Quote Originally Posted by AVB View Post
The reality is NNSW are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't. There is no clear answer.
I agree.

They have placed Cooks Hill and New Lambton in the 2nd tier of the pre-season cup, they have won by some big margins.
New Lambton and Cooks Hill should never have been put in the 2nd tier.They earned the right to be in the main NPL draw and its poor management on NNSW part that they were excluded.
If we continue to look at NL and CH as examples, they are both likely to end up in the 2nd tier mid-season, however their clubs' growth in the last few years would suggest they have excellent programs. From the outside looking in, both are run by professional coaches. CH has Craig Deans who ran an A League Academy and NL has Clayton Zane who is a full time professional coach.
They have excellent programs,but they will still struggle in the first few years at NPL level so its more about maintaining the kids long term interest and development in the game.Also,Cooks Hills results have improved compared to their first year in NPL (yes,with a small sample size).Does anyone know how many kids stayed from last year?Have they been better at recruiting?For sure the coaching/TD aspect has helped but as weve seen with some clubs,bringing a bunch of new kids in every year then patting yourself on the back because of improved results kind of defeats the whole point of development.Valentine is going to be an interesting test case this year.
How many players will CH and NL loose end of the season, not because they aren't excellent programs, but because Little Johnny wants to play in the top division regardless of the quality of the program.
How many will they lose because the kids dont want to go up and get flogged by the top teams every week because they arent ready physically or technically?Players move from all clubs at all times for all reasons.Little Johnny is also moving from the bottom placed NPL team if he feels hes good enough.Theres just as much player movement between the top clubs as well.

My main point is by that strengthening the 2nd tier it creates a bigger pool of players ready for senior football once they catch up technically and physically.We seem to have 3 options available for the bottom half of youth at the moment.1)Play all year against superior players and teams and get flogged.2)Play half and half in each level (the new system).3)Keep them separated all year then promote and relegate.Im happy to see how plan #2 goes this year and after an appropriate time frame be able to answer all of the questions you posed with hard data and experience.