Wow Canberra United make the front page of the SMH

In a world where any publicity is good publicity it's fantastic to see football, yes women's football on the front page of the SMH.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/spectacular-own-goal-as-star-forced-to-choose-codes-20120529-1zhh2.html#utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tweetbutton
Not an alcohol fueled article or a wife bashing court case - no a stoush between a Coach Jitka Klimkova who simply wants her players to train full-on and be available for all games, including semi-finals and finals and a talented dual international, Ellyse Perry.

Seems fair to me.

Kahlia Hogg was similarly pressured last year when it was known she'd be leaving for the USA before the end of the season.

Klimkova won the league in her first season as coach in a foreign country - no doubt her standards and expectations contributed.

This time she's laying her standards out for all to see. And there is a fair amount of outrage from non-Canberra United fans it seems.

Ellyse Perry is a prestigious talent in both cricket and football but any observer will know that football requires so much training these days to reach, and remain at the top that sharing yourself between two codes is a nice idea but not if you want to remain at the top of your game.

Ellyse hopefully will find another club. I'm sure she will.

But anyone who has watched Ellyse burst onto the football scene will also wonder why she couldn't hold down a World Cup starting spot, and despite her wonder goal  and had a pretty miserable time against Sweden.

Ellyse' development has  in my view not been maintained in football at least. Indeed younger girls took her spot at the World Cup! So much for outstanding talent.

Her talents are unfulfilled in football in my view due to her cricket commitments.

Ellyse missed last years W-League Grand Final to play cricket - what coach of any sport would be happy with that?

She also missed the historic Matildas Asian Champions League tournament and win - yes to play cricket.

Football has supported Ellyse well, I'm sure it still can but United's Coach should hardly be criticised for asking Perry to make a choice.

Interesting to hear lots of football commentators and twitterers talking about this - guess they are all regular attenders of the W-League! Some have even called it a stupid decision.

It's a sign where the Coach wants to take the team - nothing more nothing less and the talent pool available these days mean Ellyse although she'll be missed by the supporters - the time has come to raise the bar once more. Should a Coach be criticised for aiming high?

 I'm comfortable with United's brave decision. In fact I applaud it.

I was pretty annoyed when our star right back missed key games including the finals at the back end of last season to play cricket.

Good luck Ellyse - we loved you, your attacking runs, your great goals - but their is no i in team, well not in a football team at least.