Beatles had played more than 1,200
concerts together. That's well over 10,000 hours of practice. Mr Gladwell – and maybe your son / daughter's coach – believe that repetition and hard work is the difference
between success and non-success, genius and mediocrity. But it's not enough to make
youngsters train three or four times a week for hours at a time. A youth soccer
team is a group of children, not The Beatles. Children's coaching has to
be of high quality and appropriate to their age. Young bodies that are put
through hours and hours of physical exercise will, eventually, break down. And
there aren't many coaches skilful enough to teach soccer properly for long
periods. If you pluck the wrong
string on a violin for 10,000 hours you won't get any better. You'll just annoy
the neighbors. There is no "right" amount
of training time for 11 to 13-year-olds but you will know when your daughter
trains too much. She will get bored with soccer, lose her enthusiasm and start
complaining of aches and pains. But don't wait until that
happens. Discuss the issue with the coach and tell him that you're worried about
the possible damage that training for too long will cause. If he persists in
"over-training", I suggest you find another team for your daughter before she
suffers physical damage and loses her passion for the game.
Now this is a not to be missed program. The ABC is doing a feature program on Football in Australia.
The ABC Four Corners researchers have certainly been doing their homework and took a close look at the Nearpost Local. They advise that they found the 2xxfm program and this Blogspot a good source of information when it came to the issues in the "local" game.
There is not much doubt that the FFA senior management got their priorities all wrong when it came to the Lowy driven pursuit to hold a World Cup. The cost of a failed bid in a corrupt FFA process didn't just cost our Football community an obscene amount of money. Critical management priority and resources at the FFA were diverted away from the fragile A League competition and as a result, this competition, so crucial to the development of our best players (in a fully professional context) has been placed in jeopardy, as several A League Clubs stagger forward in their quest to remain solvent. The pursuit of the National Curriculum and Development Plan, so fundamental to the development of football from the grassroots going forward, has been left behind, with next to nothing flowing down to Junior Clubs to deal with the biggest change in Football in Australia. Ask yourself - what does the FFA do for Football in the ACT region (aside from little game development grants), to accelerate development of football at our Club level? And how much of our coach education and training isn't funded by our local community based clubs or course participants. Bugger all is the answer you should get to all of it.
As for Futsal - well it's not even mentioned. The ignorant call it "five-a side-football". Its not Football, but it does so much for football for those that play in the early years. Its also growing apace. But try getting on to a coaching course - they are as scarse as hen's teeth!
The FFA really did get so much seriously wrong. Dumb really. And they started so well with the two pivotal documents - A National Football Curriculum and a National Development Plan.
I was struck by one thing the CEO Capital Football said in her most recent interview with the NPL - the FFA had extended Capital Football the "privilege" of a sub licence for the purpose of entering a team in the W League (Canberra United). I appreciate what the CEO has done for Womens Football in the ACT region, but there is no reason to courtesy to the CEO of the FFA "for the privilege of a W League Team". No way! Got that all wrong! The FFA need us and lets remind ourselves, that it is has been the ACT region football community that has provided the funds (through Capital Football) to establish and maintain Canberra United to this point. The FFA was not exactly generous and they got a free ride at the expense of member federations. Its a bit slice of Capital Footballs resources. (The CEO Capital Football advises the NPL that this year the cost of CU will be covered by sponsors - the one bright spot and a good one if it all falls into place). But remember, the FFA has shunted the vast majority of the total cost to the member federations. The FFA was not prepared to underwrite the competition in any substantial fashion, which is galling, in the context of the massive amount of funds that it has waived goodbye to in support of the Mens game. The FFA needs the ACT and Canberra United! "Privilege" has nothing to do with it.
And let's not forget the "tragic vacant space" in mens development between the ages of 17-20 years, which has persisted for many years, without relief from the FFA, in turn a consequence in more recent years (and definitely since the release of the National Curriculum and Development Plan) because the ACT region does not have a team in the National Youth League and you don;t get one of them without an A League franchise. Neither privilege nor interest evident for our best young male players. Just ask those passionate football supporters that got behind the ill-fated "A League for Canberra" bid. Had the A League prospered and the FFA watched its "war chest" a little more carefully, they may have got around to solving our problem. This ACT development problem may now be solved by the AIS entering into our local competition and continuing int he National Youth League - with perhaps 4-6 ACT players - if the AIS football program continues to be funded, if the AIS coaches judge that we have that many players of suitable standard and if, we don't find of town talented players at age dropping into the ACT for the purpose of taking a place in the AIS under these new arrangements. If it works, terrific, its more than we could have for, but its got to work. Time will tell. And the FFA is nowhere in sight and no funds to help make it happen for the ACT.
Had the FFA kept their collective corporate eyes on the A League, guided it to safe ground and as a consequence, minimised the bail out financial packages to some A League Clubs, then there would be more financial resources available to develop the rest of the game. Had the FFA not embarked on a fools errand, pursuing the right to host a future world cup (as opposed to simply getting better and qualifying for it every four years - something hard enough in our region), there would be resources available to underwrite the W League and in doing so, release member federation funds back to their community. We could do a lot with $200,000 pa, particularly in the area of playing facilities in the ACT!
I haven't seen the program, but the ABC program information below sounds like it should be top viewing.
The program will be broadcast next Monday (12 September 2011) at 8:30Pm on ABC 1.
Don't miss it!
Own Goal
By Quentin McDermott and Producer Louise Negline
When Frank Lowy took over the administration of football in Australia he wanted the game to compete with AFL, Rugby Union and Rugby League. His dream was to host the World Cup itself in Australia. Four Corners reporter Quentin McDermott investigates the strategy and the people used by Football Federation Australia (FFA) in its failed bid to win the right to host the biggest sporting event on the globe. Talking to insiders who have never spoken at length about the World Cup bid, he asks how $42 million of taxpayers' money was spent to win just one vote from football's international governing body FIFA.
The program raises questions about how taxpayers' funds were spent during the bid, and asks whether the consultants employed to run the bid strategy were good value for money. Were there conflicts of interest at work? It also looks at the lobbying of FIFA Executive Committee members, some of whom were subsequently banned or suspended for alleged corruption over their dealings with other bidding nations.
The program also raises questions about the role played by AusAID in Australia's World Cup bid.
While millions of taxpayers' dollars have been lavished on the failed bid, domestic clubs have struggled, several surviving only because wealthy owners have been able to inject millions of dollars of their own private funds just to keep the clubs afloat. Now, the FFA has requested millions more to help it stage the Asian Cup in 2015.
As Frank Lowy comes up for re-election as Chairman of FFA, the Federal Government is taking a long, hard look at the governance and structure of football, and football fans and clubs are asking, can football survive in its present form, led by its current team of administrators? "Own Goal", presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 12th September at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 13th September at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 each Saturday at 8.00pm, on ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.
Coaches who have girls and boys in their
team often wonder about the implications of coaching the "fairer
sex". They want to know:
Do I have to treat girls and boys
differently?
Do I need to plan coaching sessions for
girls in a special way?
Do girls want to win as much as boys? Will
they work as hard?
This article will help you answer these
questions. But before we look at the differences between girls and boys and the
implications these differences have for youth soccer coaches, let's see what
girls and boys have in common.
Firstly, boys and girls want to play soccer
for largely the same reasons. Almost 900
children playing soccer in a tournament in the USA children were asked a series
of questions relating to their attitude to
soccer.[1]
Their responses to the statement: "I play
soccer because I want to... " were summarised as:
girls
boys Have fun 99% 94% Improve at my sport 98%
94% Learn new skills 95% 89% Be competitive 94%
94% Get in shape 92% 88%Be with friends 92%
87%
The same survey asked questions relating to
winning. And that's where a significant gender difference
emerged. In answer to the question: "How important is
winning when playing soccer?" 80% of the boys said that winning was "important"
or "very important" compared to just 61% of the girls.
A similar gender difference emerged when
they were asked how important playing fairly was to them. 72% of the girls said
that playing fairly was "important" or "very important" while only 48% of the
boys tried not to break the rules.
Of course, we don't know how much the
attitude of the players' coaches influenced these responses. Could it be that
the coaches of the girls' teams placed less emphasis on winning than the boys'
coaches? Interestingly for those of you who have been
following the playing time debate on footy4kids, 78% of boys – but only 54% of
the girls – agreed with the statement that it is more important for key players
to play in order to win than for everyone to get equal playing
time.
Similarly, 53% of girls agreed it was
important "that everyone gets a chance to play" compared to 34% of the
boys.
These results back up my own experience of
coaching boys and girls teams over the years. I have learned – often the hard way – that:
1. Girls are more analytical than boys and
will not accept what a coach says at face value. They will want to know why they
should do something a particular way more than boys will. If you try to be
dictatorial, girls will simply switch off whereas boys may accept what you say
because you're "the boss".
2. Team unity is more important to girls
than boys. So if you coach girls you have to make sure that you give more or
less equal playing time to everyone in the squad, regardless of their ability,
even in the most important games. If you don't, the girls won't thank you if
they win but they will remember that you were "unfair" to their
friends.
Also, a girls' coach has to be constantly on
the lookout for the emergence of little cliques. Small groups within teams are
always damaging whether you coach boys or girls but they can permanently split a
girls' team in a matter of days. If you coach girls, listen carefully to their
conversations and watch how they interact with each other
Girls usually place more emphasis on "fair
play" than boys who are more likely to bend the rules. So girls' matches are
often more pleasant, stress-free event... as long as you can keep their parents
under control. Boys are more likely than girls to blame
outside factors (the referee, the weather, the coach) if they lose whereas
individual female players will often blame themselves for a poor team
performance, even if it is unjustified. So you need to spend a lot of time with
girls reinforcing the notion that it's effort that counts, not
results.
As far as their capacity for physical work
is concerned, there is no difference between boys and girls until they reach
puberty.
From the age of about 10 the anaerobic
capacity of boys – their ability to work hard in short bursts – quickly
outstrips girls and coaches who have both boys and girls in their team should be
careful to plan their coaching activities accordingly.
To sum
up.
If you're coaching girls you have to be:
People oriented and
democratic.
Very aware of the relationships between
players.
Give lots of positive
encouragement.
Get player input, ask for suggestions and
never lecture.
Treat every player in the squad exactly the
same.
Plan relatively low intensity training
sessions that include lots of games and several rest breaks.
To be honest, this is a good way to coach
boys too. But you can often get away with telling boys what to do and not paying
much attention to their relationships.
Try doing that with girls and you won't last
very long, I assure you. References [1] Healy Jonas, M. "Attitude towards competition: do differences exist
between boys and girls?" Melpomene Journal, Vol. 21, no. 2, 2002, p.
21-28.
