Lamentable demise of Spirit a lost opportunity

Southland football stalwart and Southland Times football correspondent Stu Munro gives his views on the demise of the Spirit FC concept following the decision not to compete in the Footballsouth premier competition this season.

In Brendon Egan’s contribution ‘‘Dispiriting decision divides followers’’ (STL February 15) he quite correctly states that I am disappointed about the collapse of Spirit FC.

However my disappointment extends beyond that to not having a team at all in Footballsouth’s premier competition.

The reason a composite team was created was to lessen the impact on individual club resources by spreading the load.

In a province without a sufficient player base it was seen as the most practical option to accommodate our better players who want to play above their comfort zone.

Dispensation was sought and authorised by both New Zealand Football and Otago Football and the concept was embedded into Southland Football with the original Invercargill City team as far back as 1969.

A Nelson team participates in the Mainland premier league under the same criteria.

Local results and knowledge suggest that currently Old Boys has the management, development structure, players and commitment to step up from its triple Donald Gray championship campaigns to the Premier League.

The difference is, in my experience, when it comes to the crunch around four players will say they cannot travel on Saturdays, at least one will say my wife/partner is expecting so that counts me out, and a couple will pick up preseason injuries which leaves the previous year’s champion team in disarray.

Using Old Boys’ heavy defeat by Roslyn as a benchmark is not what I intended.

I intended it to be a flag of what can happen.

Dunedin Tech, Roslyn and Caversham can, and do, do that to their Dunedin counterparts, they are strong clubs with ‘‘semiprofessional’’ structures and an ambition to succeed that is not evident down here.

More importantly, they are coached on match days from the sideline and not from on-field which is the norm for Spirit and certainly not a desirable situation.

The article says, ‘‘Southland’s Donald Gray Memorial Cup senior league will be strengthened by the return of Spirit FC players and is likely to be the strongest it has been in several seasons.’’

Spirit used 24 players last season, with 12 playing 12 or more games. Five of the 12 are returning to Donald Gray football, hardly enough to make a significant difference, surely.

But then I won’t disagree that the potential is there for a strong Donald Gray competition, only my reasons differ slightly.

The strength of Donald Gray football is clearly built on the capability of coaches and a personal commitment from players to get physically fit.

Based on information I have received for the upcoming season, apart from Queens Park, the Donald Gray teams will be coached for consecutive years by those who did the job last season, and who would argue that the involvement of Park’s Lindsay Barnett with his experience and knowledge is nothing but good for that club.

That’s a great start as they will take their learning from 2011 and put it into practice with this season’s squads.

They are well capable of that, however, none can be expected to install an appropriate level of fitness into their players in two two-hour midweek training sessions and that’s where player accountability takes over.

It is obvious to me too, as the article states, that Southland has some exciting prospects coming through its youth ranks but these players are still a couple of seasons away from the unforgiving Premier League environment.

It is also obvious to me they are just a couple of years away from furthering their education in cities north of the divide, and has that not been the norm for as long as I can remember and the main reason this is being debated?

It is a part of the job of Ken Cresswell and Barry Gardiner to push players to trial for representative and national honours and they do it well and astutely.

But it is also as important for coaches at representative and national level to see how players perform ‘‘on the stage’’ and in this case that opportunity has gone, at least for the moment.