Quote Originally Posted by Aegon View Post
From NPL Youth thread.

I have watched many SAP games in the last 2 years and apart from New Lambton it's very rare to see a competitive NEWFM NL1 team.... even in the 10's early this year the stronger NL team put about 40 goals past another NL1 club.
Admittedly I haven't seen anything from West Wallsend or Cooks Hill yet, however Wallsend, South Cardiff & Singleton are a fair way behind in terms of individual skills.

I don't think this has anything to do with the coaching - more to do with the best young players going to the big clubs. In the end these players will be further along in their progress than they would have been going through miniroos or ID - the challenge is keeping these players in the sport because if they are getting 10, 20 or 30 goals put past them each week it will be hard for them to keep enjoying it.

I've said multiple times in the past that the club SAP system should be split. Generally in line with NPL (SAP1) and NL1 + the girls squads (SAP2) so that the games are competitive, close and enjoyable for everyone.
im happy for all clubs to remain in the same schedule as it exposes clubs/parents/coaches to what is expected and what is achievable.the games on the weekends are pretty much the poorest metric for evaluating the kids.any clubs boasting about winning for the sake of winning is completely missing the point of the program.SAP isnt the be all and end all.by 13's heaps of kids are going to some from ID's/miniroos and fit straight in to NPL. the likes of magic and olympic dont have a magic wand.they just coach their kids and set a good program.these other clubs might need to actually look at learn from the likes of those clubs rather than get jealous of them.cooks hill and nl are in a unenviable position due to being no pathway above 13.but their best kids are good enough for these top npl clubs hence why they are already been scouted for spots.sometimes its a shameless approach a lot of times its the fact a family member has a connection to the club and its a natural fit.also again one of these big clubs picked up jaffas kids because they got cut.hard to blame anyone else other than jaffas if they get to 13s and dont have enough quality to match.nor is it out of line for parents to avoid the club like the plague if thats how they are going to treat kids.id much rather these clubs look into the way they are being run and who is running them rather than blaming magic/olympic for doing whats best for their clubs.