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Why is naming names going to help anyone considering that the turnover in coaches and managers in development squads is frequent? Naming people is just petty crap. I wasn't making this personal, I was making this about the system itself.

No one in the WAFC has ever taken my complaints about this or any other issue seriously. What is taking any of this public going to do? Trust me, complaining about crap like this as an individual will not do anything, especially when that individual is a young person.

The talent development system in itself is inherently broken in WA. Accuse me of having an axe to grind all you like but I quite clearly stated that I didn't believe I was cut out for playing higher levels of football so that wouldn't make any sense.

I'm advocating for a change in how talent is found and developed from juniors through to WAFL/AFL level. If the WAFL clubs don't want to actually improve how they go about these things then change the structure of the system. There's no lack of people out there involved in juniors and colts football who will tell you that nearly all WAFL clubs don't appear to have any interest in looking for talent in teams within their district.

Edit: Phrasing in the last sentence

Don't be a flog grassy , u don't speak to youth like that.

I agree IG99 - we should be focusing on fixing problems in the system and "getting personal" is counter productive.
I disagree with you, however, about WAFL clubs looking for talent in their district. They all have an interest - clubs can't keeping buying players - I'd say that the survival of the WAFL system depends on WAFL Clubs maximising the talent that they develop in their Districts. Some do it better than others. But that is for another thread.
I'm assuming that everyone contributing to this thread has a love of footy in common and they want the game to thrive and to have as many people play it at all levels as possible.

Factor opinion wrote: I agree IG99 - we should be focusing on fixing problems in the system and "getting personal" is counter productive.
I disagree with you, however, about WAFL clubs looking for talent in their district. They all have an interest - clubs can't keeping buying players - I'd say that the survival of the WAFL system depends on WAFL Clubs maximising the talent that they develop in their Districts. Some do it better than others. But that is for another thread.
I'm assuming that everyone contributing to this thread has a love of footy in common and they want the game to thrive and to have as many people play it at all levels as possible.

I didn't mean to say they have no interest, I meant to say it appears that way. Obviously I know they do but sometimes one has to question whether they behave that way.

Regardless of all that, this thread has been derailed and people should get back to suggesting ideas for player retention. I'm happy to give my thoughts as a young player on any ideas people have.

Agree- I think that communication between Stakeholders has been identified as a critical area that requires improvement.
I think that Disco's suggestion about regular meetings is useful but perhaps to be pursued with Talent Managers (rather than WAFL Colts coaching staff directly).
There is also a good point in there about the PSA being a stakeholder too.
IG99 there is obviously something that got you through what is it? Some focus on things that have worked would be helpful to the discussion

Grassy wrote:

IG99 wrote: I didn't personally have any experience with development by the WAFC itself. I had experience with development squads at Swan Districts and frankly it was an awful experience.

The amount of favoritism, the "your dad is on the board so you're on the team" bs and so on. There's many other things that I hated with that club that I witnessed occur and it put me off ever wanting to play football at a high level. Would I even belong at a high level? Probably not but I'm fine with just playing footy for the fun of it. Last time I said that Swan Districts supporters were upset at me but unfortunately it's what goes on there and probably at the other clubs.

In my opinion the talent pathways in place in WA are flawed. U/18s competitions and development needs to be taken out of the hands of WAFL clubs and given to organizations set up by the WAFC who's focus is to find and develop young guys because frankly the WAFL clubs do a terrible job of scouting for talent and let far too many talented individuals waste away at lower levels when they shouldn't be there.

And that's my experience with the talent pathway that exists in WA.

Are you telling me that Father/Son Bullshit doesn't happen at Junior and other Levels of Football?That one's as old as Time itself.

If the accusations you level at WAFL Clubs are as bad as you say they are,why haven't you raised them before at a Public Level?

If you have,you need to follow it up,instead of just plain advocating replacing an Entire Level of State League Football.

I'm not saying some of your complaints aren't legitimate,but if you're going to slam a system the way you do,why hold back?Name names at Swans.Or is this someone with simply an Axe to Grind?!

Do you see the irony in your last question Grassy?
Your continual rhetoric on this site is that the AFL is to blame for where the WAFL finds itself. Now someone suggests that the WAFL clubs need to improve their junior development program and they have an axe to grind?

The only one with an axe to grind is you Grassy.

Grassy - they might need a shake up but I don't think that it's up to IG99 or any of the kids going through the system to do that. Get some members to ask the Club administrators the curly questions. But let's pursue that on a separate thread and get this one back to working on getting more kids to keep playing footy.

Factor opinion wrote: IG99 there is obviously something that got you through what is it? Some focus on things that have worked would be helpful to the discussion

I just genuinely love the game, plain and simple. I'm not fussed about never playing elite level footy, very few guys ever do and I accepted that and moved on.

I could move internationally as long as where I go has a football league for me to be involved in I'll be happy.

Disco Knight the feedback question is a tricky one but part of the problem that I think has to be solved is that players ask their Youth coaches what the player has to do to get a game in the WAFL Colts but the coach cannot answer that properly without information from the WAFL club.
Much of that depends on a case by case discussion about individuals and a lot of that will be inappropriate to raise in a meeting with all District coaches for example.
In that context, however, it is legitimate ask Talent Managers to work with Youth Yr 11 and Yr 12 coaches, WAAFL colts coaches and the players as often as possible.
WAFL Development coaches and the Talent Manager are generally in fairly regular communication and some of the changes in the talent carnival fixturing this year should improve that within the WAFL development pathways. I think that the real area of communication needs to improve is between the WAFL/WAAFL/Youth.
Maybe it would help to have some general information sessions about what the WAFL club is doing in the talent area, what "talent" is and how the WAFL club is attempting to "develop" talent.
What do you think needs to be exchanged in public meetings and in private discussions directly with players and coaches?

Thanks IG99 - how do we make sure that every kid who plays the game loves it as much as you? What is it about footy that we love? how do we give players at all levels more of that, especially young players transitioning from youth to colts to senior footy?