It was the summer of 1994-1995, and the Australian Cricket Board had a problem. Touring the country for the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup this year were England - a big name and our mortal cricketing enemies - but also Zimbabwe, who at that stage were the newest team to international cricket and as a result hopelessly outclassed by its two opponents. This, they reasoned, would make for a farcical series in which the Africans would finish winless and the two Ashes sides would waltz into the finals with games to spare. They needed a fix, and fast - a drawcard that would inject life back into the series and encourage the public to attend in droves. Their solution? Australia 'A'.
 
Met by scepticism at home and condemnation overseas (no Australia A game was classed as an official one day international game by the ICC) the 'A' concept was a fairly simple one. You took the 'nearly men' of Australian cricket - the guys always in the mix but never quite making the national side - and combined them with ageing players whose careers had already peaked and a sprinkling of young stars. The result was on one hand laughable; the two Australian sides tore through the tournament and ended up facing one another in the final, with the ACB deciding it was fine for the Australian team to call on 'A' players if they impressed during their own matches.

But it also had massive benefits for the game in this country, helping to produce a future crop of Australian stars. Hayden, Bevan, Blewett, Lehmann, Martyn, and Ponting were all Australia A members, and established players Reiffel and Moody proved selectors were wrong to leave them out of the Australian side. But what does any of this have to do with football?


Leaving a Legacy
Frankly, quite a bit. The legacy of the 'A' side was a second national side that, while not given full ODI honours, still played touring sides like Pakistan and the West Indies and went on tours to the UK and the subcontinent as a team in their own right. It aided the development of young Aussie cricketing talent and added further fuel to what was already going to be a bright golden age of Australian cricket. Recent players have included Cameron White, Doug Bollinger, and Ben Hilfenhaus - all now Australian players at their own right. Football meanwhile has an impressive list of youth structures - the NTC, the AIS, the Joeys, the Olyroos... but once you get to senior level, you have to bide your time, twiddle your thumbs, and hope for a call-up.
 
One could consider the 'A-Leagueroos' one solution to this problem, but we would be kidding ourselves if we think Alex Brosque and Simon Colosimo are really Australia's next best selection. No; our Australia A team needs to be a team of players on the true fringe - those that just missed the World Cup squad (Pim's squad, not your little fantasy ones) and those that have plied their trade overseas but never quite forced their way in, complemented with a healthy dose of up-and-comers from the Olyroo ranks. Maybe you could throw in a few A-League youngsters or some ageing 'roos who won't play another World Cup but still want to help out - Sterjovski and Chipperfield for example - but this is purely an optional extra.

What you then need to do is get this team together and play some games as a unit. Tour a country playing club sides; play other nations' second teams (many European sides such as England and Germany have a B team), maybe make a nostalgic trip through Oceania or play some South East Asian teams. Whatever - just give them some competitive game time, get them used to playing with each other, and have a decent coach issuing instructions.


Practice Makes Perfect
'But just wait a second', I hear you cry. 'Just make those guys play as the Socceroos against Asian opposition!' Perhaps, but in my mind there are three problems with that:

  1. The Socceroos need regular time together too. They can't just come and meet each other before a tournament.
  2. We already piss AFC officials off enough, and then we go send substandard teams to play in AFC qualifiers? Kind of disrespectful, don't you think? We are in a political game here, after all.
  3. The FFA loses money when they field second or third string sides at home. Unless it's a tournament that would also involve the first team, people just aren't interested in watching Cole instead of Cahill.


The way I see things, the Socceroos need to keep being the Socceroos, but then those underneath need some game time too so that they're ready to take their place. As crazy, expensive, or impractical as this seems, I'm not the only one who thinks an 'A' side that provides more game time for fringe players would be beneficial.

Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' looks at rich and successful people, self-made millionaires, and highly-rated sporting teams and tries to uncover what makes them tick. His book mentions a 'magic number' - ten thousand hours - which is defined as being the time it takes someone to become a master at anything. It doesn't matter whether it is The Beatles, IT gurus like Bill Joy and Steve Jobs, Canadian hockey players, or graduates of the finest universities in the world - there is always an opportunity that has been provided for them to work, work, work and become the successes that they are.

The reason so many South American players are so skilled on the ball is the amount of time they've had with it. I'm sure if you total up Messi's playing time, you'll see that magic 10,000 hour number - remembering that these kids kick the ball almost from the time that they are born. We might not have the same culture in Australia, but surely anything that gives our next-best some more game time and international exposure is not to be scoffed at? 

I think we need these same opportunities to be available to young Australian players. Our youth camps and teams are one thing; but once they're too old for that I think we need to keep the ball rolling and have these young blokes pushing on the door of the national team. Logistics make this a bit of a nightmare - but perhaps you could have European-based 'A' camps where guys like Langerak, Troisi, Djite, Lowry, and co. could meet up and play games during their teams' breaks or the European off-season. Tours could be organised to fit in with domestic schedules; perhaps a series against England B and France's second team during the next FIFA tournament break?

The possibilities are there - we just need to be creative enough to take advantage of them. It might not be easy to compare cricket with football - our domestic competition is, after all, an excellent platform to leap into international cricket, whereas our domestic football competition is a much smaller stepping stone. But when you look at guys like Marcus North, Tim Paine, and Doug Bollinger, it's easy to see that the extra pratice they had at a higher level with the 'A' side has aided their development. Surely the likes of Tommy Oar, Neil Kilkenny, and Shane Lowry could benefit from something very similar?