Quote Originally Posted by KITZ View Post
beginning to think there's very little point to being selected in these squads. The more research I do the more that I've seen that the successful players (one example mat Ryan - but there's plenty around in the NPL - especially if you look at senior NPL football in Sydney) had very little to do with either A-League academies or selections for teams like this, there's quite a few players that are picked up when they are playing senior football at 17/18 and have had nothing to do with with "rep" football like TSP etc coming through.

Makes me wonder if players give up too early because of missing out on things like this at 14 or 15 and if the focus on how footballers are developed is flawed somewhere. I did hear of players actually turning down selection to attend camps especially in the 15s this year.
Definitely not the be all and end all of a footballers life but it never hurts to play in front of national coaches and A league TD’s plus it’s a fun week of football against other elite kids from all over the country.
There will always be players who turn down these opportunities for one reason or another but not everyone has the same drive and ambition so it’s not a surprise.