Representative football coaching....oh what a buzz!

Representative football coaching in Australia.
Having originally emmigrated to Australia in 1992 I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with numerous school representative football sides since then.
MCS
Having started teaching in the Catholic system I was initially involved  with the Metropolitan Catholic Schools (MCS) in the mid-1990's. This side drew players from the immensely strong league of Fairfield, Campbelltown, Parramatta, Marayong, Emu Plains, Eastwood, Greystanes, Ryde and Auburn. This MCS grouping itself went forward to play the Sydney based Metropolitan Catholic Colleges(MCC), South Coast, Central Coast and North Coast representative sides in a tournament to select the New South Wales Combined Catholic Colleges (NSWCCC) team.

Adam Scarpin
MCS>CCC>NSW 1996

NSWCCC 

Once selected the NSWCCC team went forward to play at the NSW All Schools tournament.

Valentines Park - Glenwood. venue for All Schools Championships

This tournament consists of CCC, two Combined High School (CHS) teams and the Combined Independent Schools (CIS) team. This All SchoolsTournament has been going for over 30 years and is used as the selection trial for the full NSW Schoolboys team which plays at the annual All State Competition. Once again this a selection trial this for the Australian Schoolboys team!
While working at John Paul II Senior, High School Marayong I was involved in coaching both the MCS and NSWCCC sides ....in 1996

Trent Worral NSWCCC Rep 96'

I was involved with the winning side CCC. This team included Nick and Leo Carle, Buddy Farah, Adam Scarpin, Chichi Mendez, and Malcolm Meliac who all went on to play higher football, Nick playing in England with Crystal Palace. One of my John Paul II own players Michael Cunico and Newcastle's Clayton Zane both made it right though Australian Schoolboys and on to the Australian Joeys side.




Moving Systems
In 1997 I found myself changing school and joining the ISA which was part of the Combined Independent Schools (CIS) Association.

At this time being on the coaching team in 1997' 2000' and 2002'. During this time a couple of players from my own school St Pius X College went on to higher representative honours, David Prentice making the NSW Schoolboys team and Daniel Bateup, the Australian Schoolboys side.
ISA

Through the 2000's I worked primarily with the St Pius X College 1st XI and the Independent Sporting Association (ISA) team, which was our representative pathway to the CIS team.

Anthony Fiorenza SPX's first CIS player

While CIS and CCC always had good players it was usually the CHS teams that dominated. Not surprisingly because the had a vast numerical advantage in terms of schools / players to choose from.

David Prentice who made the NSW side
and Daniel Bateup of Australian Schoolboys

The ISA side takes part in an annual selection tournament with GPS CAS AICES NCIS CSSA and RFA to choose the NSWCIS squad at the All Schools Championship. Personally I have worked with the ISA side from 1997 until the present day. 

Back with NSWCIS again.....2015

It was a huge honour then when in 2015 I was chosen to be Coach of the CIS team at the All Schools Tournament out at Valentines Park. I was already familiar with many of the players in the squad through the GPS CAS AICIES CSSA NCIS and ISA representative teams who played in the CIS selection trial.
Because the squad players come from all over NSW we only got together once beforehand. As a way of getting maximum benefit we actually played Manly Utd Under 18's in a trial as opposed to training sessions. This worked well, as we gelled, with a strong performance in a 2-1 win. The tournament mirrors the National Championships and goes over two days.
On the Day 1 we were up against the tournament favourites CHS I. After a fair start the wheels seemingly fell off as we went 2-0 down after just 15 minutes! Then suddenly something clicked and our 4 5 1 formation began to overwhelm the CHS I boys and we scored 4four unanswered goals before half time! 4-2 at the break. In the second period we controlled the game and pleasingly added a fifth with a penalty kick. It would be true to say that the Valentines Park crowd were stunned....someone had ripped up the script.
Day 2 saw us take on the CCC side who had also won their first game. In a high quality match we got out to a 3-1 lead with 15 minutes  to go but paid the price of not scoring again when CCC scored twice late to grab a draw. Fortunately our goals scored placed us at the top of the ladder.
Our final game was against CHS II. Here there was no score at half time but the game exploded with goals as twice we led only to be pulled back level. In the event a wonderful goal from centre back Ryan Blumberg settled the points and a 3-2 victory. He ran the length of the field beating multiple opponents before slooting home.
This result secured CIS the title. Only the second occasion in thirty years that CIS had won it. In recognition of the squads dominance seven of our players were selected in the NSW side while two also made the shadow squad. For me as coach it was a fantastic experience with what is definately the best Under 18 football squad I have ever worked with. Assistant coach Steve Fochesato and manager Richard Newton being equally impressed.

NSW Squad selections from CIS. 
Lachlan Hughes; Lachlan Scott; Lachlan Roberts; George Firth; Ryan Blumberg; Jay Foster; Nathan Phillips.
Shadows: Nathan Polinski; Johhny Dimopoulos

George Firth plays himself into a NSW Schoolboys spot

Centre back Ryan Blumburg

Tom Lyons of CIS

CIS attack v CHS 1 a 5-2 win

Lachlan Scott finish

CIS v CHS II a 3-2 win

Lachlan Hughes made NSW again

Ryan Blumburg on guard

NWSCIS - All Schools Champions 2015

NSW All Schools Championship Trophy

Things we collect .......

Spurs shirts going back to 1982

Growing up in a Tottenham family - daughter Cassie

Over time we all collect things that mean something to us. For me most of my collections relate to sport and football in particular. Since I was a young boy I always collected football programmes...especially for my side Tottenham. I literally had hundreds, most often from matches I had attended. At White Hart Lane there were stalls where you could buy programmes for games from all over the UK. Unfortunately my original collection came to an unexpected end. I used to keep them in boxes in our pram shed around the flats. Every so often I'd go down to have a look, admiring pictures of our players and triumphs from former years. When I was away at University in Leeds my mum decided to have a 'clear out' of the shed and gave all my old programmes to the young son of a friend of hers. Gone. All gone! Included amongst my losses.....European Cup Winners Cup Final 1963 v Athletico Madrid....FA Cup Final v Chelsea 1967....John White memorial Programme....League Cup Finals 1971 & 1973! I did half heartedly ask mum to get half of them back again but it never happened :( Fortunately, undeterred, I started to collect programmes again and have a fair number today including many from the NSL and Internationals here in Australia.
In a more general way I have also accumulated lots of sports clothing from sides I have either played for of coached in the past 25 years or so. Representative shirts and track suits for football associations figure highly. NSWCCC and NSWCIS, MCS and ISA all have their place in the pile.
Probably my biggest collecting obsession has been of football shirts ....those belonging to my club Tottenham in particular.

WHL1998

From the early 1980's replica shirts became available to supporters and quickly this became a massive industry especially as 'sponsors' were gradually adopted displaying their names on the shirts. One infamous 'sponsor' event happened at the 1987 Spurs v Coventry FA Cup final when only half the Tottenham shirts displayed the logo ....a PR disaster!

Pulling them all together

Having collected such club shirts for over 30 years I have amassed quite a few. The seemingly annual practice of changing the design or sponsor on a regular basis has meant that there are many variations on shirts. Of course the  idea of an 'away' jersey was quickly supplemented by the 'alternate" third shirt. Hence my collection includes variations on the spurs lily white but also purple, navy, brown and yellow shirts all bearing the Spurs cockeral. My prize shirts are the 1982 Centenary isssue and a long sleave genuine shirt that was acquired apparently from the Spurs dressing at White Hart Lane!
Holsten were Spurs longest serving sponsor over the years while Hewlett Packard, Investec, AIA, Aurasma, Autonomy, Mansion and Thomson's  all had their time. The current shirt maker is UnderArmour but previously Le Coq Sportif, Addidas, Puma, Hummel, Kappa and Admiral all provided kit.
Anyway I recently decided to pull all my Spurs shirts and stuff together to give it an airing and see just how much I had. Yes I'm a bit of a football anorak;)

Why can Alpha English players never say goodbye?

STEVE GERRARD - Alpha goodbyes

Having been a keen follower of football many years one is able to get a pretty extensive view of trends across time. Here today the Quiltyview looks at an ongoing issue in the game, which seems to afflict the English more than most. I am referring here to the way the game struggles to say goodbye to it's superstars. At this particular time the 'name in the frame' is Steve Gerrard but this particular situation is nothing new. I would go as far as to say that England has always struggled with the timing of saying goodbye to it's 'alpha' heroes.

STEVE GERRARD

Often these 'alpha' players are also the captain of the national side and there is a dilemma  regarding  about how long they should keep playing, especially for the England side. Most would agree that in the case of Gerrard he is not the force he once was...the dominant English midfielder for a decade. That said, he is still the Liverpool skipper and has adapted his game somewhat to sit that bit deeper and act as a screen for the defence rather than the box to box warrier in a red shirt. He is, to date, the only footballer ever to have scored a goal in an FA Cup Final, a League Cup Final, a UEFA Cup Final and a Champions League Final. It has surprised some to hear that Liverpool didn't offer him any sort of contract extension or when they did it was very late in the piece. We hear that Gerrard will head to the MLS probably with LA Galaxy. The superiority complex of English fans finds this news hard to fathom.... after all 'what do the yanks know about football' especially as the persist in calling it soccer! The timing of this move for Gerrard is what is in question. Hot on the heals of Gerrard's contemporary Lampard, going, then staying, some are asking why is he being lost to the EPL so soon? 

LONG TERM TREND

None of all this is new in the English game. Over the years a similar struggles played out regarding the timing of retirement. Looking back I would say that players such as Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson and David Beckham all come under this category of player. All heroes one and all.

GARY LINEKER - Off the shoulder, unstoppable

GARY LINEKER

Gary Lineker retired from international football with 80 caps and 48 goals, one fewer goal than Bobby Charlton's England record (although Charlton took 26 more caps to score his one extra goal). In what proved to be his last England match, against Sweden at Euro 1992, he was substituted by England coach Graham Taylor, in favour of Arsenal striker Alan Smith, ultimately denying Lineker the chance to equal—or even better—Charlton's record of 49 goals. He had earlier missed a penalty that would have brought him level, in a pre-tournament friendly against Brazil. He was visibly upset at the decision, not looking at Taylor as he took to the bench. Here was a superstar of the time who provoked debate on when to go. 

KEVIN KEEGAN - Went out at the top

Controversy taking place within World Cup or Euro tournaments has been common. 

KEVIN KEEGAN

Other English superstars also struggled with stepping down in their own way. Kevin Keegan said he just wasn't prepared to play anywhere but at the top.  Keegan retired from playing aged 33 and moved to Spain. Why did he retire so early? "I could have hung back in midfield for another three or four years, but I thought, no. It was the best decision I made in my life. I was at the highest level and the only way was down. I call it the glass mountain – you can't climb a glass mountain," says Keegan.

BRYAN ROBSON - Midfield rock

Bryan Robson was another England 'alpha' who presented a mammoth problem finishing up. To me he is the closest to Gerrard in his situation.

He represented England on 90 occasions between 1980 and 1991, making him the sixth most capped England player of all-time, and had the eleventh highest goalscoring tally with 26. Robson captained his country 65 times, with only Bobby Moore and Billy Wright, at the time, having captained England on more occasions. 

BRYAN ROBSON

Robson continued his international career until 1991, also helping England to reach the 1990 World Cup finals for the second World Cup in succession, though, his role was limited as he once again suffered an injury in the second match (against the Netherlands) that was to keep him out of the rest of the tournament. Even more ironically, for the second World Cup in succession, England's revamped formation played better without their captain, whose place in the team was taken by David Platt during the knock-out stages as England came fourth. 

Robson claimed in his autobiography that in one of his last matches for England under Graham Taylor, he was played bizarrely on the left wing, even though he had never played there for club and no longer had the pace to get up and down the line at the age of 34.

ALAN SHEARER  - All round terror of defences

Yet another true England 'alpha' was Alan Shearer. After being named England's captain in 1996 and Newcastle's captain in 1999, he retired from international football following UEFA Euro 2000, having amassed 63 appearances and 30 goals for his country, plus 6 seasons as club captain. Debate over Shearer saying goodbye split the nation. How could the side survive after Shearer had dominated and terrorised for so long?

ALAN SHEARER

DAVID BECKHAM -The modern way to say goodbye....world tour.

Perhaps the 'alpha' most recently in peoples minds was David Beckham. The midfielder played his first game for Manchester United in 1992 and eventually rose to become captain of England's international team for more than 50 games, including several World Cup tournaments. He appeared in 115 matches for the squad. Beckham chose a slightly different path to the rest when saying goodbye internationally. He morphed into a worldwide traveling showpiece playing in various football markets as a marketers dream ensuring shirt sales would explode wherever he went. Beckham the alpha phenomena managed to say the right things wherever he went. Paying tribute to being an England international when he said.

"To this day, one of my proudest achievements is captaining my country. I knew every time I wore the Three Lions shirt, I was not only following in a long line of great players, I was also representing every fan that cared passionately about their country. I'm honoured to represent England both on and off the pitch" 

STEVE PERRYMAN - Some 'alphas' operate on a slightly lower level but are 'alphas' all the same.

STEVE PERRYMAN

Steve Perryman, a midfielder and later defender, played in a club record 866 first team appearances in all competitions for Tottenham Hotspur between 1969 and 1986 and is their longest serving player ever. Personally I saw his career from start to finish at Spurs and along with Glenn Hoddle is my favourite player ever. He was the undoubted leader of the side possessing grit and commitment in a team that sometimes attracted the 'soft southerner' tag from those in the cold harsh north. Perryman was Spurs through and through. In spite of this, his final season at Tottenham was one where we often saw him perform at a lower level than we were accustomed. He went from being a dynamic central midfielder to a very average right back. The fans were very uncomfortable with this situation and rightly Perryman moved on to play for Oxford United. Staying on too long can be a problem. In truth he ought to have had a spot 'upstairs' at the club but circumstances moved him away permanently after a short spell as Osvaldo Ardiles assistant at Spurs.

LIFE AFTER THE TOP

As Gerrard moves on to the next stage of his career it is probably the experience and solution offered by David Beckham that offers him the modern way forward. Steve Gerrard is a world name that will be able to offer leadership and marketability wherever he goes. It is just the English fans who struggle to see their 'alphas' say goodbye.

http://www.espnfc.com/club/liverpool/364/blog/post/2231733/stop-the-fuss-over-gerrard-leaving