AUFC 2016 NPL Season

[salmonfc]

Is it at the Camden Sports Complex?

[salmonfc]

So who's going?

I'm sure some of the Red Army regulars will be there.

No Red Army banner in sight.

[salmonfc]

Kitto and Kamau are here.

[Stuckey]

And Marino is on the bench.

[salmonfc]

Mauks here too.

FANBOYING INTENSIFIES

[salmonfc]

Margush concedes a soft goal.

Relegation here we come.

[blahblah]

0-2 in the end, undone by Kamau no less!

Next week's game with South Adelaide has a bit of a "six pointer" feel to it.

[Futbol_Crazy21]

Margush concedes a soft goal.

Relegation here we come.

Tbf, I don't think anyone was realistically expecting to win this game. The collective expectation was that a draw would be nice

[Stuckey]

Margush concedes a soft goal.

Relegation here we come.

Tbf, I don't think anyone was realistically expecting to win this game. The collective expectation was that a draw would be nice

Agree, Birkalla have been very good from all accounts this season.
Next game against South Adelaide is pretty important now.

It's great to see that AU are able to play Marino. Wonderful that he's going to get more game time under his belt which is what he's certainly in need of.
A couple of other signings of late that are exciting.
Ryan Strain formerly of Aston Villa youth and Jordan Maricic of Birkalla and Melbourne City youth.

[Geogeo]

something needs to happen next year with having an age limit on the squad & paying these youth team players.

i dont know a lot about it, but to be honest if we cant have players over (what ever the age limit is) we invest so much time into developing these players and then if they're not quite ready for an Aleague contract they go to another club.

and secondly.. if these players dont get paid, if they're good enough they can get significant money for young kids at another club.

[Stuckey]

something needs to happen next year with having an age limit on the squad & paying these youth team players.

i dont know a lot about it, but to be honest if we cant have players over (what ever the age limit is) we invest so much time into developing these players and then if they're not quite ready for an Aleague contract they go to another club.

and secondly.. if these players dont get paid, if they're good enough they can get significant money for young kids at another club.

From what I've heard its the club's choice not to pay the players. By choice I mean the club has chosen to spend the money elsewhere as there is only a small amount of money in the first place.
Personally I'm happy with the age limit. Which is 20 or 21. This is a development squad after all. I'd just like to see it more as a HAL reserves where any player contracted to AU under the accepted age can play, plus they allow over age players to play to gain fitness and form when the NYL isn't under way. I think if there is more switching of players between squads that will benefit everyone. The youth players have a HAL level player along side them "hopefully" leading by example, more youth players move up to HAL to fill in and gain valuable experience and the entire squad gels more as they spend time around one another.

[Geogeo]

yeah i understand its the clubs decision to not pay the players. Which i understand they're going to get players that truely want to be there. But at the end of the day, when you're 20 years old and the prospect of being paid $600+ a week, and if you're actually good enough it wont matter what team you're in.

As for the age limit, the club spends the time & money on developing a player with our tactics..not quite ready to play for the 1st team or warrant taking up a spot... then he turns 22 years old and gets released.

We should have squads from Under 13's right through to a senior team.

[Futbol_Crazy21]

After Round 13:
Premier/NPL Finals|SA Finals|Pro/Rel Play-off|Relegated
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD |Pts
1. Adelaide City 13 10 1 2 39 19 +20 |31
2. Campbelltown City 13 9 2 2 28 12 +16 |29
3. West Torrens Birkalla 13 7 3 3 21 10 +11 |24
4. Adelaide Comets 13 7 2 4 25 25 0 |23
5. Adelaide Blue Eagles 13 6 3 4 33 23 +10 |21
6. North Eastern MetroStars 13 5 2 6 21 24 −3 |17
7. Adelaide United Youth 13 5 1 7 16 24 −8 |16
8. West Adelaide 13 3 6 4 20 18 +2 |15
9. Adelaide Olympic 13 4 3 6 26 34 −8 |15
10. Croydon Kings 13 3 2 8 22 30 −8 |11
11. South Adelaide 13 3 1 9 23 36 −13 |10
12. Adelaide Raiders 13 3 0 10 18 37 −19 |9

Results:
Croydon Kings 2 - 3 Adelaide Comets
South Adelaide 1 - 3 Campbelltown City (Report, Full Match)
MetroStars 1 - 0 Raiders
West Torrens Birkalla 2 - 0 Adelaide United (Report)
Adelaide Olympic 4 - 5 Adelaide Blue Eagles
West Adelaide 1 - 2 Adelaide City (Report)

A draw would have been nice, but draws don't seem to be common at this level. As such we drop down to 7th. Next week against South is a big one. We need to pick up points against teams like South to stay up.

Youth team coach Mark Jones
“We worked just as hard as Birkalla, but it was just those lapses that were made that saw the goals,” Jones said. “It was even sided, for example when they had the early parts of the first half, and we came back into control in the second.
“We had control of possession at times, it was just the lack of a bit of silk to get us through. “I’m not disappointed in the performance, there was a lot of adversity today as well as injuries and new players coming in.
“The chances are being created, we just need those goals to be scored. We will work on that ahead of the next match against South Adelaide.

Next week's fixtures:
Adelaide Comets vs West Adelaide
Adelaide United vs South Adelaide
Adelaide Blue Eagles vs West Torrens Birkalla
Adelaide City vs Adelaide Olympic
Campbelltown City vs MetroStars
Raiders vs Croydon Kings

[Stuckey]

yeah i understand its the clubs decision to not pay the players. Which i understand they're going to get players that truely want to be there. But at the end of the day, when you're 20 years old and the prospect of being paid $600+ a week, and if you're actually good enough it wont matter what team you're in.

As for the age limit, the club spends the time & money on developing a player with our tactics..not quite ready to play for the 1st team or warrant taking up a spot... then he turns 22 years old and gets released.

We should have squads from Under 13's right through to a senior team.

Yeah that's what we're seeing now. Players making a call on whether they was to train full time and hope to make it to the next level. Or cut down the amount of training and focus on another career while getting a decent amount for continuing to player.

I'm not super sold on AU having a junior squad like all the other clubs already have. If AU tried to set up a junior side I can't really see it being any better than anything that's already in place.
I'd love to see a First team, reserves and U18s. Anything below that I'd love to see AU invest into high schools and get football as part of their curriculum. Get in to schools and then they are increasing the amount of football these kids would play by about 3 hours a week. Then either have these kids playing on the weekends as well, or best case set up a school league where all the schools play one another on weekends so what they learn during the week can then be effectively applied in games by the same coach.

[Geogeo]

the schools is a good idea, they're virtually untapped & with no league system in place - Just rotating fixtures.

the junior squads, if set up correctly, could have aspiring coaches who learn the theory of our game style so its not a shock or hard to pick up once they hit u/18 > seniors.