GOT told once don’t do anything angry.

Take a breath, calm down, nothing good can come off a comment made or a decision taken with your eyes and head spinning with rage.

It took 36 hours to calm.

And then it came back. A quick glance at the UK newspapers in the postscript of the Peru defeat made it come back.

Tim Cahill after the loss to Peru. Source: AAP

“The Socceroos will return home a plucky, industrious but beaten team,” said The independent.

“Being Australia, they of course showed some sleeves-rolled-up industry but Peru set the elevated standards for slick football and finishing,” said The Times.

“…few sides at this World Cup have looked woefully short in attack and until players of the right ilk are produced it is hard to see exactly how their position can improve,” said The Guardian.

Makes you feel sick.

Not because they’re all lies. As much as we love the current players, and will always support them until our pockets are empty and our voices are gone, it’s the truth. It’s not their fault, it’s the fault of an inconvenient truth.

Aaron Mooy after the loss to Peru. Source: AAP

Makes you feel sick because looking within, why is there an environment in which this feels like it is satisfactory to some?

Yes, making a World Cup is an achievement and I wouldn’t swap those three weeks in Russia for the alternative.

But goodness, this has to be a catalyst for a serious readjustment in what is defined as acceptable.

Yes we make it. And then what. Feels like a cycle of moderate happiness laced with pride but really, through a world view, it is emptiness.

Now what?

Let’s strip it back, and look beyond why Timmy or Arzani didn’t start. Why Bert was even needed. Why we struggled to qualify in the end. Let’s strip it right back and go back to what is the overriding purpose of a national governing body.

Tim Cahill and Daniel Arzani. Source: AAP

To govern the game? Sure. There’s a lot to do, and some things are more important than others. But there’s a clear priority — create elite players.

Nothing should trump it, and if it does, why the bloody hell does it?

Nothing should override it, because everything flows from it.

Be the biggest sport in the land? What, through participation numbers? We are. Take McDonald’s for example. It’s the biggest in fast food. Is it the best food (*hangovers not included)

So why be the biggest if you can’t be the best. Why gets caught up in an arms race at home when you’re taking on the world?

From what I can tell, how’s this how it should work in a simplistic stream of words:

Pump as much time and resources as you can into junior coaching and structure > better coaches, and best kids playing against best kids as much as possible, a better quality of youth player is produced.

Better quality of youth player produced > bigger chance our underage teams have of making international tournaments and those players getting exposed to opposition they’ll play on the big stages in years to come PLUS scouts from bigger clubs are there (as good as international scouting networks work these days, those tournaments are crawling with talent-spotting eyes from all around the football world).

Noah Skoko playing for North Geelong Warriors. Source: News Corp Australia

Youth player exposed to higher quality > better chance of breaking into A League if he chooses to stay at home > A League becomes a better product and has more interest commercially > player gets sold for more money overseas which strengthens the resources of his former club.

Then at the end of it all > better standard of young Australia professional > better standard pushing to be a Socceroo! And when we get to a World Cup…

Jeez, looks bloody easy. Which, of course, it is not because there’s bumps and roadblocks in any administration, in any bureaucracy. More so in a sport like football when everyone feels their two cents is as valuable as anyone else’s currency. And that’s fine, it’s the passion of the sport.

But there is more than just a whiff that the administrators of this game get caught up in sideshows that distract from the overriding goal — again, produce good players — and key issues that lead to said goal are lost in the mire of governance, who runs the A League, what’s the go with marketing, bad headlines and whatever else is the hot take of the day.

It’s all noise. Noise that quietens if the game is pumping out better players.

Ah, righto smarty pants, so how do you do that? Not a former player, or coach, so I’m no expert, but there’s always common sense to fall back on, and some of these following questions or points relate to simple common sense, from the outside looking in:

Are ALL the best people we have in nurturing footballers in Australia even nurturing? A little example. Ron Smith was at the AIS when the “Golden Generation” (if you don’t want to label them that, at least call them the Out of the Group Generation) came through and had a massive say in the development of our elite.

Mark Viduka was part of the ‘Golden Generation’. Source: News Limited

He holds no official role with the FFA. Why?

Only one former international footballer or coach sits on the board; Danny Moulis, who played in the NSL and has three Socceroos caps. If the sole reason in the administration of football is to produce players to make football good in said country — as stated earlier, if that’s not the case in Australia, what’s the damn point — wouldn’t it help to heighten the expertise in the area that is most critical to have more people there who have reached the pinnacle of the sport?

To get skilled in the art of coaching, it costs. C, B and A license. Is all the money though raised from running these courses being pumped back into the courses themselves, to make them either cheaper or more accessible, or to grow the number of educators to spread the word? I heard a rumour excess money from said courses goes elsewhere. I hope it’s just a filthy rumour, and I’ll offer a retraction if it is.

The states remain semi-autonomous regions. Why? Aren’t we one sport trying to go in the same direction and isn’t that a little difficult when not under the one roof?

Eric Abrams is the Technical Director. He reports to Emma Highwood, who oversees Community Football, Football Development and Women’s Football. Why?! Why does the Technical Director looking to make the elite more elite need to report to anyone? Why isn’t someone like Eric Abrams, who in Belgium saw basically the entire current Belgian national team pass through the system he was heavily involved with, allowed to just get on with what he sees fit? Not saying Abrams will cook up some magic potion to produce an Eden Hazard from the backblocks of Blacktown, but why does he need to report to anyone in that role?

Flat-line systems exist in youth football across the country. In the Sydney area, for instance, 26 teams play in the Youth League (under 13’s to 16’s). More clubs exist in the SAP structure (under 9-12’s) so those teams are actually confined to regions so parents don’t need to drive as far. Scores in SAP of 10-0, 15-0, 20-0 happen. What good is that for anyone? Why flat-line? Why aren’t the best kids playing against the other best kids every weekend?

The curriculum has a sharp focus on technical ability. But what kind? Keeping the ball, or actually doing something with it? Daniel Arzani is our best technical player. The whole damn world knows now. But want to know how he started becoming that? Trying to get away from his brother in the backyard who was trying to kick the crap out of him then one up him.

These are just a few things with fewer answers, but questions that need answers. I don’t profess to have them, but there has to be someone out there who can or will.

And all these questions are not potshots at individuals. Individuals are secondary in all of this. Again, all that matters is the creation of quality footballers, and for the 18th time in the last 1000 words if you have that, everything else becomes a damn lot easier.

It is not simple to create what the whole world wants to create — that game-changer who can win you a game in an instant. Damn difficult in fact. But not impossible, because if it was maybe Neil Mitchell or that freelance boffin who wrote “You know what, just give up!”

Stuff that.

Anyone who truly cares about the Socceroos cannot be satisfied by a third straight group stage exit. No wins at a World Cup since 2010. 1 goal from open play in the last 5 games played.

Disappointed Australian supporters after their loss to Peru. Source: AAP

It was said by fans in Kazan after France, “Sick of valiant losses”.

It was said by same fans in Samara after Denmark, “Great effort but should be winning”.

And then the galling reality in Sochi after Peru. “Goddammit, we weren’t good enough”.

‘We’ does not isolate one group, and I’m loathe to take aim at players and staff who gave everything in Russia.

This is about what’s next.

‘What’s next’ can be better, if the game is shoved the way it needs to go.

Otherwise, see you in four or eight or twelve years and we can read about the same comments and feel the same way.

* in an earlier edition it wasn’t mentioned that Danny Moulis is on the FFA board. The author apologises for this oversight.