Information for coaches and assessors
Location: Rosedale Park, field 5 & 6 (down the bottom), Jack Hinton Drive, Albany
(n.b- they will NOT be at Albany Senior High School which was previously advertised as our back up location)
Dates: Wednesdays, February 5 and 12. Players to attend both trials.
Times: Grades 9 to 12: 4.30-6.00pm. Coaches briefing and set up from 4pm.
Players to arrive at 4.15 pm for warmup
Grades 15 and 17: 6.30-8.00pm. Coaches briefing and set up from 6pm.
Players to arrive at 6.15 pm for warmup
Players bring: Wear any football kit, with boots and shin pads. Bring a water bottle.
Information tent on site
Goal of the trials and the development teams:
Trials are for players wishing to be considered for our Development teams. These are our top teams in each grade who will compete in the A/B divisions in grades 9-12 and in the Conference and Metro divisions for grades 13-17.
Successful players will demonstrate a level of skill and commitment to the game which will sustain them throughout the season in these higher divisions. The club will equip those players with the opportunity to develop and succeed through high-quality direction from qualified coaches.
Development team players will be encouraged to take part in the club’s skills centre.
The trials will be in the form of skills exercises and small-sided or full-team games. Players will be assessed by club coaches and representatives.
Please be aware there are limited spaces per team, as we only have one Development Team per grade.
Development teams will be selected, and announced on here on our "Development Team Information" page by Friday February 21. Players who are not selected will be allocated to other teams by mid-March.
Players - what we’re looking for:
Technical ability: Does the player show good passing, dribbling, running with the ball, shooting, tackling, shooting techniques at various stages of the practice/game.
Decision making: Does the player make good decisions in relation to the technical and skill components at various stages of the practice/game?
Attitude: Does the player lead by their actions, turning up on time, working hard throughout the session, encouraging others, competing for the ball, and continuing to want the ball at the various stages of practice/game
Coachability: Does the player listen to instruction and direction in a positive way and show a willingness to learn and improve?
Coaches’ role
The trials process is to help coaches and the Junior Committee to assess the skills, knowledge and attitude of players and manage the building of teams suitable to their level of ability and commitment.
Grade coaches will:
Be given a list of players who have indicated interest in trials.
Use the club assessment sheet to allocate player a bib number at the trial.
Receive gear bags and balls at the first trial. Bibs will be allocated to gear bags after the second trial is completed.
Set up their trial before players arrive on the day.
Run a trial consisting of:
- a 10 minute warm up
- 25 minutes of drills to assess skills and technical ability
- 25 minute game to assess decision making, game awareness, team play, etc
(The game can be within the grade if there are enough numbers. If not, look to combine with another grade.)
Assessors
The assessors – the coaches and the club reps at the trials – will view as many players as possible, providing honest assessment of them. They will provide comments and reasons for good characteristics or areas of improvements. Please be aware comments may be shown to parents of players in cases of selection disputes - so keep them positive and professional.
Selection of the teams
During the two trials, notes and comments made by the assessors are collated by the grade coach. After the second trial, the development squad will be selected by the coach with the assessors’ assistance.
The Club intention is to field as many players and teams as possible to build strength across all the grades. Each development squad is therefore initially limited to a maximum of 3 subs.
If the squad is unable to be chosen a further trial of selected players may be requested by the grade coach.
Once the development squad is selected, remaining players (including those not at the trials days) will be allocated to social teams by the junior committee. All efforts will be made to place them with others they have played with previously.
All parents/caregivers of players selected for a development squad will be notified of the announcement of Teams on the website here.
While Grade Development Coaches will take into account all feedback from Assessors, final selection decisions are made by the Grade Development Coach.
Players (or parents of players) may request access to their own trial’s assessment. Release of the player’s private information will be at the discretion of the grade coach. Parents will NOT have access to unrelated players private information.