DeclanG Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=New_DAFC_Youth_Academy_moves_forward&ID=13465 Looks like we'll have our own youth academy from January. I did think we'd have been aiming a little higher than the performance tier but it's still a great start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsforlife Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 The requirements for meeting the elite level were insane last time I read them. Maybe a longer term goal, or at least wait and see until the CAS revamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digs Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 1 hour ago, DeclanG said: https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=New_DAFC_Youth_Academy_moves_forward&ID=13465 Looks like we'll have our own youth academy from January. I did think we'd have been aiming a little higher than the performance tier but it's still a great start. We won't have some or most of the infrastructure in place for the elite tier by then and even if we did, some of the other criteria is pretty strict and probably outwith our reach at this stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Eleven Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 It’s important that there is a path into the first team. There’s only 4 graduates in the current squad - but 2 of them start tonight. We had a talented crop in 2013 which was just as well as they had to play after we went into administration. A few more Lewis Martin’s or Shaun Byrne’s would be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosythpar Posted December 14, 2021 Report Share Posted December 14, 2021 Hamish French will be one of the coaches involved with the new youth set up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digs Posted December 14, 2021 Report Share Posted December 14, 2021 3 hours ago, rosythpar said: Hamish French will be one of the coaches involved with the new youth set up. *Unpopular opinion* - I don't think this is a positive. My own personal experience of his coaching when my son was in Fife Elite wasn't great. The message they were hammering into the boys went against everything he had been coached since he was first kicking a ball and so needed a different message to get him to take on board what was being said (personally, what they were asking the boys to do made no sense to me but fair enough). We tried getting my son to speak to him, and the message back to him was even more confusing. We tried having a meeting with the coaches to get a better understanding ourselves as it was starting to affect him so I thought it was maybe my son not getting it. It wasn't. That was the death knell for him as Steven Wright hated parents having any sort of input, asking any sort of questions, or indeed, having any sort of contact or dialogue with parents whatsoever. He ignored me to my face one morning when I parked my car near his and had the temerity to say 'Morning'. He got back in his car without speaking and drove to the other side of the car park away from us. Absolute weirdo. When it was time for them to release him, Hamish sat there in total silence (he was the Head coach) whilst the academy manager, Bill Hendry who had been in the door five minutes and had seen him play once, gave a million reasons why he wasn't good enough. I don't have an issue with him not being good enough, I've always said that, but for some footballing nobody who had no knowledge of him to sit and criticise him when the Head Coach sat there saying nothing, to the point of ignoring my direct questions to him by batting them off to Bill Hendry, it left a sour taste in my mouth, and to be honest, my opinion of him as a coach and a person changed. There were loads of politics at play as well to be fair, my son was a Cowdenbeath player and this was right at the start of Fife Elite and so every club wanted as many of their player through as possible, and since we were funding it, the Pars voice was loudest. I've had this confirmed to me since by a board member, that this is pretty much what was happening. Good coaches resigned over it, and some of those offering 'opinions' on players were utterly clueless. It was pretty poor and it hurt a lot of kids, some of whom walked away from the game for years. Incidentally, some of those Dunfermline players that got kept on were playing at a lower level than several of the boys who got released. Of all the boys at that age group only Matty Todd is playing League football. The rest are playing East of Scotland/Lowland at best. At the same level as all the boys who got binned that are still playing... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Secure Par Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 Had similar experience to Digs….. Mind you after one game a certain wank of a coach said to my son “you’ll never be a football player” He was 11 years old at the time and top scorer for the team…. Week after gets played at right back and 20 mins of football. So he chose to go back to his boys club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digs Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 9 minutes ago, Secure Par said: Mind you after one game a certain wank of a coach said to my son “you’ll never be a football player” He was 11 years old at the time and top scorer for the team…. Week after gets played at right back and 20 mins of football. DDK? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosythpar Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 I know two brothers who left the old Dunfermline youth team because of Stephen Wright and one of them was captain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digs Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 1 minute ago, rosythpar said: I know two brothers who left the old Dunfermline youth team because of Stephen Wright and one of them was captain. As I said, absolute weirdo of a boy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Secure Par Posted December 15, 2021 Report Share Posted December 15, 2021 2 hours ago, Digs said: DDK? It was just after Wright left that my son joined. Coach was LB…. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosythpar Posted December 28, 2021 Report Share Posted December 28, 2021 Bill Hendry will be the head of the academy. @Digs you know much about him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Secure Par Posted December 28, 2021 Report Share Posted December 28, 2021 My lad played with a fife and Bill just looked after the admin side. No comment on the coaching side as imo was brutal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digs Posted December 28, 2021 Report Share Posted December 28, 2021 1 hour ago, rosythpar said: Bill Hendry will be the head of the academy. @Digs you know much about him? Met him once. When he released my laddie and he spoke confidently about his ability despite having only seen him play once. Out of position. For 20 mins. Think he ran Hibs academy at one point and was at Motherwell as a coach and a scout. Im not sure why the person who ran Fife Elite, and the failure that was, is the right man to run our own academy. Obviously I’ll be delighted to be shut right up on that but I’m basing it entirely on my own experience of him, so could be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted December 30, 2021 Report Share Posted December 30, 2021 On 28/12/2021 at 21:52, Secure Par said: My lad played with a fife and Bill just looked after the admin side. No comment on the coaching side as imo was brutal! Was the admin side of it no pish? My mate was a referee who done that level and apparently Fife were always turning up late and underprepared to games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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