Which is why my own view is a touch different, I want us to be producing more #8s.

My rationale for that is that by hook or by crook we'll produce the occasional quality #10 - Carle, Rogic, Bresciano, De Silva, Amini, these ball players do come up every now and then.

To be a successful football nations IMO we need to produce players who can run, chase and tackle but can also pass the ball short and long, control the ball at full pace, beat a player when they need to and score a few goals a season.

At Sydney we have two young boys who sort of fit that description - Terry Antonis and Hagi Gligor, though Gligor still needs to improve defensively.

Imagine a Socceroo team with two Antonises (or better), a ball playing DM and a #10 who runs as well as creates.

I want us to aim to produce the likes of Schweinsteiger, Gerrard, Iniesta, Xavi, Fletcher, Anderson and Simeone - we need a whole lot more Jason Culinas or better if we want to challenge the top.

It will produce technically proficient players who perform whatever task their coach tell them to perform but it won' t create players with flair who can find solutions that aren't in any training manual. Those guys are developed through those kick-arounds at the local park/car-park/basketball court/school (i.e. outside the traditional structures).

The NC is for the support cast not the star performers to paraphrase peter de roo .

Good old fashioned Aussie tall poppy syndrome.

100%
What i see at training is players are ridiculed and told they are showing off by their team mates if they practice and perform unusual skills. However in Europe they laugh and joke about it with humour and encouragement.
This is on the training pitch of course, where they should be encouraged to try new things after all is that not what training is for.

I believe we are teaching players to play a system rather than create a playmaker - the system develops the players to pass and move, play nice 1-2 touch football, movement on and off the ball, press as a team and be multi functional on the field of play - I don't have a problem with this at all I think that's a great step forward however if any player takes it upon himself to create something running with the ball off the cuff so to speak I don't think Ive seen that coached or even encouraged very much if at all (there are a few exceptions).
Pity because I don't think Australia will produce a Messi type player at all under the current curriculum.
Not quite sure we ever will - the culture also has a lot to do with it and we really don't have a football culture here but we can produce robots :d

no

I don't think I've learnt anything specific about nurturing number 10s from FFA, other than them being a component of regular exercises for the whole team.

I've encouraged them to be adventurous, never pulling them up if they haven't succeeded in executing something they've been willing to try.

This may sound silly but I'm more interested in us producing a few good #8s.

Since the new youth developmental system thats been put in place by the FFA are we starting to develop these type of players, are we seeing some sort of progress when developing these type of players?

Are they they being identified and nutured in the youth programs club wise and state wise?

Just of Interest.