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u23 team of the season

grazorblade

grazorblade

World-Class Star
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3rd Monthly Contributor
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Oct 17, 2024
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Cutoff birth date Jan 1 2003. Dearth of strikers and leftbacks, had to put someone out of position at lb. Also a slow start from those born 2007-2008

----------------------------------------------------------Beach (2003, 7.9)-------------------------------------------------
Antenou (2007 7.8)---------JGR (7.6,2004)--Pantazopoulos (2003, 7.2)----Kutleshi (6.9 2009) -
------------------------------------------Alagich (2003, 7.6)-Okon (2005,7.6)----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------Badalato (2005, 7.7)----------------------------------------------------------
--------Jovanovic (7.3 2005)--------------------Caputo (2005 7.4)-------------------------Di Pizio (7.1 2006)-------

2003 players

E. Alagich 7.6
P. Beach 7.0
J. Bertolissio 7.1
M. Dench 6.7
N. Duarte 6.4
Y Dukuly 7.2
B. Gibson 6.5
M. Grimaldi 6.6
A. Hammond 6.6
C. Hollman 6.6
J. Lauton 6.2
A. Pantazopoulos 7.0
N. Paull 6.7
J. Reec 5.9
A. Simmons 6.9
J. Valadon 7.1

2004 players

N. Blair 6.4
C. Bracco 6.5
R. Bozinovski 7.0
C. Donnell 7.2
J. Girdwood-Reich 7.1
D. Herrington 6.2
S. Klein 7.0
A. Lopane 6.4
P. Mandanh 6.7
J. Nieuwenhuizen 8.1
B.Olivera 7.1
J. Rawlins 7.1
D. Scicluna 7.0
C. Taylor 7.2
J. Vidic 6.6
A. Walatee 6.4
J. Warshawsky 6.7

2005 players

A. Badolato 7.7
B. Brandtman 6.9
X. Bertoncello 6.7
L. Bonetig 6.5
A. Bugarija 6.0
M. Caputo 6.6
F. Deli 6.5
S. Despotovski 6.7
E. Durakovic 6.6
S. Esposito 7.1
A. Faisal 6.1
W. Freney 6.9
J. Inserra 6.5
L. Jovanovic 7.2
W. Kennedy 6.1
P Kikianis 7.1
O. Lavale 6.5
Z. Lisolajski 6.4
F. Lino 6.8
N. Maieroni 6.8
B. Mazzeo 6.4
J. Najdovski 6.1
P. Okon 7.3
A. Robinson 6.0
L. Scicluna 6.4
Z. Schreiber 6.6
H. Schillington 6.6
A. Sulemaini 6.3
D. Valkanis 6.7
L. Vickery 6.5
R. White 7.2
R. Youlley 6.9
J. Yull 7.1
M. Younis 7.3

2006 players

N. Barrie 6.0
J. Brazette 6.0
D. Bosjnak 6.6
B. Burkitt 6.8
H. Crawford 6.2
A De Lima 6.2
Z De Jesus 6.0
M. Di Pizio 7.1
J. Durrington 6.5
A Faisal 6.3
R, Fox N/A
O Fryer 6.5
J. Garuccio 6.3
Z. Helweh 6.4
W. Kamijo 6.5
A. Lebib 6.3
A. Lual 6.4
W. Mckay 6.5
J. Nasso 6.6
K. Ngo 6.5
T. Quintal 7.0
K. Rahmani 6.8
O. Randazzo 6.3
S. Phillis 6.5
X. Stella 6.2
F. Talladira 6.9
N. Thom 6.6
A. Waraga N/A

2007 players

P. Antoniou 6.6
M. Cooper 6.5
G. De Abreu 6.8
A. Didiluca
O. Dragicevic 6.3
W. Dobson 6.9
L. Herrington 7.1
M. Macallister 6.1
J. Mantell 7.44
M. Memeti 6.7
R. Nkomo 5.7
A Nunes 6.5
A. Rahman N/A
J. Rose 6.6
V. Stanisic 6.2
L. Wong 6.2

2008 players

B. Baker 6.0
A. Didulica 6.3
H. Eames 6.7
Q. Macnicol 6.3
A. Tatu 6.5
L. Taylor N/A

2009

A. Akon 6.5
B. Kutleshi 6.7
H. Olivera N/A
E. Shaw 6.1

Unknown
M. Evagorou-Alao
 
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Current count

2003: 14
2004: 12
2005: 24
2006: 16
2007: 6
2008: 4
2009: 1
 
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Round 3 highlights so far
Brazette makes his debut
Okon dominating and very consistent
Badalatos bad games are still pretty decent
Kutleshi the first 2009 born player to make his starting debut
 
No fullback rated above 7 so far and looks to be once again a week position for us
 
Jovanovic makes the team of the year as do some really young fullbacks both from melbourne city. Not a lot of good young fullbacks in the league at the moment, so Kutleshi and Antiniou are a welcome sight!

2003: 14
2004: 12
2005: 27
2006: 18
2007: 6
2008: 4
2009: 2

Total: 83 from 10 Australian teams

Compared to last year

2002 -18
2003 - 19
2004 - 27
2005 - 25
2006 - 19
2007 - 6
2008 - 3

117 from 11 Australian teams, which is roughly 3 more per team. Will be curious to see if this drop is a more permanent turn to more conservatism from coaches this season
 
couple of debuts the last 2 rounds. New numbers with number of standout players from each year in brackets
2003: 14 (4)
2004: 13 (5)
2005: 27 (5)
2006: 19 (1)
2007: 8 (3)
2008: 4
2009: 2
 
Good week for youngsters, nearly every player improved their score with only Pantazopolous, Duarte, Shrieber and Dobson's scoregoing down couple of debuts too
 
Ok time for a 2025 wrap

We have had a few more debuts since the last update. We do seem to be tracking behind last year (even counting the fact wun no longer are around). Interesting, cies apparently ranked us number 1 for youth minutes by some metric. So perhaps the number of youth has gone down but those youth that are getting minutes are more likely to be regulars.

2003: 16
2004: 14
2005: 27
2006: 21
2007: 11
2008: 4
2009: 3

The team of the season is still having a side that would win the league with everyone over 7

----------------------------------------------------------Beach (2003, 7.3)-------------------------------------------------
Antenou (2007 7.1)---------JGR (7.2,2004)--herrington (2005 7.2)-Pantazopoulos (2003, 7.2)-
------------------------------------------Alagich (2003, 7.4)-Okon (2005,7.6)----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------Badalato (2005, 7.7)----------------------------------------------------------
--------Jovanovic (7.1 2005)--------------------Vidic (2005 7.1)-------------------------Dikuly (7.1 2006)-------

It is obviously too early to know the trajectory of the next generation, but I'm pretty confident in ruling out "next golden generation" and "same as other a league era generations" the truth seems somewhere in the middle. The ntc and academies have been a positive, but if we want to go to the next level and get back to where we were 20 years ago it will take some change to the status quo to get there. Hopefully a home and away nst and a nyl are in the near future.

Historically, half of the players we have exported that have ended up in the big 5 or top uefa teams have managed to get regular minutes by u19, aka 2007 born this season. Those that look to be in that category either this season or in previous seasons it makes a pretty short list of just 12 players

Herrington, Jovanovic, Rawlins, Bernardo, Dobson, Caputo, Rahmani, Di Pizio, Cooper, Yull, Quintal, Ngo, Mehmeti,

Fotmob ratings get mocked a bit, fair enough, but of everyone that transfers to europe only one player has managed to get substantial game time with a fotmob rating below 7 is hayden matthews. There are currently 22 young players with a rating above 7. With our injury problems and the fact that not every player makes the cut you probably get around a third of those players, around 7, capable of jumping a league.
 
grazorblade said:
The ntc and academies have been a positive, but if we want to go to the next level and get back to where we were 20 years ago it will take some change to the status quo to get there.
Click to expand...

Would it be more like 30-35 years ago if comparing to when the golden generation were about a similar age?
 
HappyGuus said:
Would it be more like 30-35 years ago if comparing to when the golden generation were about a similar age?
Click to expand...
Do you mean when the gg were 19,20,21 etc?

Definitely not unfortunately, which is what i was getting at. Kewell and moore were u20 when they got regular football at leeds and rangers. Viduka and emerton were u21 when breaking through at champions level teams. I gave a full comparison in another thread, but imagine if we had players born 2006 playing regularly for aston villa and rangers and a couple of players born 2005 playing for dynamo zagreb and feyenoord. There is still a big step up if we want to get back to where we were
 
grazorblade said:
Do you mean when the gg were 19,20,21 etc?

Definitely not unfortunately, which is what i was getting at. Kewell and moore were u20 when they got regular football at leeds and rangers. Viduka and emerton were u21 when breaking through at champions level teams. I gave a full comparison in another thread, but imagine if we had players born 2006 playing regularly for aston villa and rangers and a couple of players born 2005 playing for dynamo zagreb and feyenoord. There is still a big step up if we want to get back to where we were
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what I thought we were aiming for haha, the golden gen. What was special about the U23s from 20 years ago, and what makes them better than today's lot? Kewell was about 27 by then, that's why I suggested an extra 10-15 years earlier to compare. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it all haha.
 
HappyGuus said:
Yeah that's what I thought we were aiming for haha, the golden gen. What was special about the U23s from 20 years ago, and what makes them better than today's lot? Kewell was about 27 by then, that's why I suggested an extra 10-15 years earlier to compare. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it all haha.
Click to expand...
Yeah i should have said 30 haha

I meant comparing 20 years in the past to 5 to 10 years in the future but thats clearly confusing haha
 
This is the first year in three years a u18 has failed to nail a starting spot

previous seasons had Irankunda in 23/24, Eames, Leonard and Herrington in 24/25
 
grazorblade said:
This is the first year in three years a u18 has failed to nail a starting spot

previous seasons had Irankunda in 23/24, Eames, Leonard and Herrington in 24/25
Click to expand...
I guess in positive news we have both Akol Akon (2009) and Besian Kutleshi (2009) making regular appearances off the bench at 16 years old.

It’s a shame that Henrique Oliveira (2009) at Macarthur hasn’t been getting the same treatment after a promising pre-season.

2009 is our most important age group in decades, as it’s our home Olympics age group where the nation’s eyes will be on our Olyroos team, who will qualify automatically.
 
Bowden said:
I guess in positive news we have both Akol Akon (2009) and Besian Kutleshi (2009) making regular appearances off the bench at 16 years old.

It’s a shame that Henrique Oliveira (2009) at Macarthur hasn’t been getting the same treatment after a promising pre-season.

2009 is our most important age group in decades, as it’s our home Olympics age group where the nation’s eyes will be on our Olyroos team, who will qualify automatically.
Click to expand...
If we are going to be a development league we need to find a way to make olympics and youth world cups regularly, then advertise those players and how they play in the a league

Of the 08s, Macnicol got his first start last game, Eames not keeping his starting spot from last year is disappointing
 
looks like the reason eames lost his place was because he had an injury, he returns to the xi tonight and playing well

so looks like the pattern of at least 1 u18 starting every year could continue
 
After 11 rounds we have 21 players above a fotmob rating of 7

2003: 5
2004: 6
2005: 6
2006: 1
2007: 3
 
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