GOAL MUST BE ELITE RETURN

Region must start planning now for a future NPL, A-League presence

NORTH Queensland has the talent to compete at the highest level, but planning must start now to a create a sustainable way for a presence in elite competition, a leading football official says.

Michael Edwards is Football Queensland’s senior manager technical – northern club development, talent and coaching, a position in which he sees first-hand – and is responsible for – building and developing the region’s most talented young footballers.

Edwards is also an accomplished coach educator, who has previously worked with the Matildas, and was the technical director at Football Tasmania before moving to NQ.

In commentary for the Crad Evans Shield at Tiger Park, in which Edge Hill United made history by becoming the first club to win three consecutive trebles, he spoke about how the region could one day return to elite competition.

“The talent ... I see it every week, the possibility, but it has to be sustainable,” he said.

“It can’t be for one or two years if there’s a good group of players, it has to be long-term.”

Since Cairns FC and North Queensland United folded, the region has not had a presence in state football competitions.

There were challenges to overcome, with talent and financial aspects the key hurdles to clear, but Edwards said it was something he believed could happen, and could keep the best young talents at home.

“One of the things a lot of people say is it’s a shame the best players leave this part of the country, when there’s great facilities, great clubs, great opportunity, but we just can’t seem to get that next level,” Edwards said.

“The strength still lies in club football, and we have to make sure that’s strong so that level continues to produce players for NPL or a higher level.

“If that breaks down again and people just think it is the responsibility of the A-League club or NPL club, then it all falls apart. Everyone has a part to play. It will be a key moving forward. The number of good players we see here today, and the female space as well.

“It’s a challenge, it’s not insurmountable, we just need to get enough people together who believe in the same objective, and the plan needs to be put in place. It won’t be next year or the year after, but if we don’t start thinking about it then no one ever does.”

Edwards stressed that any push for a higher presence – whether that was a combined entity or based in either city – had to cater for male and female football players.

“To put any team of that level in place, it’s a combination of not just the talent base or the money base, it’s both together plus a whole heap of other things that need to be there,” he said.

“We have to have the supporters, we have to have the support of the clubs underneath, there has to be a pathway – where do the players come from and what are the rules around signings – but it has to be male and female.”