It's good seeing NPL players a chance to trial. Somebody may wish to correct me but I don't see the value in the NYL as a pathway. Don't get me wrong, a good youth development league is important, but I don't see it as the immediate step-up to the HAL. It's just way too slow and lacking in intensity. It's also intended as a referees pathway (at least it initially was, suspect that's not the case now), and I don't see the value there either. Those games would be easy to referee.
I digress.
As to the 'Okon out, I'm out' clauses, it really shows up the difference in what our club degraded to and what MM is trying to achieve, isn't it?
This club was built on players proudly wearing the yellow and navy. Of course not all of them, but a core of them - and it's wonderful to see so many ex-players involved in the community.
To put a clause into a contract stating that the coach is more important than the club, that they're playing for the coach and not the club?
F*** that. To even permit that shows that the club forgot that players have to be passionate about the club. We aren't big spenders so we need that X factor somewhere else. And pride and passion is critical to our success.
And we clearly saw that to be nonexistent this season.
Okon out clauses are absurd. And anybody that wanted that can buggar off. It's the complete opposite of what MM is trying to achieve. He wouldn't allow that. If you being in the club is conditional upon who is coaching you, then you're not in the club enough.
Same as the 'move to the coast, be part of the community or buggar off' approach of MM. Which is awesome.
I know our spend won't improve, but I'm already excited to see what next season brings. And that's all Mike....Mulvey. He's saying all the right things, he seems to understand what made the club great in the past and what the fans and community need.
As for losing the local youngsters - it is, of course, a shame to lose players who could be the posterchild for our pathway. And our youth pathway is so important to the club that it's frustrating to see those investments walking out the door. And I really hope the club has thoroughly discussed with the players why this is happening. Is it CCM? Is it the perception of opportunities? Is it the fact that as youngsters, they want to get off the coast and move to the big smoke? I can understand that - I'm born and bred on the coast and I moved to Melbourne. I hope the club understands what's motivated these moves. I'd love it if they shared with us but understand if they don't. If it's a 'want to get off the coast' thing, probably not much the coast can do about that.
I don't know what can be done to promote players staying with the club that develops them. Does anybody know if there are specific strategies in place in other sports? Of course things like salary cap discounts for X years of youth development wouldn't help our club unless the FFA themselves subsidised it, which won't happen.
But for the last few years, we've depended on players with unrealised potential. And far more often than not, that potential remained unrealised.
Why? Is that coaching? Or is it the players?
We'll never know.
But that's why I'm not going to be too upset about losing any player with 'unrealised potential'. And really, even the players like Wales, DDS, TBT, all fit into that category.
I know it's a catch-22 - that young players with unrealised potential is exactly what we're depending on with MM, and we have no option but to deal with that. So we're kind of replacing unrealised potential with unrealised potential.
But at least MM will bring in players who he believes he can develop - and unlike any other coach we've hard in our dark period, he can do that.
So if he felt that he was able to really develop the players we're letting go, he'd fight to keep them.
So I wonder - the ones that are going - is there a discussion to keep them, or does MM not see a future for them? Similarly, are they saying 'we're going unless we get X and Y, what can you offer?' or are they saying 'we're going, we don't want to play for CCM, there's no conversation to be had'.
If the latter that's a shame....but also means they have no part in what we're trying to build so good riddance. If the former, then I think we can trust that Mike understands players and what he can achieve, so I'm not getting too upset about losing any player who really is yet to prove themselves. It may be they wanted to stay and Mike wanted them to but the other clubs had a better offer. And well, we're stuck with that. So let's see what Mike can find in recruitment.
Of course it's a little frustrating to see that other clubs have started recruiting from other clubs already and we're just signing up some existing players. But I think I, like others, would just love to see some action on that front. We're not seeing signings from all clubs, of course. So it's a bit silly to get bothered by that.
