Recent Saudi League acquisition Shane Lowry just one of a roll call of professionals.

Aryn Williams, Rhys Williams, Alex Grant, Josh Risdon, Shane Lowry, and strikers Joe Knowles (who is back at the club), as well as Taggart, are just some of the names ECU Joondalup have helped produce. 

Add Rostyn Griffiths, Chris Herd to that list and you understand why this club is revered.

What’s more, the next generation is off on trial or coming through in WA.

Aside from teenager Douglas, ECU product Fraser Dunlop is in the UK. The striker is trialing with Stevenage, Bournemouth, Fulham and Sheffield United. Ben Hinshelwood is another who has trialed overseas.

Impressively, too, six ECU players were in last week’s WA v Glory U13 and U14 clashes.

Go back in time and the club’s U13s won through a national tournament to represent Australia as the national U13s side at a mini-World Cup in Europe for junior teams. 

“When we employ first-team coaches they are made aware that if a player at, say age 15, needs to be in the first team, then he’s elevated to the first team.”

The current first team coach, for example, is a former club academy coach. Dale McCulloch has complete buy-in about the way the club works.

“We copied Southampton from the days of Micky Lyons. Now I run it overall and employ the coaches and do the contracts," Amphlett explains. 

ECU was born from a Southampton link. 

The Saints was an academy funded by Southampton and headed by Mick Lyons in a full-time role 16 years ago. Southampton were associated with the Saints from 1999-2003

The Saints then merged juniors with Joondalup and moved to the Edith Cowan University, thus name change to ECU Joondalup SC.

Lyons, the former English pro, is back at the club as is the influential John Brown.

“We look for technical ability and mental strength. Not everyone has that. The minimum is getting these young players who deserve it playing in the first team as early as 15," Amphlett stresses. 

“FFA and Football West have their own plans, but we’ll continue to do what we do. They say it’s not about winning at that level, but winning becomes part of that.

“It’s part of the mental strategy. You’ve got to accept disappointment and we push these players. It doesn’t suit everybody.

“But if you want to be a footballer, the cream will rise. They go on about numbers and registrations. There is room for social football and there has to be room for elite football, whether they like it or not.

“Everybody should be playing.

"But for those we see with the talent, we’ll push through to the next age group," he added. “Australia will not produce top players for our national sides without elite junior football.

“We’ve outlined what we do. It doesn’t suit everybody. And we’ll continue to do it."