A-League Draft

One of the suggestions brought forward by last night's twitter Q & A with the head of the A-League was the concept of a Draft.

Personally I think theres no need for one. Between the state and federal Institutes of of Sports, Emerging Jets/Academy sides, state leagues, NYL sides etc, theres already plenty of opportunities for young players.

Another point would be who would run and pick the draftees, plus where would the money come from? Surely all the top identifiers of young talent are already contracted to any of the listed organisations above and they would have already picked their choices for the relevant teams. Plus, to have people full time to run the process, you're looking at least $200k, where would the money come from? Would the kid's parent pay for the chance? And would that mean it becomes a "pay your way in" scheme?

And we can't compare ourselves to the MLS because they don't have any National Youth League type competition. They are required to have academies, but there is no national league.

Would love to hear other people's thoughts.

stupid idea. this isn't the AFL, or the NFL, or any other american sport with a draft. why would you hang around and participate in the vagaries of a draft, when you can head off overseas and try your own luck.

The idea came from a tweet about quality players missing out through the current 'system' of talent ID and development.

The draft idea was linked to the need of setting up some kind of "Nike chance" set up that discovered Tom rogic at 18....... Not a youth development/emerging players system.

Plenty of quality miss out because they can't afford "elite" programs or are can't even afford to play organised sport, or don't develop till its 'too late'

Something needs to be done to ensure the best young kids are playing our game and not the other codes... Showing some, that missing out on the rep side at 12 doesn't mean they'll never make it, or if they are sick of being the scrawny 15yr old winger in their league team and it's not to late to try the ball at their feet, is valid.

Open trials (cheap to attend) run by the FFA for 17-22yr olds followed by a series of call back trials in major cities and a week long "draft camp" for clubs to look over all those that have slipped thought the net (a net with massive holes in it).

Paid for by Foxsports who film and televise it.

Run it for younger kids too.
Kids who come out of it at the top could be offered a spot in youth development programs.... Or better still, kids who previously thought that football wasn't for them might actually realise they have potential to play the game and grassroots numbers grow.... Giving a a bigger selection pool to begin with.

Well maybe the federations need to decrease their cost of registration? For example when I played for Lambton Jaffas A/A, it cost ~$220 plus uniforms, equipment and game fees each week, so average of $5 per game, 14 games, looking at close to $300. I played for a HCCF team last year it cost me $160 plus equipment for the whole season. Surely there cannot be a $140 difference in cost to run each competition between the two.

As for holes in the system, maybe we should try to fix the current system rather then making yet another system and complicating the process? Also, I thought it was the role of club scouts to find these young players?

I speak as someone outside the system without any indepth knowledge of how clubs and the elite stuff is run.

Love the idea of a draft - get the f*ck in

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Originally Posted by Thomas477

Well maybe the federations need to decrease their cost of registration? For example when I played for Lambton Jaffas A/A, it cost ~$220 plus uniforms, equipment and game fees each week, so average of $5 per game, 14 games, looking at close to $300. I played for a HCCF team last year it cost me $160 plus equipment for the whole season. Surely there cannot be a $140 difference in cost to run each competition between the two.

As for holes in the system, maybe we should try to fix the current system rather then making yet another system and complicating the process? Also, I thought it was the role of club scouts to find these young players?

I speak as someone outside the system without any indepth knowledge of how clubs and the elite stuff is run.

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Some kids wanting to play in state league in west Sydney have Rego fees in excess of $1800. Not a typo. More than one thousand, eight hundred dollars.

And you can bet most are told, they'll never make it if they aren't playing rep football.

Thousands of kids don't play our game because it costs too much.
100's of potential quality players are missed out on.

Catching the players who can't afford or arent picked up by the elite programs is vital. Without Nike Chance it could be said that Tom Rogic could not have been found.... Good for us jets fans, not so good for socceroos fans.

Gav's idea of a camp is worth looking at.

a traditional draft is not.

last things we need is more Jesic's, average players on extreme salaries.

I imagine a draft would also require centralized contracts?

terrible idea

football economics are already ruined in this nation by the salary cap (though I will argue it's a necessary evil to maintain financial stability and competitiveness)

I don't think that as a sport, football lends itself to the drafting of players - and to be honest I'm not entirely sure how to express this argument, though it's to do with football being about more than athleticism, players fitting in with a team's style and vice versa, along with youth development issues that mean players are with clubs already and the overall crumminess of Poochie

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Originally Posted by Gary Fish

The idea came from a tweet about quality players missing out through the current 'system' of talent ID and development.

The draft idea was linked to the need of setting up some kind of "Nike chance" set up that discovered Tom rogic at 18....... Not a youth development/emerging players system.

Plenty of quality miss out because they can't afford "elite" programs or are can't even afford to play organised sport, or don't develop till its 'too late'

Something needs to be done to ensure the best young kids are playing our game and not the other codes... Showing some, that missing out on the rep side at 12 doesn't mean they'll never make it, or if they are sick of being the scrawny 15yr old winger in their league team and it's not to late to try the ball at their feet, is valid.

Open trials (cheap to attend) run by the FFA for 17-22yr olds followed by a series of call back trials in major cities and a week long "draft camp" for clubs to look over all those that have slipped thought the net (a net with massive holes in it).

Paid for by Foxsports who film and televise it.

Run it for younger kids too.
Kids who come out of it at the top could be offered a spot in youth development programs.... Or better still, kids who previously thought that football wasn't for them might actually realise they have potential to play the game and grassroots numbers grow.... Giving a a bigger selection pool to begin with.

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I reckon you make numerous valid points there GF.

Over the years i have seen dozens of juniors in lower divisions really shine on the park, i am talking anything from Division D and downward. These kids are only there for the simple reason of geographics and at time of club and team grading law of averages place these particular individuals down there.

Some of these kids parents and care givers are simply not aware of other opportunities or simply don't have the time or finances to chase a start at other clubs with teams playing in higher graded divisions.

There are always some diamonds in the rough and if this draft for want a of better term at the comlpletion of some sort of camps can go some way to identifying these above average kids i am all for it.

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Originally Posted by Gary Fish

Some kids wanting to play in state league in west Sydney have Rego fees in excess of $1800. Not a typo. More than one thousand, eight hundred dollars.

And you can bet most are told, they'll never make it if they aren't playing rep football.

Thousands of kids don't play our game because it costs too much.
100's of potential quality players are missed out on.

Catching the players who can't afford or arent picked up by the elite programs is vital. Without Nike Chance it could be said that Tom Rogic could not have been found.... Good for us jets fans, not so good for socceroos fans.

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Thats stupid, surely the FFA can do something about over the top registration fees. As for 100s missing out on rep teams, that will just mean 100s more will miss out. The fact is the majority of them won't make it. You can have 1,000s of kids in rep teams, but atm we can only have a maximum of 230 professional footballers in this country at the moment, plus NYL teams. That means only about 0.00001% of Australia can make it in the A-League atm. and only 0.000001% will be in a National Team at any one time.

I'm all for improving the quality of players produced in Australia, but it seems to me that the driving factor stopping kids playing the sport at all and at higher levels are registration fees, rather than lack of spots. How about instead of looking at more pathways, we just look at reducing fees, or look at getting sport fees tax reducible or some form of government hand out? That way we don't need to spend the money to introduce a new system, and we can work at improving the current system while opening the intake to those who cannot afford to play with prices at current levels.


A training camp sounds interesting, but how would you select the kids partaking? Those trials sound like a possibility, but having a price to attend will reduce the intake already. Plus for kids who don't already play, they will still need boots and shinpads etc, which places a barrier of entry into the trials to begin with.

Good debate though.

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Originally Posted by Thomas477

A training camp sounds interesting, but how would you select the kids partaking? Those trials sound like a possibility, but having a price to attend will reduce the intake already. Plus for kids who don't already play, they will still need boots and shinpads etc, which places a barrier of entry into the trials to begin with.

Good debate though.

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Fee would be nominal. $5 to cover cost of ground hire. Blah blah.
Open trials. Cull the crap.
No boots, play in sneakers. If they're good enough to make the cut, throw them some boots.
Open doors open minds.

Agree with all your points Tom. Fees are astronomically high. Kids I teach don't play soccer because it's $300 to play in the local comp. league is less than half, afl... Is almost free.

Football needs to get into schools in a big way and use that as a way to discover unidentified talent independent of costs of elite programs.

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Originally Posted by Gary Fish

Fee would be nominal. $5 to cover cost of ground hire. Blah blah.
Open trials. Cull the crap.
No boots, play in sneakers. If they're good enough to make the cut, throw them some boots.
Open doors open minds.
Agree with all your points Tom. Fees are astronomically high. Kids I teach don't play soccer because it's $300 to play in the local comp. league is less than half, afl... Is almost free.
Football needs to get into schools in a big way and use that as a way to discover unidentified talent independent of costs of elite programs.

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First part, fair enough. Could get a clause into the national team kit to supply cheap or free boots to successful trialees.
League I think they also throw in a free pass to all NRL home games for the local team for the kid. The AFL, I'm pretty sure, basically subsidises registration costs.

What the FFA need to is also subsidise fees, on the bases that more kids playing, the more likely to go to games, meaning more merchandise and tickets sold, meaning more money back into the game so we can subsidise costs and so on.

As for schools, I will agree with you that the more football gets into schools, the more kids are likely to play especially if their mates play. Next time there is a Q&A on twitter or fan forum, someone needs to ask the governments, FFA or NNSW what they are doing to help increase participants at the younger ages, outside of spending money on advertising.

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Originally Posted by Gary Fish

Football needs to get into schools in a big way and use that as a way to discover unidentified talent independent of costs of elite programs.

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This for me is the key, AFL has recognised that and regularly visits schools they have entire programs planned and costed and just roll it out everywhere with full time staff dedicated to it's implementation.

As I understand it one of the main pillars of the JFA's 100 year plan, gee a plan for more then 1 season that would be nice hey FFA, includes school football programs. I remember reading about the combined school football championships over in Japan and how the J-League clubs always have a heavy scouting presence.

Personally I'd like to see the HAL teams running junior academies, but none of this Emerging jets crap where its user pays, it should be scouted and the best kids given scholarships to attend. If NNSW wants to run their own private academy then fine, but leveraging the Jets name when the club does not run the program or select the coaching staff is wrong, if the jets name is attached it should be run by the club, they should be taking the teams to sydney to compete against the best the state has to offer and it should be year round incorporating the regular season and off season futsal, not another jobs for the boys NNSW cash grab.

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Originally Posted by Thomas477

Thats stupid, surely the FFA can do something about over the top registration fees.

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Not sure if you are implying this or not, so apoligies if you're already aware of this, but the proportion of registration fees that the FFA takes is very small, something like $10. The contribution to the state federations was a bit more but still not that much, the vast majority of the fee (~90%) went to the local clubs.

The fact is that football is a very popular sport for kids and adults, what's the incentive for clubs to cut the registration fees when they can seemingly get away with it without any concerns? I agree with the comments about it being a bad thing in the long run that only a subset of the total population can participate, but it would be difficult to fix that with the way things are run at the moment.


As for the draft, stupid idea. I don't think this idea of an open trial would work anyway, how do you screen people to get into this trial in the first place? What's to stop me from rocking up and wasting people's time? Who is paying for all the costs associated with it?

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What's to stop me from rocking up and wasting people's time? Who is paying for all the costs associated with it?

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The beep test!

if I recall correctly, I believe the jets had an open goalkeeper trial once, my flatmate rocked up, his diet at the time was (and still is) five bongs at breakfast, a sausage roll and a chocolate milk and he believed that vegetables give you cancer. he had played youth for villa back home, somehow got in there

I think got to the second round :gent:

:tongue:

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Originally Posted by q-money

if I recall correctly, I believe the jets had an open goalkeeper trial once, my flatmate rocked up, his diet at the time was (and still is) five bongs at breakfast, a sausage roll and a chocolate milk and he believed that vegetables give you cancer. he had played youth for villa back home, somehow got in there

I think got to the second round :gent:

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Who the **** has a sausage roll for breakfast?

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Originally Posted by My2BobsWorth

Who the **** has a sausage roll for breakfast?

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this mate of q's

used to wash it down with a chocolate milk and a few bongs - bloke thought vegetables gave you cancer

he had played youth for villa back home

Went well in an open trial with the jets too. If I remember correctly.

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Originally Posted by Gary Fish

Some kids wanting to play in state league in west Sydney have Rego fees in excess of $1800. Not a typo. More than one thousand, eight hundred dollars.

And you can bet most are told, they'll never make it if they aren't playing rep football.

Thousands of kids don't play our game because it costs too much.
100's of potential quality players are missed out on.

Catching the players who can't afford or arent picked up by the elite programs is vital. Without Nike Chance it could be said that Tom Rogic could not have been found.... Good for us jets fans, not so good for socceroos fans.

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You don't have to travel that far to pay that kind of money. Our friends down the F3 have reportedly just put their junior rego's up from $1100 a season to $1800 for this season!!! WTF

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Originally Posted by militiamon

Not sure if you are implying this or not, so apoligies if you're already aware of this, but the proportion of registration fees that the FFA takes is very small, something like $10. The contribution to the state federations was a bit more but still not that much, the vast majority of the fee (~90%) went to the local clubs.

The fact is that football is a very popular sport for kids and adults, what's the incentive for clubs to cut the registration fees when they can seemingly get away with it without any concerns? I agree with the comments about it being a bad thing in the long run that only a subset of the total population can participate, but it would be difficult to fix that with the way things are run at the moment.

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I didn't realise that the FFA took anything tbh. I figured the majority of the money is sent to the organising body, such as the Interdistrict Board. What I was suggesting was that the FFA introduce an initiative to help reduce fees, as well as have a look at how the fees are structured. Surely, for example big clubs around Newcastle, such as Lambton, Southy, Adamstown, Valentine etc don't need $1,800 per player*. Nor would smaller clubs like Dungog need such high fees.

Agree with your point that there is no incentive for clubs to reduce fees to help get more people involved, not that some clubs don't already do that, but there is nothing in it for them. As for the way things are running ATM, I think this links into the high fees. Some people are very happy with their roles within clubs and possibly do get paid some amount that is taken directly from the rego fees.** Personally I think that's not on. I know the majority of people involved are volunteers but they shouldn't be lining their pockets from amateur football, everyone in it should be in it for the love of the game.

I'm thinking I may chase this up with Lambton Jaffas JFC (my local club).

*Not that I'm saying they are ATM, just hypothetical.
** Nor am I saying that some do, just throwing out a possibility.

just to clarify - here's the fee breakdown for 2013 for Newcastle Football

Attachment 233

these $1800 fees are for elite players - and I agree they're too high - but it's not the associations running things that are to blame

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Originally Posted by boz-monaut

just to clarify - here's the fee breakdown for 2013 for Newcastle Football

Attachment 233

these $1800 fees are for elite players - and I agree they're too high - but it's not the associations running things that are to blame

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And of course the whingers like Thomas, who always ark up over rego fees, will ask "why isn't the rego fee $182". They never seem to remember that the club has to pay thousands to council for ground hire, for referees, replace jerseys every couple of years, buy new balls and training equipment, upgrade lights etc. No, it's all just volunteers lining their pockets. This is so typical of the want everything for nothing attitude that seems to pervade local sport and results in a few volunteers invariably shouldering a huge workload.

for 6-12's - Scrap the $11 to ffa, if they cant run the show from current incoming $ from fox, gates, chook raffles they should come to a local club for training
All ages - Scrap the fking gst to follow up govt initiatives for people to get healthy and not sitting around plotting robberies.

What does the insurance cover? Liability injury on public grounds? cause you get fa for medical expenses.

What's the go with council ground hire?

What is NF? Does this mean the $30-$40 goes to the club or to NF for even distribution?

newcastle football? not the forum though unfortunately (unless crooky and the other mods are lining their pockets :)).

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Originally Posted by hawk

for 6-12's - Scrap the $11 to ffa, if they cant run the show from current incoming $ from fox, gates, chook raffles they should come to a local club for training
All ages - Scrap the fking gst to follow up govt initiatives for people to get healthy and not sitting around plotting robberies.

What does the insurance cover? Liability injury on public grounds? cause you get fa for medical expenses.

What's the go with council ground hire?

What is NF? Does this mean the $30-$40 goes to the club or to NF for even distribution?

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Agree that FFA shouldn't be sucking money out of the grassroots, compare it to AFL who pour millions into their Auskick program. Sure AFL have a huge war chest (as well as the strategy and forward thinking to use it effectively) that FFA can only dream of, but with the increased TV money FFA will hopefully take their hands out of participant's pockets.

Nothing can be done with the GST, and it's not a major part of the cost anyway.

IMO the insurance is a rort, unless things have changed since I was involved with Cooks Hill there's no way to avoid it, NNSWF force this cost upon players for minimal (if any) benefit, as you say reimbursement of medical expenses is crap and the income protection side of it is laughable too. I've always had my suspicions that NNSWF get some sort of kickback (sponsorship, reduced insurance cosets etc) from the insurer or broker for forcing players to pay for it.

Clubs have to pay council for ground hire, light usage etc. The amounts vary depending on the quality/level of the ground, how much you're using it, whether it's juniors or seniors etc. It was a not insignificant amount.

NF is newcastle Football, that goes toward their costs of administering comps etc.

People will say why don't you run a canteen, run raffles, sell merchandise to pay for these costs, but in my experience the room clears pretty quickly when you ask for volunteers to run those things.

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Originally Posted by Disinterested Bystander

And of course the whingers like Thomas, who always ark up over rego fees, will ask "why isn't the rego fee $182". They never seem to remember that the club has to pay thousands to council for ground hire, for referees, replace jerseys every couple of years, buy new balls and training equipment, upgrade lights etc. No, it's all just volunteers lining their pockets. This is so typical of the want everything for nothing attitude that seems to pervade local sport and results in a few volunteers invariably shouldering a huge workload.

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Mate, where the **** have I whinged about Rego costs? All I'm saying is that if you reduce fees you will get more people playing and clubs should be doing their best to decrease fees as much as they can as to attract more players, that should be obvious to anyone. And for the two clubs I've played for, I think they've been very reasonable, especially given clubs like Lambton offer discounts for other family members playing. I also realise the huge amount of time and effort that goes into running these clubs and I have the upmost respect for anyone who does shoulder a lot of the work

I am not on any committee of any club, so I could not give an accurate number for rego fees and I will leave that up to the club committees. I realise that the clubs have a fair bit of overhead like council grounds, kits etc. As for refs, that gets paid each week as far as my experiences go (some clubs may include fees each week in their rego costs). However, as for the replacement lights, wouldn't that be councils job? So how about you calm the **** down? I was not having a go at anyone, my main point was that clubs should be trying to reduce fees while still having enough to cover operating costs (and have a bit spare incase anything goes pear shaped) so they can get more people involved. That's all.

And for the record, I'm also one of the volunteers who help out on gamedays most weekends.

And cheers Boz.

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Originally Posted by Thomas477

Well maybe the federations need to decrease their cost of registration? For example when I played for Lambton Jaffas A/A, it cost ~$220 plus uniforms, equipment and game fees each week, so average of $5 per game, 14 games, looking at close to $300. I played for a HCCF team last year it cost me $160 plus equipment for the whole season. Surely there cannot be a $140 difference in cost to run each competition between the two.

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That certainly sounded like a whinge to me, especially combined with your posts about volunteers lining their pockets and clubs having no incentive to reduce fees. My humblest apologies if it wasn't.

Re your comments about refs, the refs association invoiced monthly for the games that had officials (apart from ID's refs who got paid on the day). Some clubs (try) to collect a few $ from each player each week and they'd presumably have lower rego fees, others include it in their rego fees.

As for lights, ground upgrades etc unless you're NHRU and can get NCC and the state government to fork out millions for a shmick new ground, grandstand and offices while only contributing a relative pittance, council s are going to want a contribution towards those costs. And rightfully so, the clubs are going to get the benefit.

No need for me to calm down, I'm simply educating you.

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Originally Posted by boz-monaut

these $1800 fees are for elite players - and I agree they're too high - but it's not the associations running things that are to blame

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The word ELITE is my massive bug bear at the moment, we are branding things elite when in real terms they are clearly not. Perfect example is the 'Elite' U14's competition that is going to be run this season in NNSW. The only players that could loosely be called elite are those that have been selected into the Jets pathway (like I said loosely).

Clubs in Sydney charge the kids upwards of this type of money to funnel into their senior squad.

This is probably the wrong thread for the whole topic, but since it is started....

As for the ground/lights costs:

For Merewether United FC - for our use of Adamstown #5, the ground closest to the race course with the concrete cricket pitch in the middle of it, which also happens to be a crap wet weather ground we paid last season:

About $3000 in ground use fees, as our All age women and O35's teams train there. Last season no charge for juniors, this season there will be a charge for junior use as well.
About $4000 in lighting fees to council, as council own the lights at this ground. The light cost is about $2 per light per hour. So #5 has 6 lights so $12 per hour of use.

At our other ground - Myamblah, the club owns and maintains the lights, we pay for the electricity and replacing the lights when they go. We have to replace 2 for the coming season, they are worth about $2000 each. We paid about $2000 in electricity for the season.
The ground use fees at Myamblah are about the same, but the money here goes to the Myamblah Oval Board (which we effectively have control of) so we can then make sure the money is spent on maintaining the field.

In general over half of our rego fees are the NF/NNSW/FFA component. Then the ref costs (even for SSF games) shirt costs, trophies, ground costs etc use up most of the rest.

As a club with just over 500 registered players last season, we just broke even for the year.

I am obviously closely involved with the club.

Just looked up our (Merewether United FC) fees for this season, these include all ref fees.

U6-U7 $125 Includes their playing shirt this year.
U8-U11 $145
U12-U18 $195
Senior $325

These figures are up about $10 on last year, as we are planning to employ an administrator about 8 hours a week, as we do not have enough volunteers to effectively run the club. The intention is that they will do most of the "secretary/registrar" paperwork and generally make sure the volunteers that we do have are ogranised.

When I checked our fees last year, we were close to the lowest in our area.

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Originally Posted by EH9

The word ELITE is my massive bug bear at the moment, we are branding things elite when in real terms they are clearly not. Perfect example is the 'Elite' U14's competition that is going to be run this season in NNSW. The only players that could loosely be called elite are those that have been selected into the Jets pathway (like I said loosely).

Clubs in Sydney charge the kids upwards of this type of money to funnel into their senior squad.

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Throw the word development in also for that matter.

My boy played u14's just last year, all up inc rego and kit/attire fees close to $650.00

Up until last season he played elsewhere since he was old enough to play and we never had to cough up over $ 150.00

I know many families with kids with just as much ability as my young bloke playing in lower divisions who would really struggle to pay those types of fees if at all.

I think a camp style could somehow level out the playing field of opportunity.

As for running junior clubs i am appalled that anybody would think anything negative toward these people. They work there ass off with so many responsibilities to attend to and quite often multiple roles through lack of volunteers. A lot more goes on behind the scenes not just on match day but monthly meetings outside of actual competition months.

I try and help out where i can but not even my contribution comes even close to what others happily put there hand up for time and time again. You would be surprised just how many around the clubs doing this work no longer have kids playing but still do it for the love of it. We should never take even the slightest swipe at these people.

^^^
Post of the year

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Originally Posted by late_to_the_game

Just looked up our (Merewether United FC) fees for this season, these include all ref fees.

U6-U7 $125 Includes their playing shirt this year.
U8-U11 $145
U12-U18 $195
Senior $325

These figures are up about $10 on last year, as we are planning to employ an administrator about 8 hours a week, as we do not have enough volunteers to effectively run the club. The intention is that they will do most of the "secretary/registrar" paperwork and generally make sure the volunteers that we do have are ogranised.

When I checked our fees last year, we were close to the lowest in our area.

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That's interesting, thank you LTTG. That seems fair enough to me. Seems that most of the amateur fees, bar "elite" and "development" squads are reasonable, and it's just for those teams where they get extra added onto what the average joe gets that the prices start going up. That seems fair enough to me, you get the better coaches, fields and gear so you should pay more. $1,800 worth? I cannot say, but you've got to expect higher costs for higher level teams.

As for Adamstown No. 5, I'll agree with you 100%. I trained and played at #4 and that was bad as well when it rained.

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Originally Posted by 380

As for running junior clubs i am appalled that anybody would think anything negative toward these people. They work there ass off with so many responsibilities to attend to and quite often multiple roles through lack of volunteers. A lot more goes on behind the scenes not just on match day but monthly meetings outside of actual competition months.

I try and help out where i can but not even my contribution comes even close to what others happily put there hand up for time and time again. You would be surprised just how many around the clubs doing this work no longer have kids playing but still do it for the love of it. We should never take even the slightest swipe at these people.

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I agree 100% 380, and if it seems like I was, that was never my intention and I offer my apologies to anyone who thought I was.

should I split this discussion of fees into it's own thread?

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Originally Posted by 380

I know many families with kids with just as much ability as my young bloke playing in lower divisions who would really struggle to pay those types of fees if at all.

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and I think that what the original tweet during the q&a was getting at. And some sort of "Nike chance" set up possibly leading to a point where aleague clubs could scout from. 'draft' probably wasn't the best term as it immediately send minds to think of the way tings work in the US.

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Originally Posted by Thomas477

That's interesting, thank you LTTG. That seems fair enough to me. Seems that most of the amateur fees, bar "elite" and "development" squads are reasonable, and it's just for those teams where they get extra added onto what the average joe gets that the prices start going up. That seems fair enough to me, you get the better coaches, fields and gear so you should pay more. $1,800 worth? I cannot say, but you've got to expect higher costs for higher level teams.

As for Adamstown No. 5, I'll agree with you 100%. I trained and played at #4 and that was bad as well when it rained.



I agree 100% 380, and if it seems like I was, that was never my intention and I offer my apologies to anyone who thought I was.

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All good for sure.

I am not ashamed to fess up that if it was not for a couple of good months at work i would have been battling to come up with the sort of money that was required for last season, otherwise it would have been back at his original club. The $ 150.00 a season club.

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Originally Posted by 380

All good for sure.

I am not ashamed to fess up that if it was not for a couple of good months at work i would have been battling to come up with the sort of money that was required for last season, otherwise it would have been back at his original club. The $ 150.00 a season club.

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Over the last 5 or so years playing NBN, I have paid from $250-500 for the year. In comparison to amatuer fees, this includes the rego/insurance/refs + 2 training shirts, club shirt, shorts (2 pairs when the alternate shorts rule was in), 2 pairs of socks, club jacket and sometimes a jumper or drink bottle. We have access to Physios/strappers/masseuses, relatively good playing and training surfaces, good coaches, good equipment and a professional environment. If these State League clubs can offer $500 playing fee for the year, I don't see why some fees are up to $1800. Even $650 is a bit steep, especially considering they are 14.

I'd love to know where the extra $1,300 goes.

My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I am pretty sure the U14A rego fee at Magic last year was $300, and included a training strip, jacket and playing strip - minus the shirt.