Under 16 TAC CUP

[Footynut08]

Why not test it out all the under 16's that are involved in TAC cup based clubs, why dont Football Victoria get together and make a competition exactly like the TAC Cup under 18's, for the 16 year olds, would be great for the development of kids. I understand they have there little carnival that goes for a week with a couple of games played.. but its just for vic metro selection, the boys dont actually play for anything other than a metro/country spot. This would also help the players in each team to play more footy with each other.. i think it would be a great idea any thoughts?

[footyman]

I guess the mini carnivals held in the April holidays give the young blokes a chance to play a couple of games, and impress for Vic selection. Those who get in play a fair bit of footy in the carnival squads. For those who don't then there are often school holiday games in July and another carnival sort of thing in September. Those deemed good enough can often play TAC Cup as a 16 year old anyway - as Eastern have already shown this year with four or five of them in their side.

If the TAC Cup ever became an U19 competition then possibly an U17 competition would need to be created, as is the case in the SANFL.

For the sake of junior footy at club level I don't think the TAC Cup should create an under 16 competition. Taking another 22 players out of each area every week wouldn't go down too well. Not to mention the resources needed to run an U16 TAC competition would be too great.

Nice idea Footynut08 but I'm not convinced it would work.

[WatchOut]

I agree with parts of both the above comments. It would be great for the players development as they would play against the best kids going. You don't improve getting the easy runs. Talk to any boy playing TAC Cup or Vic Metro and they all find it hard going back to club level however it would not be good for junior footy. Grass Roots are very important. Clubs pride themselves on these kids and they don't want to lose them at 15 also their team mates always love when they are available to play for them. Sometimes these kids are the difference in their local club winning or loosing.

[Vic Crow]

Concur. Basically I think it would be a great idea for the kids involved but it would do a fair bit of damage to local footy. The local clubs would never go for it.

For now, I guess it's a bit of a "good get better" concept with only the best 16 year olds getting experience at U18 level, but for the sake of the local clubs that's probably how it would have to stay.

[over the top]

I guess the mini carnivals held in the April holidays give the young blokes a chance to play a couple of games, and impress for Vic selection. Those who get in play a fair bit of footy in the carnival squads. For those who don't then there are often school holiday games in July and another carnival sort of thing in September. Those deemed good enough can often play TAC Cup as a 16 year old anyway - as Eastern have already shown this year with four or five of them in their side.

If the TAC Cup ever became an U19 competition then possibly an U17 competition would need to be created, as is the case in the SANFL.

For the sake of junior footy at club level I don't think the TAC Cup should create an under 16 competition. Taking another 22 players out of each area every week wouldn't go down too well. Not to mention the resources needed to run an U16 TAC competition would be too great.

Nice idea Footynut08 but I'm not convinced it would work.

a lot of the TAC Cup players play in the AGS and APS school comps and often play at the 1st XVIII level which is a better standard then an u16 TAC Cup anywayz. so you wudnt be getting the best 22 for each team and therefore theres more like 30-35 been takin out from each area other than 22

[Trizzy]

well how about making there little carnival go for a bit longer, over 2 sets of school holidays? play about 3 games in april holidays, then you could play another 3 in july holidays with finals aswell? each team could play each other twice, and they could keep training together during the holidays.
thoughts?

[suspect1]

Why not test it out all the under 16's that are involved in TAC cup based clubs, why dont Football Victoria get together and make a competition exactly like the TAC Cup under 18's, for the 16 year olds, would be great for the development of kids. I understand they have there little carnival that goes for a week with a couple of games played.. but its just for vic metro selection, the boys dont actually play for anything other than a metro/country spot. This would also help the players in each team to play more footy with each other.. i think it would be a great idea any thoughts?

I think it is right as it is Generally they say that 2 years is enough for players to play in tac it is quite intense and any longer blokes burn out risk injuries etc from to intense a program ,oteitis pubis injuries etc . from 16 to 18 players change so much so it may be a waste of money putting development into kids for little value .The bodies are growing so quick so intense training can actually harm them . They have done a lot of work on this stuff so iam confident they have it right . Interstingly most in afl system do not agree the school boys u15 carnival is right . Thier belief is that the u15's play to much footy at the carnival and risk long term injuries by playing so much at the carnival.
The pathways system is good u15 talent is identified and nutured through carnivals players get exposed to what is expected, 16 they begin the real at times harsh professionalism and 17-18 they have 2yrs to prove their worth in the system. cant see a better way .

also they do play an u16 national carnival against all the states .

[its game on]

It sounds good in theory.

I think a lot of parents would say NO, next year OK.

This would drop the overall standard and acheive not much at all.

There were a lot of injured U16's who couldn't play at the Country Vs Metro last weekend at Victoria Park.

These injuries were just from club/school and a bit of representative footy.

At 16 they are too young, and body wise too immature to sustain the intensity, frequency and duration of the training, travelling, playing, rehab and schoolwork.