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I'm with DireWolf i don't understand how having an all 18yo u21 team would be much benefit?

How many 18yo's from each year actually would become National Players? A couple at best unless its a really good year, so would it be better off keeping those couple from each class in the squad for as long as possible giving them as much experience as we can?
Rather then giving a whole heap a little experience, would be better to give the few with a very high chance of making it a lot of experience...


So instead of having a squad full of 18yos we just need to identify the 18yo's who will eventually become National Players. Put them in the squad ahead of the 20 or 21yo who may have better skills now but will never reach the National Team once they leave the U21 squad...

We would then end up with a even spread of 18-21yo players, all of which are the top of their class and getting as much experience as possible. As opposed to just using 20-21yo's giving them only 1-2 years of experience and the majority of it going to players who wont ever make the National Team.


What do people think of that? Would mean we'd have a weaker u21 team but could mean a stronger National Squad in the future...

So instead of having a squad full of 18yos we just need to identify the 18yo's who will eventually become National Players. Put them in the squad ahead of the 20 or 21yo who may have better skills now but will never reach the National Team once they leave the U21 squad...

What do people think of that? Would mean we'd have a weaker u21 team but could mean a stronger National Squad in the future...

That's exactly what should happen until the Australian BB Community grows and we have managers who get those early draft picks and stick around instead of vanishing. If the team doesn't make it though the first stage of qualifying, then we stack the team full of 18/19 year olds in preperation for the following qualificcation. It's the only logical thing to do.

Edit: We should also come up with a 4-5 season newbie U21/NT training plan and post it to make sure that if someone plans on having a future player in one of those squads, that they know how to train them.

Last edited by pete at 4/9/2009 3:36:14 AM

Hi all,

I would like to explain a few things.

Firstly thank you Shepard for explaining what happened to me. I am totally dedicated to the U21 team and was very dissapointed that a team from last season became the default after i painstakingly went through the team and picked the best on form and skill.

Next, I personally do not mind the slander, but that is not what this topic is about. I do not think that look inside is the best for the current team. The team has better outside shooters, the centres/PFs are a lot better at rebounding.

This thread is about the U21 team overall. I agree that there is not much up and coming talent and I have made a post asking for under 21 players. http://www.buzzerbeater.com/BBWeb/Forum/read.aspx?thread=79081&m=9
I received only 8 replies/PMs. I am happy for more PMs and discussions in this forum.

I agree with J-Dog that the "problem" is that the players over 21 are being trained too extensively. This is up to the managers, it just means the younger talent is not nurtured.

We all want the best U21 team on the floor. Sadly it is almost entirely made up of 21 year olds. The reality is that there is a massive gap between the 18 year olds and the 21 year olds. I remember only two seasons ago where there was a good spread of 18's to 21's. Alas, if i chose this option, the team would not win.

I have done my part for the U21 team, I dont pick only on salary, but on form. I have responded to every single Private Message I have received and will continue too. If a player is not good enough, i explain why.

The other problem is that I am finding that some of the best players are poorly managed. They are not receiving the proper training and only three have proficient game shape. I have asked some managers of the players to change the training or give them the correct minutes to get sufficient training, but it falls on deaf ears.

Please keep using this thread to give me suggestions, players to trial, different tactics. Im all ears and always will be.

I want Australia U21s to be the best.
I want the players to be good feeders into the National Team.
I want to play the best team regardless of wage.

I would like to try one or two 18 year olds out as well. Can everybody start posting players you think are fit enough for the U21 team and I will give one or two a run.

Australia U21 have already made the next round, so its a good time to try a player out.

I think the million dollar question is actually what is better for the nation as a whole and what the Australian BB public really want from the U21 team.

Do we all want the u21 team to win like you say? or do we want it as a tool to help develop better National Players.

We cant really get the best of both worlds, in order to win we need the best 21yo players whether they will carry onto the National Team or not. And in order to develop better players for the National Team we need to sacrifice wins to play the youth that have been identified as true future national players early on.

Personally i would rather see the National Team better off and the U21 team as a development squad for the overage team even if that means less wins for the U21. But i am just one mere man I'm sure a lot of others may disagree.

Is the experience benefit from playing U21 NT that great though? I haven't had an U21 player, but Grigg has been in the NT for quite a while and he's gained bugger all experience from it...

i agree that we as a community have to decide which way we want the U21 team to go and that like C-Cat said we proberly cant have it both ways.

but as mllama said the only benefit of playing the best 18 19yo instead of 21yo is if they do recieve considerable experience from being in the team. if not then there is no advantage and the manager should play best player, regardless of age and try to win. but if experience does significantly improve just by being on the team then maybe the top one or two 18yo out of each draft should be added as these players have the best chance to move onto the senior team.

I don't think we have the quality of youth players nor the user base to believe we could win the u-21's championship. I think developing our young players to make them star NT players should be the primary aim of the u-21's team.

What we do need is to get a list of all managers who are happy to develop young Aussie players. It seems as some have already stated that a lot of the top teams are simply training their top players who are over 21 years and simply are not in a position to train young players.

I for one would be happy to train some young players and have wanted to do that for the past few years but have received nothing in the draft and don't have the cash to buy a decent young player.

You can add my name to the list.

I was planning on training some Aus youth players starting next season. Hopefully the draft is good to me

I for one would be happy to train some young players and have wanted to do that for the past few years but have received nothing in the draft and don't have the cash to buy a decent young player.

Same here. I find the draft really annoying 'coz i dont get much talent, but its fair system. I guess its the same for most teams. I wish somehow i could earn more money without selling my players.

The thing about the draft is that you only get 3 pretty random and generally not very good players.

If however you save 40k every week you get a fair chunk of money that you can then use to buy a fantastic new trainee.

Once you have 1 trainee you can start focussing on getting them minutes each week. Once you save a bit more you can by a respectable trainee to train as the backup.
Obviously training 3 in a single position is possible but hard to minute manage.