Painful: The Olyroos come to terms with failing to qualify for the Olympics after drawing with Jordan. Competition, scrutiny and professionalising senior coaching changed the game. NSL coaches were semi-amateurs and did a fantastic job creating a culture widely recognised as providing a platform for the generation of high-quality players we saw at the World Cup in 2006 on low budgets, in a semi-professional environment with few staff, if any, and on salaries commensurate with a financially unstable game. With increased investment came accelerated improvement. Today, our professional coaches are pushing each other daily, have ever-expanding resources and technical staff to add to their intellectual dynamism, and are moving the game forward quickly. I'm not talking here about beauty of play – that is subjective – only about the quality of methodology, analysis and thought behind the various tactical systems, scouting, recruitment, player management and monitoring, and a plethora of processes the game here has never seen before. Because we couldn't afford it. The problem is that this transition is yet to happen in youth coaching, and with the systems of play now progressing quickly above, it is placing greater pressure than ever before on the ability of youth coaches to develop the players capable of bringing the game to life.

This is an entirely natural progression, because most evolution happens where the most scrutiny is applied, the A-League and national teams. Many of you will have read of stories of how Germany or Belgium changed their entire trajectory, but what is often forgotten is the quantum of investment made in hundreds, often thousands, of coaches to make the dreams a reality. We are at this point. A decade ago it was about forcing greater thinking and to break the evolution inertia; about opening people's minds, creating innovation and adapting a package to get everyone on a better path. But this needed to evolve more quickly, to be tested, to be open to innovation and adaptation. The curriculum is a working document, not the bible. Never was.

So as senior coaches have become professional they are pushing each other to higher and higher levels. The strong will survive and the game benefits from natural selection over time. New methods are quickly adopted, secrets last less time than ever and everyone is looking for an edge. This same process must now occur in youth development, and professionalism means investment. When competition enters youth development in a serious manner, compensation is dictated by a seller's market, full-time professions and careers are created, education takes a leap forward and we are away. And talent is retained, whereas much of the best youth coaching talent today is outside the system because of the paltry returns inside it. This is also a major factor in the explosion of academies, because the systemic positions hold little financial value. When this equation is reversed, we will have solved one of the greatest dilemmas facing the game. My hope is this will occur in the A-League clubs, who have now committed to the youth structures they damagingly lacked for a decade and who are subject to our most extreme competitive forces.

In Sydney, for instance, the Wanderers and Sydney FC have recently made significantly increased investments in staff, training and resources below the existing under-20 age level. Ten clubs with five additional age groups equals at least 100 additional paid roles in youth coaching, though not at adequate rates at this early stage of change. It is imperative for any A-League club to have the best kids, trained by the best coaches, in the best environments to beat their competitors, whether on the field or in the production of talent for the overseas market and this should have a major effect on innovation, application and excellence. Youth coaches have long laboured for the love of the game with financial compensation not commensurate with their critical importance and extraordinary value to football. The next step forward is to fully professionalise youth coaching. And here, like everywhere, there is only one aim, to become the best.