Caravella, who played in the NSL, in the Netherlands and in the A-League during his career, retired in 2015 and runs his own football academy in far north Queensland.

The national curriculum was introduced in 2009 and is a thorny issue in Australian football, as debate rages over its influence and the struggling production line of talent.

Caravella is not against the curriculum, but believes it is being too strictly adhered to and relied on by several new coaches as the be-all and end-all with little background in the sport.

"It’s not that the national curriculum is a bad thing,” he told FourFourTwo.

“Of course it’s not a complete failure and has no merit. But if you don’t have any experience at the game at any level and you go and you read this book, because of all sudden you had a passion for the game. You go and do a course and it lasts 10 days, or whatever.

“These people, especially in regional areas, believed they are now qualified in the eyes of the game to be elite coaches. Of course the national curriculum is fantastic for people who are new to the game.

“But for the people with nothing, they look at this national curriculum, and say this is what it says and this is what I have to do. Because at the end of the day, what do they have to challenge that view? They don’t have anything else.

“You have to be very careful in spruiking this national curriculum if you don’t have another insight into the game other than that. It’s a framework, it’s a great starting point for coaches to begin with. It’s perfect for that, no question.

“But when people that don’t have any experience in the game whatsoever read this and it says, for example, the 6 plays to the 10, the 10 plays to the 8, who plays it to the wingers who are high and wide. It’s very black and white.

“When these people read it they regurgitate it exactly as it is in the textbook. And in reality it’s just an example. But the moment they start saying you as a number 8 you must play it to the 6 and so.

“And if that doesn’t work you have to come up with your own solution as a player. The game changes so quickly, sometimes you can’t play to what your supposed to.”

Caravella believes this over-reliance on the curriculum by some coaches can become dangerous because it can produce players that are robotic and unable to improvise during games.

“In a sense, it hampers their ability to find other solutions, or have different scenarios in a game they can adapt to,” he said.

“It’s not everyone, but a lot of new people to the game. Sometimes they’re just parents or volunteers.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s actually brilliant they’re going there and learning. But the problem is, you can’t let these people just because of a C license develop very impressionably young kids in the game.”

Caravella in his playing days with Newcastle

Caravella is also concerned about Football Queensland’s plan next year to follow Football NSW’s lead and bring in non-competitive games for children until the age of 12.

The 34-year old said this will take away one of the best attributes Australian athletes have, which is the desire to win.

“You can’t at 16 or 14 flick a switch and say I want to win,” he said.

“This has to be ingrained from a young age. You can’t knock it out from Australians because that’s one of our best qualities. Don’t breed it out of these young kids. For me it's so backwards.

“We’re heading down a path where we’re slowly going to eradicate that mongrel that we’re known for globally, and they fear it.”