Quote:
Originally Posted by ukhotstove
Watched a bit of the A League the other week and one thing that struck me which surprised me was the poor goalkeeping, may have caught them on a bad week but I'd have thought with them being brought up with both rugby codes they'd be better with their hands than they were.
|
The thing is, most Aussie kids who play football(soccer) don't have any interest in the rugby codes. I think the coaching would also be a factor, as well as identifying goalkeeping talent at an earlier age. I am sure there are more Mark Shwarzer's or Zelko Kalac's out there, but due to the age of the A-league and slow development of both scouting and talent identification programmes, they just arent getting seen.
I agree with you though, if the A-league is to be taken seriously by other high profile footballing nations, the standard of play and talent identification really needs to improve.
I also think that theres an issue within Australian football, as the past two Chief Executives of the FFA have come from Rugby Union(John O'neill) and the AFL(Ben Buckley). Needing to import executives from other sporting codes to run the show, says a lot about football in this country.