Ian Healy’s warning for blooding teenagers at the top

I JUST thought I’d consider the push for 19-year-olds in sport and it’s become bigger than ever currently.

But it comes with a patience warning that most teams at the top levels and their fans don’t have.

Winning is paramount. Rebuild somewhere else if you must.

At 18 or 19 your mentors used to be senior players, handing down functional tips to improve your play, not just your stats. So junior coaches right up to teammates contributing how to execute our team plan.

Now, it’s more than it used to be. Parents at the start, then academy coaches who probably played okay – but accept a moderately paid role to stay involved – then into a full staff of higher paid coaches and trainers. Lachie Galvin, Sam Konstas, Levi Ashcroft sprung to my mind.

There doesn’t seem to be any waiting for the Ashcroft boys, who I guess have had dad for the footy IQ tips over the years.

Just days ago, one of the best cricket batsmen in the world at 25 years of age, having played for India since 2019, explained that he’d finally cracked it. Shubman Gill explained One Day International batting, learning to score when I’m not hitting the ball so well.

You take less risks, less pre-meditating shots, and scoring smart. Well, aren’t they good ideas?

That’s what you used to know. And it’s taken him six years in the Indian team, at 19 having started, to work it out.

He’s played 32 Tests, he’s scored five hundreds and seven fifties.

In 55 ODIs he’s scored eight hundreds and 15 fifties.

And even he’s just working it out. This is what sports have to be very careful with.

Australia, in professional sporting times, have to pay and provide security to their talent. And now there’s pressure to play them. All contracts can be broken, no problems.

It used to be said, ‘boy, we’ve got a beauty, wait til you see him in a year or two’. And it’s no longer the case.

It’s also harder than it’s ever been to emerge quickly as an 18-year-old, playing against more professional opponents and training against teammates who no longer work elsewhere.

The speed, strength, and all the techniques and thorough tactics are part of silencing good players. Part of the silencing those with targets on them.

So this is a hard environment, much harder than it once was, because of the full-time nature.

The push to play youngsters can create anxiety and a loss of love for a game by the age of 25, leading to a merry-go-round cycle of chasing money and contracts and love in sports that are built on performance.

I can’t think of one good reason to promote adolescents to top-level sport.

Because at 30, there’s still no hurry. Can you think of one?

BY SEN/IAN HEALY