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Most A-League teams have now demonstrated that they can play the Roar system. If Brisbane wants to
grow its fan base it now has to:
1. Take its system to another level.
2. Buy better players that will play the current system better and more consistently.
3. Ensure the squad has a majority of local players (there are about 2 or 3 in there now and
sometimes they start with none).
The following was inspired by Lalo's latest comment. He makes good points about leadership,
and poses questions about the work on this blog. What follows is not intended as a full response,
but I preferred to post here instead of in the comments.
On the statement: "Leadership is doing the right thing".
Love Han Berger - love his work and what he's doing for the game in Australia but there are a
couple of areas where he and the FFA Technical Group need to improve and could improve our players,
all our players more quickly.
The revolution is on - for some, but very slowly in some areas.
In Canberra for example in clubland we are a long long way behind what constitutes technical
development.
FFA came under a lot of fire over the last couple of years as they put all their attention and
resources into the World Cup Bid, at the expense of a still fragile national league sitting in an
over-subscribed professional sporting arena.
Now it seems things are improving.
We had the season changes, and like the AFL and NRL, some key planning has gone into making noise
at the right times.
Food for thought:
In football we can simply learn from the best, but how do we and are we able to do it quickly
enough in each town/city across Australia?
The way they are developed is fascinating, as Bergkamp explains. 'We don't just
classify our players by age, we divide them into three 'wheels' depending on how much they have
grown.
Soccer clubs all over Australia see themselves as masters of the grassroots and sit waiting in
their club houses for their local A-League team to see the apparently obvious and come knocking. In
the absence of this knock, they carry on.
The A-League grassroots are the untapped crowd potential.
Families that enrol their kids at the local have taken a step that indicates that they are
interested in watching the sport.
"It's been great. Just seeing Sally Pearson win her Gold Medal race at the World Championships has
really inspired everyone involved in Primary School Soccer this week," said young Athletics Coach
Tiny Passmore.
The Primary School Soccer Tournament is on in Canberra all week and despite all the talk of FFA's
revolution of Small Sided Games the girls are playing on the biggest pitch at the recently and more
appropriately renamed Hawker Junior Athletics Centre.
Cashed up and paranoid AFL have another wee problem to solve.
Delighted when they assisted to sabotage the World Cup bid, ecstatic when the recent growth of
professional football was halted; if A-League crowds and failing teams/owners is anything to go by;
the all powerful AFL must have thought they'd thwarted football expansion.
Great article from Ned Zelic on the World Game today.
Question to is - does any Club pay their Coaches at 7,8,9 10 age group.
If they did the club can set a standard of commitment of direction for all coaches - and this could
make huge changes to all player development at your local club.
Seeing my club change some years ago to SSG and slowly seeing kids working with a ball you can see
the impact the changes are and can have on Aussie football.
My club is no Barcelona - not in culture of skills, but we do play SSG's. I'd like to see 5 v 5
taken to at least U11s but that's clearly just me.
Jan Versleijan and Han Berger have been slated by many over the last few weeks for their team
performances at the various World Cups.
Versleijan as manager of the teams, and Berger for laying down the 1-4-3-3 revolution, with a
little help from Rob Baan the former Dutch Technical Director.
Well everyone has an opinion and there is always a debate between those who've played
professionally and those Coaches who haven't.
Do you need to play professionally to develop young players? I don't think so but then I didn't
train professionally - I played in Canberra!!!!
But maybe our Coaches who are full-time, but haven't played professionally have lacked real
guidance from the professional side of the game down the years.
It could happen.
Take Canberra United women's team - and divorce it from Capital Football - and now would be a great
time.
Capital Football do what they are best at - grassroots and local competitions.
The Canberra United professional set-up would gain further expertise and focus in their elite area
and Canberra United would expand to run and promote the elite game in town.
Mariners leading the way in Community/Professional Football.
Can't see Canberra ever get it's stuff together in this area - basically no A-League team - no
franchise willing to move things forward.
Capital Football should not run Rep teams in a real football world - but for now they are the best
we have and do the best they can.
I love to go to the beach and build a castle, a sand castle. But despite all the oohs and aahs from
passers by I know that in the arvo someone will have come by and stamped on my creation.
Nothing permanent.
And such is football in Australia - it seems to me.
How many times have we heard Manchester United are coming, or in recent times Celtic, Juventus or
Beckham.
Frustrations abound with Capital Football, Canberra football, to achieve competitive football
post-15 for our boys.
A boy coming out of 4 or 5 training sessions a week can go and train twice a week at the best
Canberra Premier League clubs. Waste of time isn't it if you really want to push on as a player.
But will we ever use money in football wisely in Australia?
Socceroos are the big big drawcard and with World Cup qualifiers on FTA in coming years and the
Asian Cup in Australia in 2015 we have a lot to sell.
Not to mention the A-League which is what really needs the money to kick on.
The Interview: Just Football meets Graeme Le Saux is a post from: Just Football
JF: Graeme Le Saux, thanks very much for speaking to Just Football.
Graeme Le Saux: No problem.
JF: If you wouldn't mind beginning by telling us a bit about the Champions League Trophy
Tour with Heineken and your role as Ambassador.
Back on August 1st, 2010, the legendary Pelé announced that The New York Cosmos are back in
business. The return of the what was once the biggest soccer club in the US involves a launch of
Cosmos Academy in NYC and LA and the club becoming the organizer of Copa NYC, a World Cup-style
grassroots [..
Peter Funnell author of all things www.nearpostlocal.blogspot.com is on to it. So I'm going to use
Twitter to get to the man that matters - the Foz! Not sure this is a Capital Football thing - they
are more about U12
Football People Power In The ACT - We Need it!
Sourced from the SBS World Game, Craig Foster's Blog http://theworldgame.
Ten years ago research shows that midfielders in Europe had 6-8 touches every time they got the
ball.
Five years ago it was down to 3-5.
Now studying the Quarter Finals of last years Champions League it was down to an average of 1.8
touches per midfielder.
Who says?
Coach from Dinamo Zagrab one of the top ten Youth Development Production Factories in Europe.
Both young guys are from Canberra football - both have played many many times for the Australian
under 17 and now Under 20 teams both had to travel thousands of miles to learn their trade at a
very young age.
Bushie probably had the steal on Stephen Lustica in the early years - getting more game time in
more Rep teams at a younger age, but Lustica made his mark loud enough, soon enough, running out
time and time again for the U20s.
I'm serious about football, technical skill, education, kid development and abusing clerics in the
Catholic Church...but hey that's another story!
When Capital Football the Peak Body in Canberra announce that u12 boys and girls will now play
competitively, ie with results and league tables produced each week, I'm wondering on what criteria
this could be considered beneficial to the development of players.
What do the FFA think of Mrs Wensing? 80 years of age, she went out of her way to sign the
A-League4Canberra supporters pledge in 2009. The FFA could not have cared less.
Fozzie has spoken.At the recent inaugural fans forum in Sydney, a marvellous initiative btw, to look at and solve the
problems facing football in Australia.
Craig Foster building football - on his own. Check the video from around the 13th minute to hear
Fozzie on the Southern Cross Uni development in his home town of Lismore. Video link
Fozzie is an Australian visionary, not just a football visionary.
His football education and development centre based at Lismore will become a magnet for football
fans, students of the game, coaches, football administrators.
FFA talk Grassroots - I walk it.
My local club Majura FC are working towards an improved website, launched in a couple of weeks,
which will aim to be an information portal, of course, but we also have a few ideas to experiment
with; simple technical skill development for kids online, online payment system for parents and
development of an online shop.
