A member of the ‘Golden Generation’, Skoko played 51 times for Australia and spent 13 years playing in Europe with clubs such as Hajduk Split, Genk, Genclerbirligi, Wigan and Stoke City.

Now coaching at youth level with the North Geelong Warriors, the midfielder said much has been changed unnecessarily from the 1980s and 1990s that previously worked for Australian football.

Skoko said lessons have to be learned from what created the ‘Golden Generation’ that took Australia into the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup.

“It wasn’t an accident that there was a great generation,” he told FourFourTwo.

“We’ve turned away from some of these basic things we’ve done in the past and they’ve tried to come up with new things, just for the sake of coming up with new things instead of sticking with what’s great for Australia and what suits us players.

“A style that suits us, that definitely isn’t Dutch, that everybody knows it. But you persevere for a system for so long and it doesn’t suit your players. I mean it’s ridiculous.

“While some of us coaches can just do our own thing and teach football instead of a system, the masses can’t do that, the ones that aren’t good enough to coach follow the guide and we end up churning out a generation of players who don’t fit the profile.

“I think that’s what’s happened now. Things have to be learnt from this generation and they’re not things that are over-complicated. Some of the things we did in the past were certainly wrong, but there was a lot that was right.

Josip Skoko

“At the end of the day there is not a totally wrong or totally right way of bringing up a football player, but there are ways that are better than others. I think results speak for themselves. If you produced a great generation, I think you can't say that the system was wrong.

"You have to go back to basics and look at what you’ve got here. An example is we’ve got so many different sports in Australia compared to other countries and it’s not utilized enough, the off-seasons.

“People say we need to play more football – and yes we do, kids need to play more football, but they should continue to play cricket, play Aussie Rules, all the sports that are unique to Australia, which actually make us better footballers in the end.

“That fighting spirit, all that sort of stuff. As society changes it’s changed the way our sports developed, and that’s happened around the world. But around the world they haven’t lost their identity, and we’ve lost our identity a little bit.

“You can ask a lot of clubs overseas or managers that used to come for Australian players and they knew what they were going to get – guys that never give up, that work hard with a bit of skill mixed in. These days it’s not so much the case.”

Skoko retired in 2012 after a season with Melbourne Heart. The 41-year-old came through the AIS system and represented Australia at Under-20, Under-23 and senior level, and played in the Croatian, Belgian, Turkish and English top flights.

Skoko said when it comes to producing players, Australia has to “develop what we’re good at”.

“There’s no point keeping the ball and making 25 passes at the back, when we don’t have the players to do it,” he said.

“You lose the ball and cop a goal. Play to your strengths, and I’m not saying kick and run is the answer. But our generation played a lot of different stuff and we weren’t shy to play a forward pass.”

Skoko is currently coaching North Geelong’s Under-13s team.

“It’s been good. I’ve learnt a lot through the coaching process,” he said.

“It’s an interesting one and a bit of a sore point at the moment in Australia, the youth coming through and the actual development system. I’ve been part of a lot of discussion from former teammates and people in the industry.

“We’re all hoping we can turn the corner a little bit and find some sort of solution to lift the game, but at the moment it’s in a bit of flat spot. Hopefully that can be worked out soon."