The plight of the aging Socceroos squad, specifically the dearth of top quality players coming through to replace the golden generation, has turned the spotlight on our production line.

What progress is being made is put in the shade by the likes of Japan, where Tobin revealed there are 52 advanced coaching courses conducted for every one in Australia.

Our main Asian rivals suddenly have a national team full of players at the pointy end of European football as they start to see the benefits of their long-term development plan at senior level.

“Their rate of improvement is extraordinary but it's no surprise,” Tobin told au.fourfourtwo.com. “And I know where they'll be in 10 years time and 20 years time, simply because they'll be working with elite players with fantastic technique. No senior coach is going to be inheriting players who need to work on this or that.

“There is a concern (that Australia will be left behind), which is precisely why we need to do things well, and ensure that good coaches are in the system.

“Currently there's a structure where coaches and players move around, there's very little stability in club and association environments.”

Despite the doom and gloom, Tobin is generally positive about the work being done at the coalface.

The Socceroos legend is currently touring NSW to help deliver a series of free coach education workshops, and while the roadshow is a great benefit to coaches, it also gives Tobin the chance to gauge the vibe on the training pitches around the state.

He said the implementations of the National Curriculum and Small Sided Games are progressing, and perhaps more importantly, the culture and attitude of coaches is starting to evolve towards something more beneficial for technical development in young players.

The hordes of coaches who had volunteered their time to attend these educational sessions, in which Tobin and fellow FNSW instructors put on sample sessions with talented youngsters while discussing their coaching techniques and philosophies with the coaches, represent a hunger for information at the grassroots level.

Tobin's primary concerns now are a lack of resources in elite youth-specific coaching, systematic resistance to a development-focused approach amongst some football administrators, and the overall financial health of the game, which has obvious trickle-down effects on Australia's ability to produce talent.

“There are a lot of countries where developing young players is 100 per cent the priority, and Australia is not one of those countries,” he said.

“We all recognise the end product, the national team and the professional players, will only improve in 10 years time if we focus on our current youth. That's obvious. We're starting to put better resources into better coaches at younger ages, which many nations already do, whereas we have tended to traditionally put the better coaches with the men or the women.

“We need to give rewards to a coach who feels he is the elite U-11 coach and that's where he wants to stay.”

To explain the importance of quality age-group coaches, Tobin contrasted football with the education system, where a good second grade teacher wouldn't be automatically promoted to Year 12 or university.

Tobin said the same old problems of clubs focusing on results over development, and moving successful youth coaches into senior teams to win titles, continued to hold back our potential, but that these issues were gradually being rectified.

“There are still resistances. They often don't come from the coaches but from the administrative structures," he said. "I'd love to see coaches with the freedom to do what they want without having someone standing over them saying 'I want a different outcome' and perhaps forcing them to play a different way.”

Tobin said while more resources would help speed up the revolution, he is realistic about the hopes of new FFA boss David Gallop loosening the purse strings in the development area.

“It comes down to the economy of it. We need a better funding model that is consistent with coach education and development priorities. But we also need a very stable A-League so it is a balancing act. I'd be on a long list (asking for more resources),” he said.