Sally Bacon’s thoughts

More interesting thoughts, this time from ex-Australia player Sally Bacon no less (Possibly best known as the first name on the “School’s Cup Alumni to represent Australia” page in the annual School’s Cup programme). Sally definitely comes from the “Old School” of every state’s best 12 pitting themselves against each other. I think we’re missing a lot of “Old School” influence these days so it’s great to hear her thoughts.

Sally raises an interesting point about the number of games for the younger divisions v the older ones. U21s typically have a game a day, whereas the U17s now have maybe two or three extra games. Players can get tired or injured as its long, so it encourages having more players. I always thought more than 9 was a good number. Often the three backbone players stay on full time + a libero and 4 players sharing 2 spots coming on and off in the backcourt. Blessed thing the 12 sub rule. 10 players+ has always hard to manage in my experience. I have often observed there is a trauma involved in being that 10th player in a first side! Injuries of course changes everything.

When teams have to travel long distances, there’s a strong case to increase the number of games to make the expense well worth it. With so many games, people get injured, tired etc, so it makes sense to increase the size of each team. Is it growth going out of control?

Both Christian and Sally have suggested that perhaps it may be best to find a way so that development sides only meet each other.  Sounds like a good idea. I’m sure Sally would have been a little annoyed when one of her starters injured herself in a foregone conclusion of a game against a development side. An old coach of mine used to say that if they want to keep AJVC elite and still have development teams, maybe they should just send them to play at country carnivals. Who knows, the shorter length of country carnivals might be more suitable.

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Sally Bacon Says:
February 23, 2008 at 7:46 am 

Huy, Chris, Devo, Eldo

I loved your scenarios. I am a player / coach who is also from the old school where you select the 12 best players from your state to compete at the National Championships. You play against the 12 best players from the other states. If injuries occur then you have players to fall back on who will be equally skilled. Hopefully you have someone in the group who can drive a mini bus to cater for 14 people. Or if not then you make 4 trips back and forth to the airport. You get the best referees as the team numbers are less and the fees for each team to compete also drop as you are not paying for 100 refs accommodation and travel, maybe now just 50.

Last year i had the opportunity to coach the NSW U17 team to 4th place. I had a 1st placed team, however in the lead up to the tournament my starting outside hitters (x2) travelled Internationally to compete for Australia at the World Beach Championships and i lost my two starting middles with ankle injuries. (One of those ankles occurred when a player from a 3rd ranked state team came through the net and the other player fell awkwardly after getting on the court at 9.30pm to start a very important 2nd game of the day???)

This year the stakes for NSW U19 are higher after i have learnt my lesson in selecting only 9 or 10 players. I will not have players too tired to play finals as other players got injured during the week. Anything can happen at a National Champs. This year i will be selecting the 12 best players and they will trial and work their butts off to gain selection. Some players will be disappointed in non-selection as they have previously represented NSW on other occassions.

All players will get ample court time due to the 12 sub rule which comes in to place in the U19’s, back court subs, through injury to players, and also by playing additional players against VIC 4, SA 3 , QLD 3 and WA 2 and each will come home knowing that they were a part of the team, no matter what and no matter whether they were from the city or the country they were one of the 12 best players that NSW currently have. Players will also come in different heights and many will travel great distances for the honour. Those players that did not make the final cut will continue to play State League, University Games or Schools Cups to get better for when selections come around next year. Others may decide to quit volleyball all together.

I find that players become complacent when they know all they have to do is show up to make a team. The attitude of my players has now become competitive and they are fighting for the right to be on the team. At the recent trials they have been ranked on performance and now at the final trial they will need to perform to make the final squad. All players are aware of what lies ahead and hopefully they are all happy with this.

I have only ever played for NSW when there was 1 team. Players were from all over the State and if you missed out on selection then you were just not good enough for what the coach was trying to develop for that year. I too remember that we had the best referees who are now all the referee delegates? I have missed out on State and National teams at some stage in my volleyball career however i am still involved in the sport.

We used smaller state competitions to better our game or get more competition ie Good Neighbour, Wallabies, Collie Coal Cup, State Cups

Parents pay huge $$$ to send kids away. I can see the rationale in having say two teams in U17 for each division and then have states nominate as to whether they are in U17 division 1 or U17 division 2. With the older age groups only 1 team needs to participate and leave positions 11 and 12 open to new kids just starting out who show real potential and will go further in the game in a couple of years.

If i was to suggest the age group which is the most competitive that every state loves to win then it is the U19 age group followed by U17’s. It seems these days that U21’s is where you go to play volleyball, shop as you only have 1 game a day and then get the best outfit for the party on the last night?? Most of the players are already playing AVL and players struggle to afford to pay for themselves to play as they are at Uni and parents will not fork out the $$$

When we had a National Senior Competition over a week then this gave players of all ages over 18 an option to compete with other top players.

In the end no matter what is decided the ultimate decision is up to the AVF to provide an elite level of competition for elite junior players. If players show potential then they be invited to national camps or National Coaches travel to each state to view what players are currently coming through the ranks.

I hope i dont offend anyone with my comments, but this is how i like to coach and my thoughts might be old school but they worked 20 years ago.

I also hope that Stapffy as Sport Development Manager can bring the quiet sport of volleyball back to the heights that it once was when he was playing and coaching. Mind you in those days the competition was fierce and the best teams represented their state in Seniors, U21, U18 and U15’s if i recall correctly…

Kids are playing this sport in greater numbers which is evident from Australian Schools however do we have the talent base to boost national teams once again that do not train full time…

Good Luck this year at National Juniors and I look forward to seeing you all again on the other side of the net. And this year i will come with extra numbers so when we get to day 4 and have two games which go overtime and we are starting the second game at 10.00pm then i will be prepared and my tired players will have back ups.

Sally B