I also witnessed the situation regarding the coach on the weekend. I am not affiliated with either club involved in the game but that was very poor. When discussing with our coaches they informed me that yes he does have form and its known amongst a few clubs as a lot of the coaches know each other.
The delegation of authority to parents as referees in SAP is terrible and this is another example of the gap
- Referee abuse
- Player committing fouls which would get you sent off or carded
- Coaches flaunting the rules
NNSW need to recognise kids/parents/coaches are there to win.
Weve heard the competition will be split for round 2 for strong and weak clubs
How do you work out who is in which comp if you don't recognise who won and lost?
yeah i think by next year when they go to one squad NNSW is gonna have to recognise they need 'independent refs', and they may as well count the scores and results, its going on anyway.
Ive also noticed that Magic and Olympic tend to have youth players doing their ref duties for them. Does anyone know if thats because these kids want to be refs or are they doing it as a club duty? Because they pretty much always do a stellar job and the kids seem to def respect them even more maybe than someone who is clearly a 'parent' and less confident on the rules.
as for the grading of teams, yeah i know there isnt supposed to be tiers, but its a difficult one. There are 4 teams I've seen so far that are pumping everyone else. i dont mind the theory that these kids should prob be playing each other more often to help increase their level, and that the rest can play teams of equal level and get competitive games to hopefully build their confidence and skill set.
Seeing clubs get smashed 15-0 isnt helping either team IMHO, and this program is eventually about getting the best 17 or so for the Jets juniors and a bunch of strong NLP teams.
We just need to make sure the other kids who dont make that initial 17 are still motivated and inspired enough to keep at it in order to keep getting chances at making the Jets/NPL squads going forward.
For every kid this system develops you will probably lose half a dozen of equal or greater talent who simply couldn't be bothered with all the bullshit.
It's the same old shit with a new badge.
Nah, no one is being told that.
But the boffins in charge have to select 16 out of the couple hundred kids to be in the 'best' team.
Then the 12(ish) club's have to each pick the best 16 each of the rest.
Then hopefully each year all those teams reselect their squads based on merit.
Eventually we'll have a team that wont go 3-0 down to the gypos at home and a bunch of teams making the FFA cup later rounds.
Best drop the prissy attitude now to avoid disappointment. It's a fact.
There a couple of players in the system because someone is connected with the club. As always some deserved kids missed out for these few. Of course this will be rectified in ensuing years when quality comes through. What it does do for 6 on field is make it harder for teams to play carrying a couple leg ups.
For sure. Every holidays there are 3/4day camps. During season extra training sessions. All of these cost extra $$ on top of the SAP rego
Hopefully there is still a pathway for anyone u18. Ive seen a lot of emerging Jets filtering into our NPL league but why not Aleague.
I hope we can develop many more players for Aleague teams out of this system. Not forgetting Melb and Sydney kids will also do very well.
Side note. How many Hunter kids have made it to Aleague level of more than 15 games?
the ideal plan is for the kids missing out on the top teams to go fill out other teams to strengthen them, to make sure the kids are still getting the training and opportunity (and remain motivated after missing out on their preferred club).
This needs to be communicated though as some clubs may not 'want' a bunch of outsiders coming in and taking therrrrr jobs.
NNSW has to preach the big picture here and get everyone on board.
No joke but didnt Australias greatest ever Socceroo, Daniel Arzani, not come through any of these programs? Just kind of got picked up later in life?
and did Nabbout have a similar trajectory? or was he a good junior that didnt come straight into the pros?
Having watched my son develop I personally think the SAP program is a great idea and also believe the splitting up of round 2 (if true) is a great idea.
The weaker teams will have more time on the ball to improve basic skills and stronger teams actually taking their development forward. But the top section needs official referees to keep control as we witness every week the afore mentioned issues.
Will be interesting to see the arguments from clubs who fall just over or under the cut off point.
Very hard to know if a player was simply a late bloomer or just a kid who never got the opportunity / breaks they deserved when young.
The people who played alongside or against the ones that did make it would probably have a few stories about ones that missed out through no fault of their own.
it will be interesting with our club, who has an A and B team. The results between the 2 teams are quite different, so the A team will easily compete (and benefit) with the top teams every week. The B team will find it much tougher. Having seen a couple of the stronger clubs, they seem to be in a similar situation to ours though.
yeah definitely.
Its hard to argue any of the kids in the B team being better 'overall' players than the kids in the A, but the kids in the A team def have their one skill that is a much higher level than anything else anyone else has.
For example, they have a kid that loves playing in the backs. he knows where to position his body and win a ball, he then can play an outlet pass with either foot to get the team going forward. He cant shoot, and rarely skills anyone 1 on 1. But he is great at the thing his strength. They also have a DM that goes side to side winning the ball, and playing off both feet. They have a striker that cant tackle but can hit his targets. Its also interesting to watch in training because they dont get schooled individually by the coaches on their strengths, they all have to do the same drills and are expected to be as good as everyone else in them.
The coaches often also play the kids out of position during games in order to improve their weaknesses. The striker who cant tackle is made to play in the backs and the defender who cant shoot goes upfront etc. Its a good move and def in the past has 'cost' them goals and not everyone is a fan of it, but i think its good for them to be continually challenged.
I had heard rumours that this might be happening after round 11. How are they are going to decide on the split though when nobody officially records the result?
I can see the logic in the decision and support it, however it brings back the same old question about whether results should be recorded in this competition? if Results don't matter, why are they splitting the comp at all?
Also, how do they grade it when some clubs have an A and a B team who are light years apart in the playing levels, do they split the two teams between the 2 divisions/groups/pools, or whatever they will call it?
This is a tough question, if you think about it there have been some exceptionally good players out there that can't play out of position to save their lives. It is already evident even at Aegon Jr's age that some boys are restricted to where they can play, some kids already have an amazing engine, good technical range, strong tacklers/on the ball. These same players may have some glaring weaknesses in other areas though. Do you evaluate the kids based on overall ability or judge them based on their ability/potential in specific positions or roles?
Tough decisions already. Glad I don't have to make them.
The NNSW guys are there most weekends watching the kids play, they would have a pretty good idea of which teams are 'better'.
I cant see them splitting clubs through. If you have a team good enough to be in the A group, then both teams are going there. Even the B teams at the best clubs are good enough to at least compete with the A teams. It may even mean the clubs rejigg their teams to even them back out seeing as though they are now going to be getting really strong competition every week.