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.”