Wot have ppl been seeing in SAP trial games then? Saw Weston & Roosters on the weekend. Decent soccer on show in 10s and 11s. Both clubs doing good.
Last year the 9's and 10's were also using field 3 (grass pitch) which is currently out of action. This may explain the lack of available fields
In last years 9's Lake Macquarie had one strong team and one very weak team, hopefully they have balanced the skills out across both teams this year to prevent what could potentially be some really lopsided games as they are now 60min rather than 40min games. Weston were probably the weakest of the NPL teams in the same age group so it's good to see their performances improving.
I only know trial details from a few clubs in this years 10's age group:
Jaffas did really well across all grades against Emerging Jets girls and Charlestown Azzurri.
Azzurri have one strong team "Sky" & one weaker team "Navy".
New Lambton recently done very well against Fraser Park in Sydney.
They have an A team "Navy" and a B Team "Gold".
Magic have been playing lots of trials and have been stronger than every team they have played except the CC Mariners A team.
Both teams very evenly distributed.
Maitland & Edgy both have an A team and a B team but I don't know which one is which.
Olympic have 2 evenly distributed teams as well.
Don't really know anything about the other teams at this stage.
Last edited by Aegon; 27-02-2020 at 11:53 AM.
https://newcastlefootball.com.au/wp-...ll-Manager.pdf
NF re-advertising the TD gig - now called "Football Manager". Same hrs and $$ as the TD advert but they dropped the clinics and summer NET frm the job. Main NET still there which is good.
Morning everyone - My name is Steve and I'm this years NLFC U9 SAP Coach - and also just a Dad.
I started reading this forum about this time last year when SAP popped up on my radar and I had no idea what it was (my oldest son was in the NET system) - this forum helped (yes, really!) explain to me what it was and some of the other "issues". There has been some back and forth - but I can tell you're all passionate about football.
Yes, we(NLFC) only have one U9 SAP team. We only had internal trials, until we couldn't find 10 players and then opened it up externally. Two players in the team did not play for NLFC last year. I won't add any commentary to the process. I think we only have one under-aged player.
I can only talk in detail to the U9s, but as Aegon says above - the U10s did well in Sydney against Fraser Park FC (at least when they worked out Sydney U10 SAP is 9v9.. not 7v7).
Most other teams in all age groups struggled against Fraser Park FC. It's painful to get to, but the facilities at FP are excellent.
The U9s lost both games (3-1, 5-2) against reasonably strong A and B teams. We would have faired better if the drop-off rule was applied more consistently.
We have played the NLFC U10 Navy team at training and they smashed us - the difference a year of SAP and a year of physical development makes.
We have a trial match this weekend against Wallsend U9s.
The kids are excited about starting their SAP journey and I'm happy enough to be along for the ride, seeing them get better and have fun so far has been great.
Cheers
Steve
Good on ya Steve. Nice to have some1 prepared to put there name out there. Not like the rest of us! 🤣
I didn’t no that Sydney SAP plays 9v9 in 10s. Why ain’t Northern done this? No consistency even in nsw so no wonder FFA wanna start youth soccer from scratch.
How did yr boys go v Wallsend on the wknd? I heard Wallsend had good roll up for there trials so they should b stronger than last yr.
I'm very happy to have you kind folks know who I am. If you see NLFC U9s playing come up and say hi.
We played well in patches on the weekend. It was the first 60 minute game for us, and it showed in the last 10-15 minutes. For me too!
The end result was lopsided to us - 12-5, or 13-4 .. or something. It might have been the first run for the Wallsend kids, they had a couple of kids who stood out but the team as a whole looked like they were short on cohesion.
We've been working very hard on structure and getting our defenders playing the ball forward to advance the ball and getting our attackers to look to score - but when the kids were tired the structure fell apart and the passes got longer and less useful. ugh.
And the more lopsided it became the more ALL OF THEM wanted to score .. which assisted in the structural breakdown.
They're 8. They're kids. They had fun. They'll get better at it.
Like most young SAP teams we've got kids that were the best of their miniroo teams - they are used to winning, they're used to scoring goals. If you asked them, they're all strikers
However, for their football education, I'd like (and I have the backing of my TD) them to play in all the positions. We don't have a single player who has GK in their sights.
The GK for each game rotates through the group - each kid plays as GK for the whole game.
We currently start with a back 3 and a forward 3. We have 10 players, so with 3 on the bench we rotate them after 10 mins - replacing either the back 3 or front 3.
This gives each group of 3 some consistency of teammates outside/next-to each other during the game and hopefully promotes teamwork/combinations. It also allows each group of 3 some considerable block time in attack or defense during the game.
Each game the players rotate one spot in the lineup - so will get up to 3 games in a row in attack or defense to improve on the skills we're working on at training.
It sounds complicated; but for the moment it's doing what we want; allowing players some length of time playing in each position, but also getting the chance to play all over the park.
Good to see, putting players in one position at this stage of their development harms them. Important to learn what other areas of the field are meant to do as well as giving them a better well rounded experience. I coached SAP two years ago and had one upset mother because I wouldn't always put him up front. Apparently he is a striker and always has been. 3 years of miniroos where it is 4v4 does not a striker make.
100% agree. I saw a lot of SAP last yr & some of the “big” clubs definitly had kids only playing one position. 1 Jaffas team had a boy up front all yr & there other had a boy as full back all yr. don’t get me wrong they were good players but u ain’t learning the game that way.
magic as well. I saw there 9s last yr a bit & one game there ‘A’ team got the runaround from Valo cos Valo players know different positions but magic kids only no 1 position. I ain’t bagging magic cos they got good kids but it look like they just looking to win. I’d like to no from coach Ya Ya whether he ever moves his kids about???
We've definitely had some feedback from parents. But if we don't give them a whole field education they'll grow up being very one-dimensional. If (and of course, the chances are miniscule) they end up a pro, having a grounding in all positions from the age of 8 should help them fit into any system.
We have been very open with our parents what we are trying to accomplish this year, and how we are going to go about trying to accomplish it. So far we've had 100% buy-in. The hard times will come if/when we start losing a few games and IF parents grumble that we would have won but ....
I've told them that winning is not the primary goal at this stage - yeah, the SAP mantra - locking in the skills, getting a rudimentary football education and having fun are much more important than winning. Winning papers over some cracks sometimes.
Good constructive discussion this - thanks everyone, loving it.