The memories start flooding back. It was 1992, about a week out from my fourteenth birthday, and I am standing on the hill in front of the scoreboard at Melita Stadium with fellow teenagers. The old Maltese men jokingly called us ‘hoodlums’. On the field were some of the best technical players that have graced Australian football; Gerry Gomez, Gabriel ‘Chi Chi’ Mendez, Marshall Soper and the man who is now sitting opposite me in a café in Sydney’s eastern suburbs – Aytek Genc.

Genc scored that day against the Novocastrians. The oldies in the Don Agius Stand swung their wooden rattles over their heads, the distinctive click and swirl sound echoing around the ground. The chorus of ‘ma taghmlu xejn’ sung in unison. The memories of Genc as a player all start to come back – the quick turn of speed, dropping the shoulder to beat an opponent and moving the ball away from the challenging player to retain possession – as Genc begins to talk about his role as General Manager of Football and Technical Director for St George Football Association (SGFA).

People talk in football. Everyone has an opinion on everybody else. It is rare to find a common voice of approval for one person. Within football circles Genc has respect even by those who have never dealt with him, but have made their judgements purely by witnessing his results. Even in the cesspool of social media forums the words ‘excellent’ and ‘top class’ are used to describe his coaching. My desire to interview him was not to reminisce on my childhood memories, but to learn about how he develops players.

“I look at my experience as a child where we played in the streets”, Genc explains as he moves in his seat. “I like to get into the body shape. Why you drop this shoulder to go there. So I’ll do a lot of demonstrations and do repetitive work on having a quick look, where does the first touch go, what part of the body (do you use) and let them discover as well.”


The level of technical execution at speed is what caught the eye of teenagers on Granville Hill, old Maltese men in the stands, as well as scouts in Asia, where Genc played for several years. Genc’s ability to beat players so easily made him a fan favourite, and it is these attributes he loves to develop within players.

“Speed. You have got to have players who put teams off balance”, says Genc. “At any moment of the game, they can go past somebody. Otherwise you are always playing in front of oppositions. You need to find players who in each area of the pitch give you something, that can make a difference.”

Genc is measured in his responses. There is always a pause to answer each question, followed by a short, but meaningful response. It is reminiscent of his footwork on the pitch, where he would seemingly stop, and then all of the sudden take off.

“I would like to have every player with technique and speed ala Barcelona, but you have got to be realistic about what you can and can’t have”, says Genc. It is a pragmatic assessment, but that does not stop him from maintaining his belief. “There has to be speed and there has to be players who can make a difference in certain parts of the pitch.”

The standard is set high, but Genc does not ask players to do what he himself could not. “Midfielders can’t lose the ball under pressure. If three guys surround a player, we should be able to play the ball to him and he can be completely comfortable in playing it.”

The Technical Director Role

Genc began his role as Technical Director and General Manager at St George Football Association in southern Sydney. The marriage between Genc and SGFA was formed after Genc’s private academy worked with the association. Since then Genc was been employed part-time for two years, moving his academy under the umbrella of the association. The role became full-time three years ago, as Genc was given a six-year contract.

“I set St George a vision and philosophy. That’s my job. To present to them a full view of where we are headed for football in our region. Now there will be some consistencies with FFA, but it’s our own. It comes out of something I believe in personally and that’s why they put me in this job.


“My job was voted on and ratified by the 24 clubs in our area. So it was unanimous that I would provide a service to all of the clubs in the region from an advisory capacity and coach education. I also go along and run some training sessions for them.”

Genc’s role impacts every child who plays within SGFA. He also has an advisory role with National Premier League club (NPL) St George. The club is a separate body and Genc has created a pathway for local players to feed into. Genc also appoints the coaches for the NPL club.

“I look after everything from the social football aspect which is loosely termed ‘grassroots’ which could mean, in my opinion, many things. Grassroots doesn’t mean a kid that has no aspirations to play at a higher level. Grassroots is any child that wants to play football. That could mean an elite player, and that is another funny term, elite to the said player who just wants to have a kick around.”

“I set St George a vision and philosophy. It comes out of something I believe in personally and that’s why they put me in this job.
”

Genc is amongst many within football who have concerns about dividing junior football into a class system. “I believe every boy and girl wants to improve. Which means that they’re aspirational in the way they play. It doesn’t matter whether they are playing in C-grade and want to move up to B, or whether you’re an A-grade player that wants to play representative football.”

For the ‘social player’, Genc’s technical department conducts coaching the coach programs in line with FFA’s National Football Curriculum, held pre and post season. This usually starts with a grassroots expo for coaches conducted by an FFA representative. Last year the association had over 100 local coaches attend.

Out of the 24 clubs in the association there are around half that have appointed coaching directors, whom Genc works with. The clubs are not required to have a coaching director, and Genc is realistic about each of the club’s capacity to employ one.

“We have some other clubs who really don’t do much because mum and dad run the club, they’re just small. And you get the other ones who are very aspirational and they want to bring someone in.”

Genc believes the focus for most of the clubs is improve the standard of their players. “I think the clubs have been fantastic in our area in pushing coach education and that their coaches are sent to the all of the courses that I run. They have been really supportive of that”, he said.

Along with the Skills Acquisition Program (SAP), the Regional Youth League teams as well as alignment with St George Football Club, the association also runs an academy. “We have also got a responsibility to ensure that kids who are aspirational, who don’t make SAP, or who don’t make the regional youth league and so on, have somewhere to go where they receive coaching they are after.

“See what they do is go into private academies. If we don’t provide an academy program open to everybody we would lose all of these kids. So we provide a service for everybody.”

Coaching methodology

Our conversation centres on developing players in the skills acquisition phase (under 10-13). Genc the player has been replicated in his coaching philosophy. “Everything that we do at training we teach players how to get out of tackle range”, he said. “Having a look at their vision, tackle range, combination play, and rotations. They understand all that.

“A lot of mini games where it might be just possession. You’ll be amazed (at watching the young players) upon receiving the ball, if the tackle is there, he’ll move and take the ball that way. We are at them all the time about taking the ball out of tackle range. Change of direction, take the ball out of tackle range is so important.”

“You can’t teach it, but you can encourage it. I can’t tell someone to be creative. I may give him pointers, but if he is in the right environment, he’ll be creative.
”

This is an important point. Most coaches and technical directors talk about improving first touch, but rarely about ensuring that first touch is taken out of tackle range. What should be standard practice is not in the junior coaching vocabulary.

“I’m a big advocate of creativity. Express yourself, do something and be comfortable in doing it. Creativity is everything. It’s funny because I am screaming out from the sideline ‘dribble, quicker and dribble’. We want to move the ball quick – touch, touch, touch. Soon as you beat somebody in midfield you have created extra numbers.”

Genc was a devilishly creative player. He had the ability to turn an almost dead-end situation into an attack on goal. But individual brilliance, as Ned Zelic would call it, is not an easy thing to teach.

“You can’t teach it, but you can encourage it”, says Genc. “I can’t tell someone to be creative. I may give him pointers, but if he is in the right environment, he’ll be creative.

“We don’t play in the streets like we used to. That really doesn’t exist anymore. We have to encourage our kids to just go out and play, watch games on TV. I used to love watching football then go outside and try it myself.”

As a child moves from the discovery phase (under 6-9) to skills acquisition (under 10-13) and then into game training phase (under 14-17), the emphasis starts to move into positional roles and responsibilities with the system. Genc provides some guidance on how to navigate through the transition.

“Decision making and creativity go hand in hand. There’s structured decision making and there’s creativity. Creativity is where you allow them to use their own imagination to do whatever they want.

“I think we should coach more and more as they get older. At a young age it should be less coaching. Let them be. Let them express themselves. As long as you have a field and some sort of outcome or target, say scoring a goal for instance, let them be.

“They’ll come up with all sorts of things. Certainly less coaching. There is nothing worse for an eight year old with the coach going ‘you need to do this’ and ‘pass the ball’.

“We’re not pedantic about where they play. If we put on a guy in a certain position we don’t care if he goes from right back to left wing. As long as he expresses himself and does something that is positive. We don’t go and tell him ‘Hey, get back into position’. I don’t care if a goalkeeper comes out and skins a player.”

“Speed can mean many things. It could be with or without the ball. It can be speed of thought, speed of movement, decision-making.
”

Our conversation moves into players who are at game phase learning (under 14-17) and performance level (17 years and older). Genc is a big advocate in players having not only good technique, but being able to do it at speed.

“It has to be about power, strength and lateral movement. You need that in your players, because you’ll struggle.

“Speed can mean many things. It could be with or without the ball. It can be speed of thought, speed of movement, decision-making. It’s just not about how fast he is with his feet.”

Genc believes that a coach can improve the speed of a player. “You can develop speed by the way you train. A lot of it is also mental. If you set them certain targets at training, they will do things at a high tempo, at speed.

“You’ll be amazed at training where I tell kids ‘Quicker, quicker.’ They can’t quite do it, then eventually the guy does a hundred metres in ten seconds.”

If a young player has good game sense and excellent technique, Genc’s coaching staff will work with the player to develop speed. “What you’ll find is that a kid at twelve might not have a great deal of speed and at sixteen he does. He is obviously not lightning quick, but he is at a level where it’s more than adequate.”

Appointing coaches

When explaining how to develop and nurture talent, many coaches will talk for hours, providing an unsubstantiated weight of evidence of how they have discovered the secret formula. Genc however, is succinct. “First of all you need good coaches who understand the philosophy of the club, they need to work with the technical director to make sure the right things are being taught.”

Not quite satisfied with the response, or more likely a longing for more, I press Genc on the subject again. “I always employ experienced coaches”, he says. “The first thing I look at is who it is. I think you need experienced coaches to understand what I want which means they have to be on the same page as me. So I can mentor them.

“I always employ experienced coaches.
”

“They must have experience in coaching kids. They need to have the ability to inspire the kids and you can usually do that if you have been in the game for a bit. Someone they can look up to.”

Sitting next to me is Leopold Method’s analyst, Kate Cohen. Sensing that he is in the presence young coach, Genc pivots: “Don’t get me wrong, I like good young coaches. By the time I leave this job, I’m hoping a couple of 22 year olds can come in and be here beyond my time.”

“I believe all coaches should do the graft before they are appointed into any role. Because we don’t see enough of it. I think a lot of times coaches get jobs because of their profiles.”

Identifying talent

Before anyone can develop talent, they must be able to identify it. Genc laments the limitations with resources to be able to watch all of the players within St George association, and how he relies heavily on the clubs to provide a list of talented players. Upon the advice of the clubs, Genc’s technical department brings the players into trials or training to examine the player’s ability.

Genc talks about identifying talent and recruiting players in junior and senior level almost seamlessly. It is clear that within his mind he knows the type of player he wants. “Let’s just take systems and tactics out of it, because systems and tactics don’t always win you games. Human beings win you games. Really it’s about the human element that I’m big on.

“You have to produce and develop players who fit your philosophy and vision or you have to recruit players who you look at and go’ he is the type of player I would like to play for me.’”

Genc’s ideal player is cerebral. “A brain. They have got to have peripheral vision, game sense, very aware. They got to have focus. I feel the mental side is very important. We can pick that up fairly quickly. The ones that will apply themselves to the game will make it.”

“Players develop in different ways. You know there are coaches who will tell a player they will never make it. You can’t ever say that, cause you just never know.
”

Developing the mental side of players is something he Genc not only experienced at in football, but also with helping Australian cricket captains. Back in 2003, a then 22-year old Michael Clarke, lived with Genc to learn what it took to be a professional athlete.

“He’s been a professional athlete for a long time and knows the focus it takes. He understands that you have to be up at 6am to go to training and come back at 10pm sometimes. He knows the importance of keeping your feet on the ground and, at times, that you have to be a little selfish in a positive way”, said Clarke, who has enjoyed a 105 test career and success as Australia’s cricket captain.

The elite junior development system can be ruthless. Players can be moved out and practically banished because they have been deemed not to have the technical ability or athleticism to play at the highest level. It is here that Genc finds fault with the system.

“I never say never about any player. Because you just never know. They may not be mentally there now, but they might be later. Some players might be quick now, but then something might happen to them.

“Players develop in different ways. You know there are coaches who will tell a player they will never make it. You can’t ever say that, cause you just never know. A kid could be nothing special for a long, long time. Then all of the sudden it will all just click.”

The impact Genc has made to St George Football Association


Genc believes one of the biggest impacts to football in SGFA he has made has been the implementation of small-sided football [SSF].

“A couple of years ago I had to come in and work with out executive committee at the time to ensure that the rules of the game for young kids was implemented properly by the referees and non-referees. To ensure that kids were not standing in front of goal. So the rules of the game had to be sorted so the outcomes could be achieved – kids are playing, touching the ball.

“I think the overall standard of the game has improved. There has been some major improvements in the way kids play. It’s more possession based. It’s just not kick and run. But the overall technique of boys and girls in our region, their ability to manoeuvre the ball is much better now than it used to be.”

Football NSW Technical Director, Alex Tobin, was complementary of the work Genc has done for SFGA. “He is a good asset in his space. It is great they (SGFA) have got him.”

The role of a technical director is not just about implementation of the National Football Curriculum, setting a philosophy, developing players and educating coaches. Educating the parents can be half the battle. “There has been education for the parents as well, not just the coaches, but for the parents to understand what our expectations are”, says Genc.

“It was competitive football as well. I think it [SSF] has reduced sideline disruptions and improved behaviour. It used to be crazy. The sidelines was just…all the nutcases would carry on. They would just go around and scream at each other, yelling out to kick the ball. Now the kids are just playing.”

The Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) is obviously the crowning achievement for the association. “Currently our SAP is no doubt is probably the best in Australia. That is something we are very proud of.

“We have made some major, major progress in the way we play. Five years ago or even a couple of years ago, our metro league, which became SAP, we won it a couple of times. In other words they were the best. But if you saw them play, individual players didn’t play well. They just played it very direct. Compared to what we’re doing now is a massive difference in the way we play.”

The legacy

Half way into his contract with St George Football Association, the question of legacy might not of entered into Genc’s mind. He gives the impression he thinks about the present and not too far into the future. Genc is a realist in his expectations of things, hoping the standards he sets is what will make a change, as opposed to some visionary statement.

There is a sigh of despair when the question of legacy is asked. I feel like a defender that has boxed Genc into a corner. There is a pause, then a verbal ‘drop-the shoulder and take off’. A double touch – one-two – and his turn of phrase leaves this interviewer stranded.

“Lift up the standard of football in the area. Make sure that we have more staff, more coaches, make sure every player that plays our game not only enjoys the game but actually plays the game at a high level. That is an NPL player or a local league player.

“I would like to leave a legacy of some kind. To have highly beneficial programs in place to ensure that even when I am not there that can continue well into the future, and that vision and philosophy continues beyond my term.”



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Brilliant to hear this.=d> =d> =d>

Too many rep coaches I've met, not particularly good players themselves, are really elitist the way they talk about young players being inadequate.

In just six months in the rep system, I saw many players under my tutelage, who had not been previously selected in the supposedly labelled FFA talented pathway, catch up, and even overtake players who had been deemed talented players as part of the FFA system over a protracted period.

Kids develop in bursts, with peaks and troughs. I know this as a professional teacher. I feel FFA is too hasty in labelling young players to be talented at a young age. A lot of work goes into developing some players who drop out. Some talented players don't have the motivation.

I'm also thrilled to hear Genc talk about all players, grass roots players. All players are important. One product of ostensibly labelled elite athletes in any sport, is the manifestation of the prima dona attitude. Once some players have it, they are finished, as they won't listen to sage advice.

This can occur in the rep system in any sport.

I have a mate who has been an elite sprinter. He is almost never enthused about any young athlete. Once he scrutinises the times they run, he measures them against national/international standards. It is a sage way to evaluate athletes.

Many young footballers need to realise only something like half a percent ever go on to play football beyond their best local league. This is a worldwide figure.






Edited by Decentric: 29/3/2014 01:53:39 PM

Before anyone can develop talent, they must be able to identify it. Genc laments the limitations with resources to be able to watch all of the players within St George association, and how he relies heavily on the clubs to provide a list of talented players. Upon the advice of the clubs, Genc’s technical department brings the players into trials or training to examine the player’s ability.


Not good enough, This is the biggest part of the problem surely we could develope a better system.

This two tiered class system is against my beliefs.

Sometimes some in football think that unless a player is very talented, they don't deserve good coaching. That it is an elitist view.

As Brian Clough argued, he was no great shakes as a player when he was 15. He went on to represent England at senior level. Clough's English First Division (then the top English league) scoring record, was close to a goal per game at senior level.

[quote=Decentric
This two tiered class system is against my beliefs.

Sometimes some in football think that unless a player is very talented, they don't deserve good coaching. That it is an elitist view.

As Brian Clough argued, he was no great shakes as a player when he was 15. He went on to represent England at senior level. Clough's English First Division (then the top English league) scoring record, was close to a goal per game at senior level.[/quote]

The number of players binned in the 'dog eat dog' NPL not always due to talent is not good, with a poor safety net loads of potential is lost. Still what better way to secure your status by going on one of the coaches overseas tours. Also the number of NPL kids at private skools who cant make Saturday divisional football coz of skool so get selected for NPL if you grease enough palms.

Good article by the way.

I can see your point. Particularly when some clubs aren't keen to let go of their most talented juniors. He does get around this somewhat by running junior camps during the holidays twice a year open to all association juniors at a nominal fee. A number of kids now in the St George SAP program have been identified this way.

Fantastic IMO all players want is a fair go.give them a fair go and they themselves will oftern make the call that they are not good enough.

It's the australian way. A fair go mate.

A long time ago I know but harry kewell said on ww of sport that he himself was passed over by many teams including the AIS.

Here's another name for you who never gave up, and he had to wait a lot longer for his chance: current Australian Footballer of the Year, current Australian & EPL Captain and unfortunately our only current regular in the Big leagues: Mile Jedinak

bump

Is this the bloke commenting on TV for the WC?

Edited by Decentric: 24/6/2014 10:41:45 PM

Same guy.