Our biggest advantage is we have a monopoly on NZ players, the other clubs have a talent pool of 2.3 million each, we have a talent pool of almost 7 million to draw from. Because we're the only show in town the top NZ players should also be cheaper than the top Australians.
We need to focus on developing NZ players and it's insane that we only started doing it a couple of years ago.
Problem is if they get to Marco or Kosta's level they just get 'poached' by the bigger clubs. I think there's been a lot of academy development in the last 10 years in NZ, just not by the Nix. The better players have bypassed the Nix and those like Rufer et al have been okish but not quite good enough to make an impact in the A league just yet. So I guess it's about developing enough young kiwi players and getting them up to A league standard that you aren't as impacted by the 'elite' young players not being with the Nix like the current situation.
Not always necessarily a bad thing especially given our financial constraints. If we could become a feeder club, yes it would be frustrating, but it would also mean that we could then reinvest that in our first team squad quality or even our own academy. It would also make us a more attractive destination for other youth players if they could see the potential to develop here.
I agree with this but I thought Ryan was saying that we needed kiwi youth talent to be able to compete as a consistent top 6 side into the future as it's harder for us to get quality aussie players than most of the aussie clubs?
Kind of, I wasn't saying it's hard for the Phoenix to get top Australian talent just that there is a lot of competition for it, if we just take population and ignore playing numbers then the A-League teams have a player catchment of 2.3 million per team. The Phoenix has a monopoly of 4.5 million + that 2.3 million that every team has.
It's not that it's any harder for the Phoenix to get top Australians, it's just that it's hard for every team. Whereas if we play our cards right we will get virtually no competition for the top NZ talent.
Sure, the exceptional ones will go to get higher wages in Australian teams as foreigners, or will go overseas. But hopefully the club can profit from that. And that's no different from the smaller Australian clubs getting their players poached. In fact, there is an extra barrier that most Kiwis will be classed as foreigners in Australia so they have to be exceptional for that to happen and not a maybe.