DURING a lifetime in elite-level soccer, Gary van Egmond has seen first-hand some of the finest facilities the world game has to offer.
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And much as it pains him to admit it, until the Newcastle Jets have a place they can truly call home, the odds will always be stacked against young players in this region reaching their full potential.
"We are the gate-keepers of the best players in the Hunter area, and we don't have a home of football," the technical director of the Jets' junior academy told the Newcastle Herald.
"That for me is crazy.
"We need to be lobbying councils and governments to help build a home of football for our future generations.
"There has been no foresight over the years."
The issue of junior development was raised recently when Jets head coach Arthur Papas said it had been "neglected" in the region for many years. That prompted former Jets youth-team coach Daniel McBreen to respond by saying the academy had been "under-resourced for years, but many passionate, qualified locals have worked hard to give kids the best platform, in difficult circumstances."
Van Egmond isn't inclined to argue with either of those opinions.
"The generations of players over the last 20 years have been let down," he admitted.
Infrastructure, he suggested, had been a key factor.
Van Egmond, who steered Newcastle to their only A-League championship, before stints at the AIS and with the Young Socceroos and Matildas, returned to the club last September and has been working hand-in-glove with new youth-team coach Damian Zane.
He explained that the Jets had effectively outgrown the Speers Point facilities they hire from Northern NSW Football, at commercial rates.
"When I took over, from a training perspective, we had a grass field and a synthetic field, and four five-a-side fields," van Egmond said.
"We have 13 teams that need to train on those fields.
"So it's physically impossible, because we don't have enough fields.
"Our grass field was getting absolutely flogged and obviously it deteriorated and wasn't of a good standard.
"So that's been a big logistical issue. If we don't have enough fields, how can we provide the best environment?
"So we've hired another field from Northern, and we've looked at hiring another three fields at the university.
"We're spending in excess of $200,000 to $220,000 just on fields."
Those costs are passed on, indirectly, to parents in their fees.
"Football should never be a sport for the elite," van Egmond said.
"It should be for everybody.
"It shouldn't be such a financial burden for some families.
"I would love for it to be much more affordable, but we don't have that infrastructure."
The 57-year-old spent last season as an assistant coach at Western Sydney Wanderers, who have been based since 2019 at an ever-expanding, state-of-the-art complex at Blacktown.
He said there was "no comparison" between the Wanderers' set-up and Newcastle's.
The junior Jets train 35 kilometres from their A-League counterparts, who travel to Maitland for each session.
Zane added that synthetic pitches appeared to be sprouting up in almost every suburb in Sydney, allowing teams to train and play in any weather.
"You look at what Wanderers have got," Zane said.
"We dream of having even half of that. Long term, we're going to need something like that. We just haven't been able to keep up with the growth in numbers."
Unfortunately for the Jets, there are a long queue of sporting codes in Newcastle in equally dire need of new amenities.
The much-vaunted "entertainment precinct" the state government has promised to build at Broadmeadow has thus far delivered a Centre of Excellence for the Knights - half-funded by the NRL club - and nothing else.
Cricket NSW wants a new stadium at District Park, as well as a further upgrade of No.1 Sportsground.
Newcastle Basketball Association has been waiting for years for a new multi-court complex to be given the green light.
An indoor aquatic centre has been mooted.
All of which would appear to be competing with the Jets for whatever government funding can be secured.
"The infrastructure that we've had has not allowed individuals to become the best version of themselves," van Egmond said, noting that it had been more than 20 years since Newcastle last produced a Socceroo, midfielder Robbie Middleby.
"We need to find solutions."
Van Egmond was confident the region from which champions such as Reg Date, Ray Baartz, Col Curran, Craig Johnston, Cheryl Salisbury and his own daughter, Emily, emerged was still producing talent.
Zane, who has coached at NPL level for years with Edgeworth and Broadmeadow, had no doubt that was the case.
"Are there still players who are good enough [to play in the A-League?] "I think so," Zane said. "[Former Broadmeadow Magic product] Jacob Dowse is doing really well with Perth.
"I think the talent is there. It's just a matter of their bodies holding up to the amount of training."
Van Egmond admitted that, in recent times, there had been cases of young up-and-comers bypassing Newcastle's academy to instead join their arch-rivals, Central Coast Mariners.
His goal is to create an environment that is so attractive players and their parents see no reason to be driving up and down the freeway.
"I really want to ensure the younger players within the area have a really, really good chance of becoming a professional footballer," van Egmond said. "At the moment our representation is not high enough, when you look at other areas, in terms of the numbers we have playing football, and compare that to the number who can make a career out of it. We need to change that."
Zane said Dowse's belated emergence in the A-League, after recovering from two knee reconstructions, was evidence that this was still a fertile footballing nursery.
"Obviously you want to win, but I always thought that when the NPL was set up, the aim was to bridge the gap to the A-League," Zane said.
"And for all the grand finals and premierships, probably one of the most satisfying things for me was helping put Jacob Dowse on a path to get an A-League contract.
"I think that's what it's all about."
As the Jets have shown through the likes of Jason Hoffman, Ben Kantarovski and Nigel Boogaard, players who are born and bred in the region exude a passion and pride that you can't put a price tag on.
"We've never had heaps of money," Zane said.
"I still think there are players here that are good enough. And there's nothing more powerful than a home-grown player pulling on their home-team shirt."
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