Interesting thoughts. Some NPL/NL1 clubs put a lot of time effort and money into their youth programmes. Others see youth as a necessary (required) inconvenience. No doubt the majority tap the youth as a source of funds, but those "rego" funds alone are not the main income that pays the senior teams. I think some would see it as a great opportunity to ditch youth (or move them back to community where the cost of having teams is far lower and they can still make money from the kids/families in other ways) if they could still remain an NPL/NL1 club. "Long term plans be damned, we will still buy the best players". If this came to pass, I think that the quality of football would decline over time.
I think that to ensure the longevity of improving football standards and to have an "elite" competition, premier youth must remain mandated for both the 2 upper tiers. If we let the second tier dump premier youth, over time those clubs will not have quality coming through and promotion/relegation will die as those in the second tier will never have the quality to challenge the top tier.
"It is not that I am afraid to die; its just that I don't want to be there when it happens" - Woody Allen
This is the one actually talking sense.
You want to play in the top tier, make sure you're a top club with a full contingent of teams. A great senior team won't suffer on a club championship because the proposal for senior promotion is just based on 1st grade results. A great senior team may suffer because the club they are part of isn't a great club.
Define a "great club", most of what I have seen a great club is just the one who managers to "poach" the best players
(The club we started SAP at, only 2 boys (from that u9s) made it to 13s NPL, 2.5 more who joined in u10s, one of whom left for two years after that before joining again for 13s...don't know about the other boys, but is that a great result? They have a great team though, an excellent team in fact, but if just 2 of the 26 from u9s went through to the next level, is that "?great?")
Back to the NPL, Valentine with a 90th minute winner over the Bears last night.
[QUOTE=Devon Sangas;267382]
Valentine 2 - 0 Lakes
Weston 1 - 1 NL
Rosebuds 1 - 3 Edgeworth
Lambton 3 - 1 Cooks Hill
Olympic 1 - 4 Maitland
Magic 1 - 3 Azzurri
Valentine failed to advance to next round of National Second Division. Not a great thing for local footballers wanting to advance themselves.
Surely this is not a surprise to anyone
Unsure what was more stupid. Valo applying in the first place or a business model that relied on overseas funding that was sourced by your first grade coach and TD.