For those that have missed the news, Rob Baan announced that he will not renew his contract which expires in six months. Citing a desire to return to the Netherlands and spend more time with his wife and family, it appears the 65 year is looking forward to retirement.
Hired back in Dec 2006, Baan was appointed to the role of Technical Director and tasked by Frank Lowy to....”drive the implementation of the talent identification and development review outcomes from top to bottom through our development pathway”. The question is how successful he has he been?
There is no doubt that the introduction of small sided games (SSG) as a national program will have a significant long term impact on the development of players in this country. But the job is hardly complete and its rollout has not gone without issues. Several state federations appear to be less than happy with the format, especially in the planned under 11 and under 12 age groups and there has even been talk from some officials of this being a trail.
Beyond SSG though I am not sure to what extent Rob Baan has influenced the talent identification and pathways. It has been good to see a higher emphasis placed on coach education and there is no doubt that the increase in media exposure and TV rights money has helped improve the game at a national level. However changes in grassroots football is a long term goal. Even Baan acknowledges himself that we are talking 10 years plus before we see real changes.
So, with Baan stepping down the FFA finds itself once again casting an eye overseas in search of a Technical Director. The odds must be pretty good that we will again see some Dutch names at the top of the list but should that be the only country we look to? France, Italy, Portugal and Spain all produce wonderful technical players and there would be a good case for providing an alternative viewpoint to all the Orange we currently have. France especially has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its youth programs. I suspect though that the FFA will appoint another Dutchman, if only to ensure that the tiny steps we have taken over the last three years can continue and become real strides towards a technical improvement in the type of player we produce here.
Whoever is selected I hope they choose a younger man this time. Two years is not enough time to stamp their influence on the game. We need a technical director who is going to drive change for the next 10 years and who is going to stay the course.
...Againstthecrossbar will be in hiatus for two weeks as I will be sunning myself in far north Queensland.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
The Dutchman’s Legacy
Posted by againstthecrossbar at 9:59 PM
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2 comments:
New reader here. Just found your blog last week and look forward to reading more of your pieces.
It is disappointing that Bahn is leaving after such a short period but he has laid the platform at least and given the FFA plenty of warning to find a successor.
I would like to see a Dutchman just to keep some stability in the systems we are trying to implement throughout the various levels. It is a big ask for someone from Europe to spend a decade based in Australia so we need to be recruiting people with the same ideology and direction to follow in the work paved by their predecessor. However if someone else put their name forward we would be stupid not to consider what they have to offer. I'm just a strong believer of stability and direction right now.
He wasn't a technical director but he acted like one. France's Fernand Sastre was the visionary behind Clairefontaine which has produced many of the French stars that are household names today. Let's hope we can get a similar visionary to guide our future.
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