Two games now against teams we would normally be considered the lesser where we have been the better team with the better quality of players.
And most of those players are not the product of NZF's coaching system - kudos to Olé, Wynrs, and Phoenix academies.
Well thats the trendy position, its not at all politically correct to acknowledge NZF's part in this because sometimes the NZF admin flaws get confused with the direction of the type of coaching it undertook with the WoF plan. Methods, philosophies and processes which have filtered through all levels of coaching via courses, coach interactions and osmosis.
These players are a product of NZF, Ole, Wynrs, Phoenix, Federation and a long list on unknown and unheralded coaches around the country. Products of a decent number of small cogs in a bigger wheel.
People need to clearly differentiate between the admin problems of recent years and the work of the technical staff in coaching courses, resources and material being pushed.
If these players are not partly a result of NZF then I guess Buckingham has had no influence at all using your logic.
Its always so easy and lazy to simply bash NZF (and yes they do have their serious flaws.)
Your 5-paragraph inference from a single sentence post deserves a response. I wasn't attacking NZF's admin - there are plenty of other threads for that. And of course these players are not produced
entirely within the quoted academies - as you say, they have all progressed through junior clubs and (dare I say) schools with a myriad of coaches, all of whom can be rightly proud. My point was that the academies are "finishing" schools and the quality of player they are producing is permitting a style of play hitherto unseen in NZ international football. I seriously doubt that if these academies were to disappear and we had to rely on the NZF WoF system, we could play the style of football we are seeing.
In the absence of any South Island based academy, it is interesting to observe that no South Island players have been selected for the current U17 and U20 mens squads whereas in a uniformly delivered NZF coaching system, statistically it would be expected to deliver 20% from the South Island. This suggests that the quoted academies are outputting a far superior product.
My $0.02's worth. I am just revelling in the wonderful football these guys are playing, and all involved should be acknowledged and congratulated, particularly Wynton & Declan and the other academy staff.