She's back. She's bitter.
Yes folks, after a brief hiatus (read: intense mental block) I've returned to the blogosphere. And this time I'm grumpy. Really, really grumpy.
I'm grumpy for several reasons. My team has been knocked out of the A-League (old news, I know). The new Socceroos away strip looks like my brother's $15 futsal shirt. And I am having recurring dreams about the Mariners youth team losing the NYL grand final to Sydney FC.
But most of all, I'm angry at the FFA and their completely ridiculous A-League transfer policies, salary caps, squad sizes and disrespect towards the National Youth League.
So the Nik Mrdja "transfer" to Melbourne is old news. And his suspension for being, quite frankly, a fool means he'll probably miss the rest of the A-League season (karma at work).
However, unless the FFA reviews their A-League squad rules and regulations, it won't just be the A-League that is affected. The National Youth League will cop it (and is copping it) too.
National Youth League and A-League player regulations clearly state "Hyundai A-League clubs must draw replacement players from the Youth League Player Squad, except under exceptional circumstances".
To be brutally honest, evidence of this rule at work is minimal. There seem to have been a heck of a lot of exceptional circumstances this season. The handy injury replacement player rule means that pretty much any injury to a first team player can and will warrant the recruitment of a non-NYL player.
The root of this problem is the salary cap and the small squad sizes in the A-League. If the cap (and, therefore, squad) was larger, clubs like Melbourne Victory would have more quality players at their disposal and transfers such as the Nik Mrdja one wouldn't be happening.
Under the current rules, A-League clubs are under little to no pressure to hand game time to their most talented young players. Isn't this the whole point of the National Youth League - to bring players through the youth system and up to the A-League when their club needs them?
In the aftermath of Mrdja's transfer, the focus was on Melbourne Victory and the sneaky nature of their transfer dealings. All the attention was on them and how they'd exploited the rules and taken advantage of the flawed system. Basically, it was all Melbourne's fault when the blame should've been on the FFA.
Under the FFA's current rules, youth players have Buckley's chance of getting a run in the A-League. The only conceivable situation in which they'd get game time would be if, along with a multitude of injuries, there was a ridiculously long list of suspensions. I can recall this happening twice all A-League season: for Gold Coast United in Round 16 and for the Central Coast Mariners in Round 27.
There are plenty of quality youngsters playing in the youth league. Maybe i'm watching a different National Youth League to everyone else, but over the course of the current NYL season, I've seen a good 20 players who are just as good as some of the players plying their trade in the A-League. Any of these players would be a good injury replacement player, however, with the rules we have they'll never be the preferred choice when an injury crisis hits.
The salary cap and small squad size may have been functional when the A-League commenced 5 years ago, however, professional Australian club football has raised several levels since then. If we are to build an Australian football empire and compete with the big leagues of the world and the cashed up clubs of Asia, the FFA needs to dramatically review the A-League's transfer policy and salary cap for next season.
If the salary cap and squad sizes are increased, the injury replacement player rule can be abolished. With squads of, say, 28 players, injury replacement players won't be needed and, on the off chance that they are, we'll finally get to see some of youth league's finest.
