Quote Originally Posted by Aegon View Post
However a gripe I have is that some SAP clubs are setting their teams up with A & B squads. I do not understand the reasoning behind this as the B squads I have seen are getting demolished. Personally I think it isn't great for the development of either team and in the end most of the parents & kids of the B teams will get sick of paying $1000 a year and go back to community football or quit the game entirely.
Plague Jnrs club* is one of the ones that set up and A and a B team. This was done via instruction from the 'technical director' of the club, not by the SAP coaches. There was def a lot of discussion between coaches and parents on the merits of the idea, but it was implemented anyway.

The main reason is that from next year, SAP is going to one team per club (approx 13-14 kids as opposed to 18 this year), so a bunch of kids are going to get cut regardless. Having seen the kids in Plague Jnrs club, and other kids in the program, its evident that some kids arent good enough for what the program is designed for (at the moment). Our club intends on giving any kids that miss out on SAP next year a leg up into their NET team in order to keep them involved with the club and still getting better coaching than 'park football' kids.
Again, there are def positives and negatives in it, but it is what it is. The program is designed to get the very best of these kids ready to join the emerging Jets in a couple of years time. They need to be pushed now, and training, playing against similar standard kids is the only way to get there. I dont like that some of the bigger clubs will only get one team next year (including ours) when there are clubs in the program now that have 2 squads full of kids who are just not good enough.


Again though, its not over for the kids. One of Plague Jnrs new team mates wasnt in SAP last year, just played with his mates (for 'our' club). He heard about the trials and came down for a crack. He is already one of the better players in the A team, and looks a real talent. If kids miss out next year then they'll prob have to work out why, and if they still want it, bust their ass to get back in.

A bit of rejection should never be a bad thing at any age.





*Plague Jnr is in U/10's, he played last year in U/9 SAP and the teams werent graded. This year the U/9 SAP kids at his club arent graded either.