The National Premier Leagues will not only ensure the evolution of second-tier football, but will have far-reaching impact on the pathways for young players.
The recent launch of the National Premier Leagues has been hailed as a massive step forward for the development of football in Australia. The NPL will not only ensure the evolution of second-tier football, but will have far-reaching impact on the pathways for young players across the country.
With the aim of providing a homogenous and consistent coaching environment, NPL member federations will apply the national curriculum for youth development, follow set criteria for coach accreditation, ensure each club has a technical director, and engage in structured planning to improve business practices off the field.
It-s no easy job and despite widespread approval, such a large reorganisation of individual national competitions won-t come easy, which is why not every member federation has signed up for season 2013.
Football West, Northern New South Wales Football (NNSWF) and Football Federation Victoria have all postponed their entrance as they aim to manage the outcomes of the National Competition Review (NCR) and the affects the recommendations will have on their clubs and competitions.
As one of the smaller federations, the priority for NNSWF remains ensuring the quality and sustainability of their clubs. Without the numbers of Sydney and neighbour federation Football NSW, implementing such change has to be done carefully.
“For the best part of the last 12 months we-ve been involved in consultation with clubs around the elite club accreditation,” CEO David Eland says.
“We need to make sure that is sustainable and financially viable. Newcastle and the Hunter region are recognised as one of the heartlands of Australian football. We have a myriad of clubs with more than 100 years of history in the game.
"While we applaud what FFA is trying to achieve we want to make sure it-s done in a way our clubs can handle and that they can survive.”
It-s a sentiment echoed by Football West CEO Peter Hugg, although on a grander scale. The sheer distance between clubs in Western Australia makes taking the NCR recommendations out to clubs a massive job in itself.
“All the outcomes, you can-t argue with any of those and they-re positive to state league clubs. But it is hard for a state such as West Australia, which has just over a third the landmass of the continent, and we have clubs in the north, such as Kununurra, which is probably further away from us than Sydney is.
“We needed to take it carefully, work with the clubs and get a complete understanding of what it means; I-d rather do it successfully slowly than unsuccessfully quickly.”
It-s an important point. The restructuring of the second tier isn-t headline news but it aims to sow the seeds for football-s continued improvement on a national scale - and that takes time; time for clubs to adjust to the changes, time to educate the coaches to a high level and time to develop the next generation of footballers.
The introduction of the national curriculum means young players across the country will be taught the same skills, to the same level, by coaches who have had to reach the same level of accreditation, at clubs where technical directors oversee the development and implementation of a football philosophy that will provide an over-arching direction.
Football NSW CEO Eddie Moore says the real outcomes of the changes won-t be known for years to come.
“In working a lot closer with these clubs on these models, the outcomes won-t be seen until the current crop of under-12s have been through skills acquisition, and have been living and breathing the philosophy at their club environment, it-ll be five or six years before we get a full crop of kids that will have the full benefit of these programs.”
State federations clearly don-t all enjoy similar resources, and as such, it-s crucial that they get the time they need to ensure things are level on the playing field, at least.
Eddie Moore knows his federation boasts the advantages to get a head start on their neighbours - FNSW had already implemented their own version of the NCR recommendations and the NSW Premier League will be kicking off in mid-March - but he acknowledges the rising standards across the country will only be good for the game.
“Absolutely,” Moore says. “For the bigger picture of football and the pathway to higher opportunities and honours is to say you-re reaching a standard that-s knocking on the door of the A-League, and from a national perspective you want that happening everywhere.
"You want the Brisbane senior completion to be just as strong and competitive as in Sydney or Melbourne.
“Sydney will dominate through numbers and hopefully the quality and intensity of the football here will remain the best in the country but our challenge is to continue that.”
Not that the plan isn-t without problems. The new player points system, which aims to encourage promotion of players under 25, does have the side effect of marginalising many of the talented older players, people the federations don-t want to lose from the game.
The differing resources will always make life harder for smaller clubs, particularly with the new national finals series, proposed FFA Cup and distant ideas of promotion and relegation between tiers.
“I don-t want to undermine the standard of our league but we-re little bit different to the capital cities,” David Eland of NNSWF admits.
“All of the players in our state league are amateurs; some are getting paid and that is putting significant strain on our clubs. There would have to be a significant change before our clubs could seriously think about taking out FFA Cups and so on.”
For early adopters such as FNSW, however, the FFA Cup is already an exciting prospect.
“It is a fantastic opportunity,” Moore says, “from a community based club through to a NPL club to have a go at the big guys. Everyone has that aspiration.”
Some individuals also fear the scheme will begin to blur the differences between clubs and their histories and ethnic roots.
Eddie Moore, however, says clubs will retain their identities, even as standards on the field rise across leagues and states.
“They still have their identity; they still have their cultures that take them from their origins. But what we-re looking for here is a style and a thinking of football that sits in and around that; it-s not the case of changing APIA from an Italian-based club.
"The ultimate nowadays is there-s a fella who looks like he fell off a surf board at Bondi who-s a striker at Sydney United - the last thing you-d say is he-s a boy of Croatian heritage!
“A kid might come out of Marconi or Sydney and might end up playing at Melbourne Heart or Adelaide United.
"At A-League level you don-t want them to all be homogenous but to have come through a system, a language, a style, a skill level, so that when these players come out of NPL clubs whether it-s into Youth league or straight into A-League, they-ve actually got a football mindset that is consistent, which can be adapted and adopted for those various clubs.
“The outcome is the standard has got better; not only are they thinking and playing and producing better football but the level for expertise is even higher.”
Football West-s Peter Hugg agrees, admitting that while change comes hard for some, the benefits are there for all. Each federation is adapting the recommendations as they see best for their players but all support the ideas and outcomes of the NCR and NPL.
“I don-t think any change is easy and always comes with challenges,” Hugg says. You have those who can understand why things are done and there are those who can-t see the big picture and the need to change.
“We need to work with the clubs and sell the idea, about what the NCR and NPL are all about and what it will bring to the sport. I don-t think it-s ethnic based; it-s more a mindset to say we need to change and prosper, or change the same and stagnate.”