“To a certain extent, the results don’t matter if you’re producing players every year that go on to represent your first team.

“I guess the other thing is the curriculum. All our kids we’re working with now are products of the curriculum and that’s very much an attacking focused document - what we do with the ball.

“I was at a conference on the weekend and I think there’s been a realisation that maybe we’ve gone too far in that direction and that a lot of kids coming through the current curriculum aren’t great defenders, because we don’t work on it as much as what we used to 10 years ago.

“I think it’s very hard to say there’s a quality centreback that we’ve got coming through in the young national teams for example.

“Perhaps it’s that attacking focus of the curriculum that might have left us with a little bit of a hole of quality defenders coming through.”

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets – Postponed

Originally scheduled to take place on Saturday morning, the Y-League version of the F3 Derby was postponed on Friday afternoon because the predicted Air Quality Index (AQI) reading was forecast to be in the extremely hazardous range thanks to nearby bushfires and wind conditions.

Defined by Columbia University as when the Air Quality Index exceeds 300, such conditions are considered hazardous for everyone and “may prompt emergency condition alerts.”

Unfortunately, such conditions are likely to be an increasing concern not just for the Y-League, but all summer sports in the face of climate change.

“I do think that as climate change continues to bite over the next few decades, sporting bodies are going to have to look at changing the timing of events that are commonly held in summer,” the Climate Council’s Lesley Hughes told The Guardian earlier this year.

“It’s not just the big international events, it’s kids’ sporting events as well.”

Ultimately, though, sport is a secondary concern when so many lives are being uprooted by the still ongoing fires that are raging across Australia.

Adelaide United 3-2 Melbourne City

Adelaide came out firing from their bye week in round four’s opening contest: dramatically defeating a visiting Melbourne City at John Smith Park on Saturday morning.

After a cagey opening, Adam Leombruno put the hosts ahead in the 39th minute when he drove a low shot beyond City keeper Joe Gauci, only for City to answer back a minute into the second half when Idrus Abdulahi struck from close range.

A solo effort from Binyam Kebede restored the Reds’ lead in the 57th minute but City once again equalised when Jordi Valadon, taking advantage of Dakota Ochsenham coming off his line to half-clear a loose ball, chipped into an empty net in the 78th minute.

Yet, late drama was afoot with what proved to be almost the final kick of the game when 86th minute substitute Daniele Bressan pounced in the 95th minute of play to secure three points for the hosts.