As much as I hated the way football was run in Australia in the past (especially the NSL era), one thing I will say, Australian youth football teams would regularly qualify for numerous FIFA tournaments and the Olympics, where they were very competitive. But over the last 15 or so years, the standard of our youth teams has gone to shit, where did it all go wrong?

I know in the past we had the AIS in Canberra where there was a football division, is this still around?

Since the A-League clubs have been given control of football (as we are led to believe), what plans do the A-League owners have for youth development?, eg. the setting up of youth acedemies.

The A-league clubs haven't been given control of football.  They will own the professional leagues when the documentation is finalised.

The AIS football program no longer exists.

All A-League clubs have to have academies in place by 2019.

Why should it be up to the HAL clubs to produce the next lot of kids for youth age competitions? The State feds and there clubs need to pull there finger out and make things happen. 

Here you have the crux of the problem.

Owners are so small minded that they can't put a 5 year plan in place to develop young talented players to sell for big $$$$ each year.

A proper plan would be to hire the best youth coaches in the country, sign the best prospects in the country and develop them at a high level.
Slowly integrate them into the first team and if they prove themselves, sell them on each year bring through another talented group.

Club gets big money coming in each year and the NT gets the rewards of a constant stream of new players each year or so.

It's not that complicated.

This constant buying foreign C grade pensioners is unsustainable for the clubs, the league and the national team.

The crux of the problem has not been the A League club’s. They have been banned from operating academies until this last year. 

A League club’s were forced to work with State NTS and nationally the AIS, why is another debate but Barcelona could run an Australian academy but Brisbane couldn’t. 

Since the regulations were changed several clubs have invested and two - Roar/WSW - operate free Acadamies ending pay-for-play ... both faced local opposition in doing it though. 

All 4 NSW A-League clubs have had academies since 2015. Sydney, Wanderers and Mariners were the first clubs to get FFA 2 Star accreditations for their academies in 2017 and Jets were in the 2nd group of clubs to get accreditation along with Roar.  I know Victory and City were held up getting accreditation by not having their junior teams in FV competitions and Adelaide I believe still has that problem with FFSA.  I think Glory have had their academy going for a number of years but I don't know where they are with accreditation.

The transition from the system established under the FFA Member Federation Charter (2010) to a club based development system began as a result of the Whole of Football Plan in 2015 and the requirements set down in the FFA Strategic Plan (2016-19).  The accreditation system is open to clubs outside the A-League but NPL clubs have found it too costly for them to meet the criteria for accreditation.  Hopefully it is made mandatory for the 2nd division clubs.

Its good to see progress and with 2 new A-League clubs coming on line there will be about 1,000 players in the new system soon.

In the past decade, Australia has fallen behind in a lot of sports when compared to the rest of the world. There’s a dangerous complacency that’s arisen from our self declared title of being a ‘sporting mad nation’. We love saying it but we’ve very much failed to act upon it.

Look at swimming - we used to be the undisputed powerhouse along with the US, now we’re flat out even making the podium (or final). Our Olympic team on the whole has underperformed for a while now compared to our past athletes.

Football has always had its own issues but I think a lot of them now are indicative of the general sporting landscape in Australia. Politics and money constantly hamstringing development and progress.

Can’t agree with you Waz about the competitive myth. I think it’s definitely a factor. We’ve PC’d the shit out of our junior sport and none of these kids have any ticker anymore - compared to the kids coming through the ranks from other countries anyway.

I was referring to the structure of the competitions which do not PC the competitive nature. 

Schools, society and possibly individual clubs may have tried to do that though. But let’s not blame the fact we don’t have U6 Miniroos ladders 

Watched 2 games of NPL yesterday, 14's and 16's and would disagree with the bolded statement above.

Pretty high standard and very competitive.

It's a way better standard than anything I played as a kid.

Yes suburban football is a mixed bag but a lot of kids just want to play for fun with their mates so I don't think that's a fair comparison. 

This is BS. Roar fleeces juniors at other clubs with it "preparation centre" programs where U5's are paying $1,225 per year, which then funds the Roar "free" academy (check out link below). The scheme is so good that MV has started doing the same in Vic, with many gullible parents coughing up $2,500K to play in community leagues with promises of MV trials.

https://forum.insidesport.com.au/FindPost2616380.aspx

I wouldn't put it past them running scams like this, typical Roar though bunch of scabs. 

No competition for places. Reward for little effort

Play 1 season, win the league, go overseas, come back as a marquee

This. The creation of the A league has actually been detrimental to the prospects of our national team. Previously in the nsl, players were semi pro so amyone even half decent like a Danny Allsopp or a Danny invincible left as early as possible and did not have the safety net of coming home. This meant we had a lot more players abroad. I remember reading the crawford report when it came out and it said they estimated that about a third of our overseas players would return home to a fully pro league which ended up being very accurate. given we had a lot more teams before in the NSL, the combination of less teams in the a league, a third of our players returning home to take local spots, less incentive to go overseas (or stay overseas) and more money to afford overseas imports (there are a lot more now than in the nsl) means we have a severely reduced national pool to choose from. I predicted it at the time...

The golden gen was "created" due to our national league being so poor and poorly paid. The success of our national league does not directly translate to the success of national team and is why i support our league being run by the ffa and still do. 

One way to improve our national pool would be to have a minimum of number of under 21 players selected on matchday. Say 4 minimum. This would a. Promote more youth which has been a problem area. B. Introduce more australian players into the professional world of football increasing our natiinal pool. C. Prevent clubs from recruiting drifters, deadwood types such as a Matty Simon, Anthony Golec etc who are never going to be called up to the socceroos again but coaches turn to because they dont trust youth 

When the NSL collapsed it did have an impact on youth development and both disrupted, dismantled and at best paused what we had before. And while we stagnated other countries didn’t. 

I love the (often repeated) comment “we used to regularly qualify for youth tournaments” which ignores the reality that the world has become more competitive and what we did back then occurred in a narrower competitive pool. You can still see a hangover from this when we play sides like Malaysia and Vietnam and people expwcting us to win, and win well. 

Lowy had no interest in competing with the rest of the world - so the A League was held in a straight jacket and barred from developing youth, the AIS was a bit of a sham and finished a very narrow talent developed by the States, and over the past twenty years kids abandoned street football for FIFA on the Xbox. Times changed and we didn’t. 

Then the FFA centralised coaching qualifications and as participation boomed the number of coaches didn’t and the number of experienced coaches with qualifications was insufficient 

How and why ‘pay for play’ was developed and became ubiquitous is anyone’s guess - but as it did we ended up with the kids of wealthy middle class parents in development squads and they weren’t quite good enough while the rest of the kids were left to Dad-coaches. 

All is not lost but it’s been painful. 

+1 and add in we used to qualified through Oceania which was a lot easier 

the point remains, we were very competitive against all nations, at one point we were the 4th best performed country in the history of the U20 WC, but now we struggle against Asian minnows (who would get flogged by the better Euro/Sth American countries)

Just because we lose in qualification doesn’t mean we would in the final tournament. 

Agree with the rest but I don't buy the argument highlighted in bold. If this were a factor then why are 1st world countries like Belgium leaping ahead of many developing nations when it comes to player development?

TBH I think you are actually agreeing with him. Belgium did change but we didn't. I believe the Belgium FA introduce a ball mastery programme in selected schools over there to complement what the professional clubs where doing in their academies and this has had a direct link to their current golden generation. They were basically training an extra 3 mornings a week before school and purely working on technique.

For what it is worth I agree with Muzz above. I have had 4 kids play football at NPL and Association level and I have seen huge improvements at both levels of the game over the space of about 13 years. There is plenty of young talented footballers coming through but not enough opportunity at the professional level. Also you can't worry too much about what we are doing at youth level as the talent pool is so large and so hard to line up that selection of the best is a very difficult process. 

I'm with you with your 2nd paragraph, not enough opportunity is a huge issue.
Our football level has improved watching from the sideline for I also have had 2 kids play PL, the 2nd @ 19yrs so I have been around it for a while having gone through Youth as well.
No point going on about the past nowadays, whats done is done.
What I have seen over my years is our coaching "system" should be better and more provided to PL2/3 for thats where your next in line can develop from.
Current system imo has stifled out individual brilliance and turned some players into robots, play out from the back and do the same same every single play, what has happened to shuffling the cards and allowing game breakers do it.
Yes there sure is some talented kids but depending on the club TD x player gets berated not playing to the game plan.
Surely when you are seeing a player of considerable talent/skill if they express themselves through a game (depending when) you should encourage it and more so IF he gets a shot in ! compared to having to keep playing war pass's till your in the 6yard box for a tap in.
The other issue mentioned is the "club internal politics and motives" they have held back so much over the years.....so many in Club Admin are just 2faced crook full stop.
Clubs need to identify this and weed them out for their own good, its not just about the money/xyz's son etcetc......
Another point it wasn't that expensive back in the day, been mentioned countless times as well, were pushing out farfarfar too many potentials due to costs, some parents just can't shelve out $2k + for Johnny.

Started long time ago when in their wisdom the Federation introduced a system where kids played for fun instead of winning. Goals were not to be recorded and the awarding of points for a win or a draw was also done away with. Competition from matches was eliminated as was the fierce desire to win at all cost. Then we saw the introduction small pitches where kids were meant to get more touches and produce better players. (Has it?) Then it was the NPL where only the rich could afford to participate in this competition. The tried and tested Super Leagues that served the game so well in Victoria disappeared. The old Super Leagues saw  the best teams play against each other every week, but this was replaced by a competition that has been so unbalanced (scorewise) it has been detrimental to the game. Then it became a requirement for every coach to have a license to coach and even though some didn't know a thing about the game as long as you had this bit of paper you became a coach. There are other issues that has contributed to poor player developement but I'll leave it at that for now. 

And there you repeat one of the biggest myths in Australian football. It’s not true. 

This is how it works: 

Up to Under 7’s - small sides football with results not recorded. 

U8-U11 - results recorded, win/loss celebrated but no league ladder

U12 upwards - Result recorded, Full league ladder, end of season finals series 

When you put football & subsequently football development in the hand of those with corporate minds this is what you get.  

If football development was quantified by meaningless reviews & meaningless curriculums without any accountability at all then Australia would have won the World Cup several times over by now.  

Where did it go wrong? I think it’s a case of the era where the FFA decided the game should start from year zero in the aleague and remove the NSL and all the good the junior development it did have that’s worked really well.

Its telling their baby the FFA NC has been slow to see results and I think overall it’s been the lack of investment into the game whilst the rest of the football world has evolved it’s junior development pouring millions and time into it each year.

A lot has to do on our side but also the global context should be considered in all of this.

We had a useful system with the AIS, NTC System whilst having a better youth structure before the NSL but maybe the changes were too drastic given the structure and pathways underneath the aleague are quite poor.

I think it’s fair to say where the FFA put too much time on the aleague and less and pathways below and now we are kind of paying the price at youth level and even at Socceroos level.

Not hope is lost though as we always developed good talent but struggled to convert that potential talent into quality international players.

I disagree. The FFA didn’t put enough time into the A League which is why it’s imploding. That’s the problem with the centralised model - you can’t put enough time anywhere - A League or otherwise. 

Plus the A League have been specifically excluded from youth development and only expected to blood youngsters 18+ after they graduate AIS

Although I agree with you the FFA hasn’t focussed enough in this area. In theory the new model should allow the FFA to concentrate on youth development from age 4 upwards. It’s alarming though to see they might be running the NSD which suggests someone hasn’t learned past lessons. 

Lastly, we’ve never been good at youth development - if you took the list of golden generation that people always use to say we were good once to any football nation they’d laugh at you and say - “is that it??” 

The more we look to a failed past the more we risk making the same mistakes. Youth development was hamstring by pompous  club committees who allowed nepotism to flourish; political local football administrations more concerned with stopping their neighboring association getting something they didn’t have than advancing football, and a national administration that was basically just rooted 

Fair points Waz.

To be fair for the FFA the introducing of the curriculum has seen a bigger emphasis on skill and technique in our young players more than any time before even way back to the golden generation.

Largely due to SAP and the coaching they receive at elite level and often than not has seen a upskill on technical development and the amount of players I’ve seen at youth level going back maybe the last 8 years has come along way are a lot better technically.

The down side is maybe they are overcoached and often we struggle to see players think for themselves but that’s something that can be improved on.

I do agree they need to focus more on it, as these things also need to evolve as well plus it cops a lot of stick from sideline critics so i think it’s important these things get bigger priorities in the future.

Yes bring back those great heady days where we qualified for every youth cup but failed to qualify for the world cups.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/fifa-world-cup-expansion-why-australia-should-consider-going-back-to-oceania-20170111-gtp692.html

Without doubt the worst all-time take from The 'Cock. The cancer must def have been rotting his brains for him to arrive at such a conclusion.

Oceania having a guaranteed place at the various "junior" world cups was a factor.

Tommy Juric’s 17 yo cousin Noah Botic signing a 2 year deal in the Budasleague with Hoffenhiem. 

Damned system corrupting our kids ... once upon a time they’d turn Germany down to qualify in Oceania rant rave rant rave ...

Although Adelaide’s hierarchy have long held high hopes for Toure, a former Croydon Kings talent, the club had more vigorously highlighted the first-team prospects of Carlo Armiento, Louis D’Arrigo and Lachlan Brook to Verbeek when he arrived in the City of Churches in July.

But Toure immediately grabbed the attention of the 57-year-old ex-Eredivisie man.

excert taken from https://www.a-league.com.au/news/toure-keeps-leaving-verbeek-surprised-unlikely-rise-adelaide-first-team

This is a big issue and a constant issue not been talked about.

often its not how talented you are or how you perform on field, but rather who you have in your corner off field whether it be hierarchy or agents that are well connected. A lot of talented players have been released simply due to not having the right backing unfortunately their on field performances go unnoticed. In steps a coach who doesn't talk politics and against suggestions gives a genuinely talented player a go. what do you know he performs quite well.

1. We were in Oceania, which made qualifying easier.

2. Africa and Asia were both rubbish in the 90s. They have now caught up and so are no longer easy beats in the comps, whilst our young blokes have extremely stiff competition for club spots overseas.

3. At youth level, we used to play a lot more physically and this allowed us to win games even when we were inferior skill wise. Now that we are trying to play through skill and not rely on strength at junior levels, we aren't performing as well (even though the skill levels are arguably better).

4. The A-League/lack of second division doesn't provide enough opportunities for youngsters, and so they don't get enough game time to develop.

I don't know what percentage I'd assign to each 4, but all 4 have played a big factor IMO.

What are you doing here??? You are making far too much sense for this thread.

1.  The point remains that we were competitive against European and Sth American opposition, doesn't matter how easy it was to get there.  Just prior to the establishment of the A-League, Australia was the 4th best performed country in the U20 WC, that is, over the entire history of this age group.

2.  Actually, Nigeria and Ghana were quite strong in the early years of this age group.

3.  There might be something in this, although sounds a little bit speculative.  Probably incorrect to suggest we were any more physical than European teams.

1. This is answered by his point 3
2. They were playing overage players due to birth certificate issue 
3. Its true even the old heads of the AIS have come out and said they we dont look enough these days at physicality in our juniors and pointed to emerton who was an elite athlete as a junior. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_FIFA_World_Youth_Championship
Qatar were runners up in the 1981 World Youth Championship, defeating Poland, Brazil and England on the way to the finals.
We should be investigating what they were doing with their obviously-successful youth development programs at the time!

My non-sarcastic answer;
* Youth football tends to be a bit more random than "adult" football.
* The purpose of youth football is to develop players for senior football. Although I'm happy to cheer any youth Socceroos teams on, I do so with the hope of seeing the players develop and start to get into the real Socceroos team. If a magic genie gave me the choice of;
a) Australia winning 3 x Under 20 world cups in a row but also not getting out of the group stage of the senior world cup for the next 3 x World cups
or
b) Australia getting out of the group stage at the next world cup.
I'd pick b) every time.



>1.  The point remains that we were competitive against European and Sth American opposition, doesn't matter how easy it was to get there.  Just prior to the establishment of the A-League, Australia was the 4th best performed country in the U20 WC, that is, over the entire history of this age group.

The bolded is a bit of a stretch.
Australia came 4th in the 1991 & 1993 U20 WCs.
The A-League was established in 2004-2005.

There were 5 U20 WCs between Australia's 4th placing and the establishment of the A-League.

For all the talk of 'youth results don't matter' surely you'd be better doing consistently well at these tournaments than not.

(a) it would mean your development 'system' was working
and
(b) the players would be in a fairly prominent shop window. 

Point 3 has real merit imo.
As much as I believe learning the skill/possession game we lacked in the past our physicality sure helped in the early years.
I recall many opponent NT players after our games saying we sure let them know we were there !
Granted that in part made up for our lack of skill, I feel if we kept a little of this character in our style of play (ala Uruguay/Argies etc) to this day putting the fear in your opponent is a +.

Point 4 sososo much.

Regarding physicality, interpretations of contact have over time become more strict to the benefit of skillful players. Focusing on (wanting a return to) producing more physical players won't necessarily benefit you in the current paradigm.

well, yes and no.
Lets talk top levels re physicality and skill obviously right now more so with a few of the past.....
Just consider the CB/CM combos over the years by winning clubs.
Defense is the fist line of winning, physical and skill.
Fergie's era, Stam,Vidic,Ferdinand, Nevilles weren't soft, Evra - then middle Scholes/Keane, Cantona/Rooney - you could name more physical and bonus brawn. Ibra
RM, Pepe - Ramos !/Marcelo/Kroos/Benzema and more
Barca, Puyol/Alves/Pique/Deco/Suarez and more
Pool, Hypia/Carra/VVD/Gomez/Milners/Fabinhos more.....
City, Kompany/Fernandino/Aguero/BSilva
Juve,Cannavaros/Chiellinis/Nedveds etcetc

Nah, physicality is still strong in the game, even when the Barca ticka tacka evolved and to date.......
The HUGE diff on these top liners they are fitter faster than ours and some, they get away with a hell of alot whereas our Roo players are slow and slower than most of the asian countries we play today.
Prior we used to physically get over them, now they have improved their skill but their fitness levels above us.
We need to get fitter faster mixed with some brawn.

At YL we are soft as, I've been watching from the sideline for years and years, playing more synthetics our boys are getting softer and the officials pick them up for a minor transgression, its getting OTT..
Were breeding softies as well as great passers going backwards to reset how many times in a game :).

I agree with a lot of the stuff being posted such as pro/rel, etc. 

I'd like to add a point that I think most people won't think about. I've been coaching for almost 10 years at NPL level in NSW from U13's to 1st Grade and there is one thing I've noticed. Our youth squad sizes are too small (16 players) - why is this important? When I was in Portugal, I watched my cousin play and I was shocked at the amount of players they had on the bench. The squad size is about 20 players.

• More players means players have to earn their spot in the starting 11
• If there injuries, players are away, sick, etc and so players are always guaranteed game time
• Most importantly, less players means the intensity at training drops and game problems are difficult to recreate when it is 8v8, 7v7, 6v6 depending on how many players are unavailable for that particular training
• Interesting enough, I had my most successful seasons at U18, U20 and 1st Grade level when I had bigger squads - U18 and U20's I had extra players training with us during the season.

Yes but was it worth having your ears bleeding the from whinging from the parents of the kids who weren't getting much game time. 

My kid travels by bus 5 and half hours one way every second week to play in the Newcastle NPL comp.  (Leaves at 6am - returns at 10pm.)  They have a squad of 16. Some weeks he gets a full match (less say 10 minutes) other times he only gets 20 minutes.

He will probably give it up next year because of that exact reason.  I understand why the coach does it but I also understand from his perspective why he's losing interest.

Will he join a more local league or just give it up entirely? 

Play with his mates in the suburban comp.

whilst I admire his current dedication..I have to ask where you live that his closest NPL club is 5.5 hours away ?

Mid north coast NSW.

Gold Coast too far away?

The zone we are in is captured by Newcastle.  Pretty sure Lismore plays in the Gold Coast comp.

It's a 5.5hr bus ride.  4 hours if you drive to Newy but the kids all have to go by bus.  The bus takes all 4 teams which is why it's an all day affair.

That's very very rough on the kids.

It is but at least the option is there for them to do it.  So credit where credit is due. 

Apparently before we got to town there was no NPL for the area because the Newcastle mob didn't want to travel up the coast once or twice a season..

Credit to your kid but its survival of the 'fittest'. Players have to earn their time and spot in the 11. We want the strongest in all aspects to rise to the top and the mental part of the game is probably one of the most important parts of it. I was in the same boat as your son and quit at 18. I know realise why and I only blame myself.

You're 100% right. It is about the mental side as much as anything.  I guess if we were dead serious about turning him into the best footballer he could be we'd pick up the whole family and move towns.  When he played in Brisbane he was in a gun team surrounded by gun players. (He was one of the gun players.)  Had we stayed there he'd be a far better player now.

But we moved towns for a better overall life and, well, here we are. 

I have to give credit to North Coast Football and Newcastle.  The standout kids get invited to camps and trials in Newy and someone from one of the 4 NPL sides is always moving onto bigger and better things.  You'd have to say the net is being cast wider than it used to be.  Everything seems to be a step up in professionalism from only a few years ago.

Good to read an informed post on this subject, FL.

That is from somebody involved coaching in the system and qualified at semi-pro /pro level. 

When was the last time you saw a kid kicking a soccer ball in the street?  When I was a kid that’s what we did, after school and on weekends, go outside and play.  The streets and ovals would be full with kids.  These days kids are stuck inside on their playstations, Xbox’s and ipads.  They still play structured sport to please their parents but once it’s over they zip inside and go online.  The passion for sport just isn’t there anymore.  

It's not really about the ps4s and xbox's etc, it's more about the 15-18 year olds who are extremely talented quitting football to chase skirt more often.

A point I reluctantly concur with being a teacher of kids 4-10 years old.

Most kids' major passion is their IT devices - not sport. If they were allowed to sit inside and play with IT devices, most would do so instead of  playing outside at lunch and recess.

There isn't  much street football, cricket, etc, played anymore. Most of the time one sees  Dads playing with their own kids, but not groups of kids organising their own games.

Just on this the Newcastle Jets have sides in all the comps but they all play a year up.  So Under 13's in the 14's, under 14's in the 15s etc.. (They're called the 'Emerging Jets'.)

I just had a look at the ladders and they're doing fairly well.

You'd probably call this a bit of a production line,  http://websites.sportstg.com/comp_info.cgi?c=1-10182-0-518206-0&a=LADDER

Under 18's in the 20 comp are currently 2nd
Under 16's in the 18 comp are currently 1st
Under 15's in the 16 comp are currently 1st
Under 14's in the 15 comp are currently 3rd
Under 13's in the 14 comp are currently 3rd
Under 12's in the 13 comp are currently 1st

Worth remembering that a lot of our past youngsters were first gen Aussies, so many grew up in a culture where football was second to God.

Finanicial security also plays a bigger part now. Nowadays even if you aren't that good at school there are plenty of options available for you that pay well. Versus hoping that your football career kicks on (lots of time and effort required... with a low chance of success).

Even at my grass roots club we have had players stop playing because they can't risk an injury that will stop them working (many earning apprenticeships do this when they finish school).

As I said in another post along the exact same lines last week, I think a nationally accredited state based academy system, criteria for NPL/HAL clubs in regards to academies, a full pyramid and adopting coach education (and targeting kids in sports) similar to what has recently been done in Iceland would be a start

Releasing players once they turn 19 is a joke. It happens all the time. I think there is a quota players can't be older than 20. At that point the club needs to make a call. Players develop at a later stage, all that talent goes to waste, all that nurturing down the drain. 
the whole system is a shambles. You have players deemed not good enough for the A league make it  in other high quality leagues.

Timotheou initially (Schalke) now somewhere in Belgium, Duncan (AGF Arhuas), John Iredale (Wolfsburg). 
How many more are simply wasted playing yet the league recycles players.

Exactly. Players making it is a random chaotic mix of possibilites and is not linear. Jason Culina for example was at Ajax for years without ever playing a game then got a move to twente at like 24 where he scored over 10 goals from midfirld and suddenly was rusted on starter for socceroos. Never know how players will turn out. No one woukd have ever predicted chippeefield to move to basle like he did at 28 become a club legend and play in the champions league every year 

With the current structure in place late developers will never make it here, the cut off with aleague squads is too early and need to be at a level developing those players that come good later on.

“Like Mazis, Garner and Woods reminded Bernal of a teenage Tom Rogic and hopes they'll be inspired by his journey."Both boys impressed me immediately like the first time I saw Tom Rogic," Bernal said. "We have no A-league club in Canberra so the quicker they get out into a professional environment the better chance they have of becoming top professionals."This is a training and development trip to see where they lie in the football landscape, and be put into the club database for further monitoring."


https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6357464/two-teens-ready-to-fire-ahead-of-celtic-training-stint/?cs=14237

Massive gaps in youth development. Needs to be some research done in these areas.

I think we need to SEE the connection from

Youth leagues -> A-League & OR NT EXPOSURE -> Overseas. 

Make a name HERE -> THEN go overseas.

NOT! Nobodies , no names, then see them in the NT not knowing who the fug