Not quite as long winded as baffled, but I to can vouch for the emerging jets, know a boy played for Macquarie ( Rep ) as a striker from U9 through to U13, was up there with most promising coming through, Cameron Joice was the Newcastle rep equivalent, then he played for NNSW every Wednesday night in Sydney against the Marconis, Sydney Olympics etc, but was played at RFB in the old 4-3-3 system, where was all technical driven and didn't matter that they were getting pumped 10-0 as long as they played 4-3-3.

His natural striking ability was lost, due to this, then U14 was not selected, but a certain coach brought in a new striker, friends son, and the boy went back to playing club football, and has learnt more playing first grade NPL with the men, then he would ever learn playing with the boys.

I could name a team of 17-18yo playing NPL and Newfm that should have been given more chances at the elite level. One is at Kahibah, couple at Azzuri, Valentine, Edgeworth and Magic ....... kids who lost faith in Emerging Jet selections and chose club football first.