SOCCER in this region has been waiting a long time for a weapon to fight off dwindling player numbers and a lack of interest in the sport.
That weapon has been served up to soccer on a silver platter in the form of the Country Super League (CSL).
I first heard about the CSL when I read an article in The Area News last week and immediately got excited about the radical new competition.
I was also curious as to why I hadn’t heard of it before, seeing as it will be under way in just three months’ time.
To me, it sounded like the perfect medicine soccer in Wagga – the and surrounding area – has been asking for.
It is no secret soccer in Wagga needs a shot in the arm.
I don’t mean to put the local associations or anyone involved down by saying that, it’s just the way it is.
Talk to anyone involved in Wagga soccer and they will tell you it could use some work.
I couldn’t tell you the exact number of children playing in the junior competition, but it doesn’t seem too bad.
When it comes to senior soccer however, the majority will choose to play another winter sport in lieu of playing the world game.
I spoke to a number of club coaches and officials on Monday about the CSL and soccer in Wagga in general, and they unanimously agreed there are next to no representative opportunities for senior players in the city.
Once you get to age 17 that’s it, your representative career is over.
A handful of players got the opportunity to play for Riverina under 21s last year against Central Coast, which was great for those guys.
But what about the 150 other senior players in the competition?
If you play Australian rules, rugby league or rugby union the representative opportunities are almost endless, and it is not hard to get noticed if you have enough talent.
Who was the last Wagga soccer player to trial with an A-League club?
I don’t know, and I’m guessing you can’t think of one either.
I bet Sally Shipard struggled to get noticed playing in Wagga, and look at where her talent has taken her since leaving the city.
There are some very good players running around in Football Wagga, but if any of them are shooting for an A-League, J-League, Champions League or EPL contract they are in the wrong competition to do so.
And having watched an entire season of Wagga soccer it is not a laughable suggestion to think the city could produce an A-League player.
So when I heard of the CSL I was excited.
Not for myself – I would struggle to get a game with the Tumbarumba under 10s – but for the players in Wagga looking to make a step up in competition.
If you have not heard of it, the CSL has six Shepparton teams and four Griffith teams signed up to compete in the inaugural season this year.
The invitation was handed out to Wagga and Albury associations as well but neither has entered a team as yet.
Speaking to the Football Wagga clubs, the main reason none of them have jumped on board is because it was left too late to notify them the competition even existed.
The majority of club officials I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about.
As the CSL administrators have had the draft competition plan in the works for a number of months it is obvious there is a chink somewhere in the communication chain.
The Griffith and Shepparton clubs have been well aware of it for at least six months, so why not Wagga?
Anyway, officials are talking the CSL up as the best regional soccer competition outside the Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan leagues.
The dream is to have 12 teams from northern Victoria and southern NSW play home and away games and turn the CSL into a genuinely high-class and entertaining
competition within the next couple of years.
With Wagga being one of the four major leagues in the region it is a no-brainer the association will need to enter at least one team in the CSL sooner or later.
A couple of the clubs have told me they are interested in entering a club team but will not support entering a Football Wagga representative team. Why not?
The CSL is waving a golden ticket in their face and they don’t want to take it. Any of the four Wagga clubs would struggle to compete against Griffith and Shepparton clubs on their own, but a merger or representative team would be ideal – for the players, Football Wagga and the CSL.
I have only asked a couple of local players, but they are dead keen to get a merger team happening, and quick.
Put yourself in the shoes of an 18-year-old soccer player in Wagga with genuine talent and a desire to
compete at the highest level possible.
Then imagine playing in Wagga.
Not to rubbish the local competition, but the CSL is exactly what these type of players have been crying out for for years.
Give the local talent the chance to grow and maybe we will have a Wagga player in the A-League within a couple of years.
It won’t happen this season but hopefully next year the Wagga clubs and association get together and sort out going down the CSL path.
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