Junior alarm bells ring loud: Jakovich
WA football legend Glen Jakovich has urged the WAFC to beef up its commitment to development pathways, declaring there are “major red lights flashing” at junior level.
The WAFC’s commitment to its talent programs has raised eyebrows from the AFL and recruiters over the past few seasons, with poor results at the under-18 national championships and a lack of development in the State’s best young players seen as major concerns.
WA’s four games at this year’s tournament have resulted in one win and three losses by an average of 84 points.
Jakovich, a specialist coach with the AFL Academy, said if things continued to spiral in coming years, WA was in danger of losing its reputation as a strong football State.
“In my role with the national academy I’ve seen over the past four years the decline in our development,” Jakovich said.
“I see a significant difference in their training, their performance, their body shapes, the maturity of their bodies as opposed to their Eastern States counterparts.
“You can’t blanket the whole WA development program because I don’t see those guys on a week-to-week basis ... there are some issues. As a stakeholder and powerful traditional football State, we are severely on notice.”
Jakovich said the first step to turning things around would be to increase funding to the WAFL Talent Academy, where he believes staff have a huge workload.
He said additional money would also allow the program to bring in better qualified staff rather than rely on volunteers.
However, the dual West Coast premiership hero said the number of children playing football was also a concern. The WAFC’s annual reports reveal a dip in the proportion of young players transitioning from junior football (nine to 12 years of age) to youth football (13-17) over the past five years.
In 2010, more than 70 per cent of junior footballers made the transition to youth level. It dropped to 55 per cent last year.
This season is the first that amateur club Bullcreek Leeming, the club which produced Ben Cousins and Simon Black, has not fielded an under-17 side.
“In the heartland of football in that catchment area, that is alarming. There are major red lights flashing,” Jakovich said.
“We are losing players to other codes, that’s a definite factor. Soccer is killing us at the moment. I’m not sure if (the WAFC) is listening and seeing the big picture.”
