Abstract
Due to a lack of emerging young talent, in 2012 the Football Federation
Australia (FFA) created the National-Premier-League (NPL) to promote a
greater focus on youth development. One of the main objectives was that
elite players would transition through the state clubs’ youth systems
with greater opportunities to play senior football. The success of this
reform has often been questioned and thus this project assessed the
number of homegrown players in senior NPL rosters, their age and game
time participation during the 2018 Victorian season. The overall
proportion of homegrown players is approximately 12%. Only three State
NPL metropolitan clubs have successfully produced internally for over
20% of their rosters demonstrating that it is still possible to compete
at a senior level without relying on an internal youth system. It was
also discovered that over a quarter of all homegrown players are
produced in rural areas and that on average homegrown appearance in
senior games is only 5.7 %. These results overall show that the NPL
succeeded in restricting the signing of older players but in comparison
to overseas homegrown production, proportions are far inferior
confirming the concerns expressed by authors in regard to Australian
youth football development and its environment.