A Holistic Perspective of Success in Australian Football

2018 has brought most people’s attention to witness the sporting event of the world that is known as the World Cup. This event is watched by billions of people around the world and football is the most participated sport on Earth.

As an Australian who has represented England at youth level, I am absolutely fascinated about this global event. I think it’s incredible that the whole world unites in a common sport in this scale and I think this global engagement is a great showing of what humanity can produce when people work together with collective interests and passions.

As an Australian, it’s great to be alive in a time where we qualify for such an event, whereas countries such as Italy, Holland, and Chile have not. Impressively Australia has around 300 professional footballers whereas Brazil has around 3000. Australia is a proud sporting nation and considering our modest population base, we have always over achieved statistically. I believe one of these reasons is down to our hard working culture of working hard and giving our best, and we have always had a deep rooted belief that we can take it to the best of the world due to our humble beginnings. Our way of life is a fantastic platform in which to train and approach performance and is some of the best quality of life in the world. 

One of the big questions that arises since we have been qualifying for the World Cup is how well will Australia do?

I love this question because it sparks opinions, and perspectives which form a great debate about football and Australia as a sporting nation, both in domestic and foreign tournaments. I was privy to such a debate recently at the Brisbane City Legends Lunch in which I attended. Typically these lunches have guest speakers and Q & A and this was very much the same. Those who were on stage included my boss John Aloisi, Zeljko Kalac, John Kosmina, and Mark Rudan. Typically Q & A’s can often be mundane and politically correct. All the normal questions come to the surface with middle of the road answers and it’s a bit of a formality. On this occasion however, it turned into a great debate which I found most fascinating. The subject related to how well Australia will do at the World Cup, which then turned to the progress of Australian football, and if we’ll win the World Cup in the next 50 years. It was argued that Australia has regressed as a footballing nation since our 2006 ‘golden generation’ inspired World Cup. The rational to this assessment was that Australia isn’t producing the same quality and quantity of players overseas as we were in that time and that we have little to no chance of winning the World Cup in the next 50 years. 

This subject peaked my interest because it had great depth and honest conversation with real passion talking about practical applications of our game and how the development has been fostered or thwarted depending on how you are arguing your point. This had me thinking for next few days of how success is defined in the development of our sporting code. The common argument that I have read in the media over the last few years is that we are regressing as a football nation due to the lack of player presence in foreign leagues or that we aren’t producing the same quality of player that we used to. In my opinion, although achieving a goal is ultimately the desired outcome in any successful organisation or individual, success or the development of success could be viewed from a more holistic perspective. In other words, is Australia producing professional footballers that are capable of playing in elite leagues around the world and the answer is yes. I agree this is not on the same scale as the circa 2006 era and this could be explained due to the emergence of the A League. Let me explain.

It’s true that Australia has produced some wonderful world class players before and around that circa 2006, largely due to the fact that there was no sustainable route to a professional career while playing in the NSL. Therefore players had to go overseas to fulfil their dreams of living life as a professional footballer. I understand this pathway only too well as I too set to pursue that dream at the age of 15, however I did not reach the heights of Harry Kewell or Mark Viduka did. I do however understand the concept of putting a motivated individual in an environment that forces them to adapt and improve at an elite level. They will adapt, survive, and thrive (Harry Kewell) or fail and die in that environment. This concept of evolution can also be illustrated in the dominant presence of Africans and Jamaicans in sprinting in relation to Caucasians. 

Moving on from 2006, we now have a professional league in Australia known as the A League which has given players a direct route to a career as a professional footballer within Australia, as well as a platform to test themselves overseas. Players now have the option to come back to Australia if things don’t work out, which includes great stadiums, secure payments, and compulsory live coverage of every game that they play in. Contrast that to my career in England where I often played in front of mediocre crowds of 3000 and unless you were a die hard supporter, you might have not even known that my game had ever been played. What I am saying is that we now have a league which is producing professionals within Australia as opposed to overseas and the environments within our leagues are vastly different to that of Europe. The league in Australia has developed and thus there is less of a necessity to carve out a career overseas. 

So I don’t think we have regressed as a footballing nation in terms of developing players, however that route to the attainment of being a professional has evolved, and of course has influenced Australia in proportion to this. Although we haven’t quite reached the level of circa 2006 by progressing past the group stages, we have still competed in the most recent World Cup with our starting 11 comprised of players that has at one time or another, played or is playing in the A League. Is it still possible to develop footballers from Australia to play in the top league of a country in Europe and I give you Matt Ryan, Aaron Mooy, Danny Vukovic, and Tom Rogic. It may not be quantity but the point is that it’s still possible and now the goal posts of that route have changed. The question is not if we have progressed or regressed since circa 2006 because the context has changed. The real question that we should be asking is how we can produce a greater quantity of world class players in elite leagues that exceeds that of circa 2006 because it as mentioned above it is possible, but so far on a smaller scale.