Quote Originally Posted by sapdad View Post
Personally I see it as a stepping stone between community and the 0.1% of kids who fancy they can make a living out of it.The most important part is having the levels (community/YPL/TSP/Jets) be as close as possible to each other so kids and clubs can flow from one to the other as easily as possible.This is so any kids showing talent can progress upwards and any kids not quite cutting it have a level to drop into that keeps them in the system but somewhere more appropriate.Thats why I personally like community clubs entering the knockout cup and the PYL breaking from 2 tiers into 3 mid year.The more it all overlaps the better idea every clubs gets as to what it takes to improve.
Agree they should be as close as possible to each other, and movement between the tiers should be as fluid as possible (disagree on the mid season split though as discussed previously...but that plus a home and away phase 2 would go a long way to equalising the number of games to Sydney's standard)

On your fees comment though...PYL fees seem to be about $2000 here (for a season of, at best, 18 games, we shouldn't count trials etc). Not all the facilities are equal, or even a decent quality.

I don't know what the Jets charge, but was told Mariners is $3700 this year (for a season of 30 games)...as an academy that might be on the high side for FNSW, but Jets are probably something similar...

I do see this as a big problem. (And it doesn't matter what the o35s are getting (over)charged, as well)

The problem of paywalling opportunities.

If the desire is to develop the best kids and give them the best opportunities to make the most of their talents, as they can develop the furthest. Those with the talent and drive won't necessarily come from backgrounds who can justify that cost and so we've already limited them.

The US realised this was a major issue a couple of years ago, (we're both part of the select few countries who operate in such a way). Their response was that the elite clubs began to offer full scholarships to the the most talented kids as a way to keep those with the highest potential within the sport, and along a developmental pathway.