Mainland Juniors (please play nice)

Bring back the rep program! Great for the lads and great for the coaches too. Mainland are the only region not sending regional teams. So it’s down to the clubs. 

I agree with bringing back the Canterbury rep teams but only if they're selected on merit and the best players represent Canterbury. It used to be an honour to represent Canterbury  but that was diluted when they started sending 2 or maybe 4 zoned teams to tournaments. Get back to scouting the grounds for the real talent and holding meaningful trials. The environment that produced players like Halligan.

The process was more about avoiding people moaning than it was about selecting the best players. When the top 26 are already preselected out of FTC, it’s hard ones for the other 80 kids to fill six slots. Still, times have changed I guess...

This is from a recent communication from Alan Walker..

Club Licensing & Youth Premier Leagues

Mainland Football continue to work with clubs to increase capability and the service offered to its players. As part of this, Club Licensing has been introduced, alongside the Youth Premier Leagues, Skill Centres and Talent Development Programmes.

The positive effect on the game has seen 6 Clubs meet the criteria for Club Licensing and we now have 18 youth squads of boys in the YPL’s that are coached by C License qualified coaches.

We continue provide a staged-process of implementation for Club Licensing and 2019 has seen us progress to including 13th, 14th & 15th Grades.

2020 shall see us complete this with the 17th Grade also introduced under the same criteria.

With the 2019 season re-grading process completed we thought it would be good to outline some further details and information moving forward for your clarity and understanding.

Please see below.

Further Information moving forward:

Club Licensing shall continue to be used to develop and improve our game at junior, youth and senior level. The purpose:

Raise the level of professionalism in club football through strengthening their facilities, structures, administration and technical and sporting development.

In 2020, 13, 14, 15 & 17’s Boys shall all come under Club Licensing criteria and this shall provide us with a complete pathway towards senior football.

We shall remain flexible in our approach to provide appropriate football competitions at YPL until 2020.

The 2020 season shall only have teams included in the YPL under the Club Licensing, without exceptions. This is to support the continued investment by Club License Clubs and provide a complete pathway. This shall also include Competition criteria for Coaching at Senior Reserve team level.

From 2020 onwards, the YPL’s shall remain at 6 team, maximum. This is to assist in providing an increased level of competition for the talented players development. We would like to maintain a high level of competition for our best players in the region on a weekly basis, to supplement their high quality training environments.

Junior Skill Centres and Youth Talent Development Programmes are the cornerstone of Player Development within clubs and these programmes shall be audited and maintained to the appropriate standards on an annual basis.

Why do we need to have a Club License criteria across all age grades and not allow individual teams entry into YPL?

We would like clubs to have their own Philosophy, Playing Style and Development Programme

Within this programme we would like to see flexibility for individual player development and not necessarily team development (although that still becomes a part of the process) What does that mean?

Mainland Football would like to dissolve the need for the current rigid dispensation process once clubs have all grades meeting Club Licensing criteria. This would allow players freedom to move from 14 to 15 or 17 to senior and back again. This will depend on the challenge for the player from a physical, mental, technical/tactical and social/emotion level. Each club would determine where the player plays his appropriate football training and competition, with a limitation on the player movements within the competition criteria.

We shall continue to work towards improvement of the game across all areas and shall continue to keep the player at the centre of our thoughts as we do so.

Thanks and Kind Regards

Alan

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I'm not a fan of each grade being limited to 6 clubs. Is it first in first served? 

What if 7-8 clubs achieve license standard? Do those players just play Div 1 and if you take MF 's philosophy, given they're licensed they must have great players. (altho see Ferrymead v Waimak abilities in 13th grade). So do those players just hammer oppositions each week, just because perhaps one of their volunteers sent an email off later than someone from another club?

I'm not sure MF "keep the player at the centre of our thoughts"

I know the Waimak 13th grade team were told 'your team is an anomaly' (given they've won 3 out of 3 since moving up), immediately dismissing it, rather than seeing how the coaches might be approaching the team and the players. The parents pay nothing like $800 for their kids to play either.

Some of the things they require are ridiculous, do 13 yr olds really need dugouts? I watched the senior finals of the North Canterbury Mens Rugby comp last year at Kaiapoi Park and the subs sat on the white plastic chairs from Bunnings. Could the cost of purchasing dugouts be used in a better manner in a football club?

Thanks Dougie, good questions...what if they have more licenced clubs, how do they decide who makes it in the 6 team league? The cynical view is it will stay at 6. Doesn't give other clubs much to aim for in the coming years.

Clearly not all good players (and teams) are in the league, do they get forgotten?

That letter seems to indicate they are sticking with the football for the rich policy - so short sighted. A disappointing letter all round from Mainland.

Maybe all other clubs should just give up as we are not wanted.

For the U13 this year, if it continues next year, should Ferrymead just keep getting thrashed each week and be happy they are in the league and should all Waimak players be forced to join a licenced club - honestly a stupid idea as they are clearly well coached where they are.

That letter speaks volumes for the mess that Mainland clearly can't see around them.

If you take their view forward a few years, are they expecting just 6 teams to have all the best players coming through to seniors? Do they want a 6 team senior league? What would Western, and Coastal do?

What is available for players on the East of town? Lots of clubs on the west side (CFA, Cashtech, Halswell, Selwyn) then Nomads and Ferrymead north and south east and nothing between.

Actually, one more thought.

There are 2  years of U17 - so basically 2 years of U15 teams coming through to the U17 period. How are they going to work that out? Will there be 2 premier teams per club allowed?

Lol - the cleverer we get, the sillier we look ?.

Frankly it’s a mess, fortunately it only cost several hundred thousand dollars to get it like this.

Yes Cash Tech have run a programme for many tears and been successful doing so, they are also one of the largest clubs and that helps with this. And all clubs invest in all age groups and not just the best players but all players.

It doesn't mean that this will work for everyone and that the model should be forced on clubs otherwise they miss out on an exclusive league.

Use academies to fund a FDO? That is back into football for the rich only again. If the answer is charge more than most kids can afford then you will not get the best players - only the best that can afford it. It still misses a group of players that play local to them or can't (or won't) pay $850+ to play a season of football.

Yes Cash Tech have run a programme for many tears and been successful doing so, they are also one of the largest clubs and that helps with this. And all clubs invest in all age groups and not just the best players but all players.

It doesn't mean that this will work for everyone and that the model should be forced on clubs otherwise they miss out on an exclusive league.

Use academies to fund a FDO? That is back into football for the rich only again. If the answer is charge more than most kids can afford then you will not get the best players - only the best that and afford it. It still misses a group by players and money didn't go into club. Now it can. Clubs can now ensure their best players get the coaching and dont miss out because they can control it.

I see the Mainland FTC squads for July are out - not a single player there that isn't in the elite/rich clubs. Are we really supposed to believe that every single player across all ages that is good only plays in the prems! Do Mainland even watch games outside that league?

I know a player scored over 35 goals already in div 1 youth for a non-elite team, scores for fun, but I'll bet Mainland don't even know his name.

I've said it before, many players will miss out at the 13 to 17 age range right now due to this failed and elite/rich experiment - shame.

Couldn't agree more Roy - it doesn't matter how much ability or determination a kid has if mummy &/or daddy don't have atleast a spare $K+ lying around the house he/she won't get a look in. Let alone letting kids play other sports so they pick up other skills & don't get bored with football - I'd love to see the stats on how many of these kids are still playing football at 20. I bet it'll be similar to FTC & NTC etc & the drop off is huge once they realise they are not even going to make National League team let alone Barcelona despite all the false promises & smoke blown up their arse so mum & dad keep paying the money.

The system is so flawed on so many levels!!

Well there now looks to be 9 clubs with a youth licence - how can 9 clubs paying the wages of a football director be sustainable? Most clubs only afford this with grants and they don't last. Are we going to see clubs struggling or going broke in a few years? Will there really be 9 competitive teams? (take 13th grade last year - Ferrymead relegated to div 2, coastal playing in div 2, FC 2011 average in div1 and really only 2 or 3 teams that were really full squads of talented players.

Why does this bother me? Because like many others, I have children at this age and their youth sport is being experimented on.

I also thought this article was really interesting from Stuff. Lots of research into kids sport and why kids play sport.

Sport NZ seem to be pushing less specialisation and playing more sports...

"Rather than saying you can and you can't play, clubs need to manage that environment and that way all kids can still get stretch and growth with the right coaching around them."

Not only is early "talent identification" misguided, it is also counterproductive.

No two kids are going to be the same – progress is non-linear.

Some kids might have older brothers or sisters that they've grown up chasing around in the backyard, and might have a bit of a head start when it comes to the core skills of the game. Others mature at different rates.

By narrowing the field of "talented kids" too early, Chiet says sports could be closing the door on someone who has greater potential than the early developers.

"Everything that we're seeing in the research suggests the later the point of specialisation, the better decisions you'll have about athletes reaching world class status. Sports will have more accuracy around their identification process," says Chiet.

But there's a more critical reason to avoid intensely focused training programmes for youngsters.

Early specialisation has been linked to an alarming spike in the number of sports-related injuries in younger age groups.

"We're seeing significant overuse injuries caused by these types of behaviours," says Chiet.

"Parents who encourage their children to dedicate themselves to these professionalised training programmes are facilitating harm without realising. This is when they're adolescents, so much is going on in their bodies - physically, emotionally, psychologically - and some of the workloads they're doing is criminal, in my view."

Yer good topic, it will be interesting this year with heaps of clubs receiving their license by my count. Coastal, FC2011,  Waimak, Tech, Selwyn, Halswell, Bays are the most recent ones on Mainland's FB, I'm sure Nomads and Chch Utd are too. 

I read the Stuff article too, very interesting in terms of how those academies and early identification is now being looked down on. Must work overseas though right? I dunno what the right answer is, seems we have gone full circle from clubs, to the school of football, then FTC, then back to clubs. If I had to choose one I'd have to say having good coaches in clubs is the best way of doing things so perhaps we are on the right track. 

Exactly how the leagues will look I guess is not that important then? Just the upskilling of our players?  

Dear NZ Football. 

 I am confused. On one hand you have rolled out the new and very elite plan for youth football, that involves kids aged 13 and up training three times a week, plus a game, (this does not include any high school commitments) and on the other, we are told that NZF, NZRFU, hockey, netball and cricket organisations are trying to do the exact opposite by letting kids try a range of different sports, and we are exhorted to “not specialise too early”. 

That last bit might be tricky if four of your week nights are taken up with training for one sport, and that carries on for 32 weeks of the year. 

Thoughts? 

Perplexed from Canterbury. 

Just to add to the above, the Mainland youth leagues seem to be starting Mid-march. This makes the season longer and runs all over summer sports that NZF seem to say kids should be trying out and not specialising.

Seem to be rumours that not all licenced clubs will have teams at all grades, with 1 maybe pulling put altogether.

We won't know until fixtures are confirmed but it wouldn't be a great endorsement of the new structure.

Are there really 140+ players at each grade worth the exclusive league?

If I had a $1 for every time a Coastal team turned up at Waimak in black shirts and no change strip I'd be a rich man. Feel  for those kids playing in an array of coloured bibs.

Question - how does a non licenced club get in the CUDL. Mainland answer- absolutly not! (unless you are John Brown). How did Western manage to get through that loop hole when other clubs and teams are denied?

Don't get me wrong, they are well coached and doing well in the U17 CUDL and good luck to them. I think the top leagues should be based on merit not on an expensive licence. But if they can make an exception for one then they should be looking at all age grades to see which clubs would do better than some of the CUDL teams getting thrashed each week.

How long does the licence experiment have left?