Sydney FC v ANU: Monday night football

Canberra Youth Football: A chink of light remains;

Anyone who has followed this blog will know that I'm not impressed with the lack of high level football for boys/men in this town.

And with the National Youth League up and running nothing has been organised, supported or encouraged it seems by Capital Football. Not the Canberra FC proposal, not the ANU option, or indeed the their own Youth Rockets, who let's face it two games a year is not a programme.

I said that last year, I say it again this year.

Now Capital Football clearly can't run a Youth team at the level required, and they've enough to do with Canberra United, and Futsal, Development programs etc etc, so why not outsource it to those who can, and fast.

And promote it; all junior footballers and parents in Canberra should realise that their is a pathway of sorts. Our boys can get to showcase themselves in the National Youth Team window, even if it's only occasionally.

It shouldn't be left to some ad-hoc blogger to promote it....should it?




At 17/18 you might burst onto the Premier League with it's short season and two training sessions per club..and then what? By 18/19 you are so far behind players of similar age across Australia you may as well drop your ambitions and remain with Belconnen or Canberra FC forever!

No national youth team, no Youth team games no NSW Pathways team and no A-League team, not yet anyway. So how does any promising Canberra footballer get beyond the local game, particularly if he misses the AIS squad.

But a chink of light remains:

Over at ANU FC the players who missed the AIS, too old for ACTAS moved in with some others to take advantage of the intensive, professionally organised pre-season training that started under John Mitchell in November last year.

Yep that's right almost 6 months before the Premier League season started.

Stephen Lustica was the first to head to the AIS, then Sydney FC Youth team and now is on the fringe of the Gold Coast first team squad.

Luke Pilkington could not have become a Fox Sports Melbourne Victory Football Superstar if he'd trained twice a week in ACT Premier Clubland, could he?

Did you see his fitness levels on the show. The ANU regime clearly helped.

Over the past few weeks the entire Premier League squad has been training with Sydney FC youth squad. Some initial interest in a number of players has been expressed by Steve O'Connor the Sydney Coach.

And at least the ANU boys are seeing the standard they must aspire to.

Indeed ANU will play Sydney Youth in Sydney tonight.

Throughout the year three of the ANU Premier League squad has taken up short-term contracts with the AIS, and two are still in the mix for the AIS National Youth League squad.

Clearly this is the most successful development pathway in Canberra for our maturing young players.

We should find a way to support it, improve it, register it and applaud it.

Unless we can find anything better, and currently can anyone?

Indeed without the ANU model I would argue Luke Pilkington and the others would not have got to further their football in such a short space of time, if ever.

We should support the best we have until something better is provided. Because at the moment there is nothing else is there?