Central Coast Mariners have made two long-term commitments to their football department by re-signing coach Phil Moss for three years while unveiling the A-League's first scouting network.
After steering the club through a turbulent period of on and off-field transition last season, Moss was rewarded with a bumper three-year-deal that will keep him at the Mariners until the end of the 2016/17 A-League season. The new deal will tie the former Manly United coach to the Mariners for a total of seven seasons, having spent three years an assistant to former coach Graham Arnold before replacing him at the start of last season.
"I'm obviously very proud to have extended my contract with the Mariners, a club I love to work at and with," Moss said.
"Our players represented the club tremendously last season," he said. "We went through a tough patch in February, but the group showed its unity and ability as the campaign continued to finish high on the table."
The long-term deal for Moss coincides with the unveiling of the Mariners' five-man scouting network which will oversee the recruitment of talented teenagers from across NSW to restore the club's proud youth development record.
The Mariners identified an urgent need to broaden their network and base of youth players beyond the coast in order to maintain a strong feeder club for the bigger leagues in Europe and Asia.
The Mariners were disappointed with the performance of their youth system last year with their National Youth League team finishing bottom of the table and have responded with the establishment of an A-League-first scouting program.
National Youth League coach Stu Jacobs will oversee the operations of the network which will provide funding for five scouts responsible searching only for the best young talent across the state to go into their youth system.
"We want the best players at the youngest age so we get the most time working with them," Jacobs said. "If I get to work with a player for five years, four days a week, that player will be the finished product by the time they're 17 or 18 not 20 or 21."
Scouts Bobby Naumov, Craig Midgley, Luke Roodenburg, Steve Kelly and former Mariner Adam Kwasnik will report back to the club with a rating of a player composed by an individual assessment tailored for each position.
Players will be assessed on refined attributes relating to their technique, physical condition and personality that will be used across the club. The system is designed to streamline player assessment and maintain a quality across the club to remain a leading feeder team in Australia and continue receiving revenue from transfer fees.
The network was a brainchild of Moss and his assistant Wayne O'Sullivan but Jacobs says the importance of a youth scouting network has been proven by the success of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
"The first thing Alex Ferguson did when he came into Man United was triple the scouting network so that was a big reason Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Nevilles came through Manchester because they had come through the scouting network Ferguson put in place," Jacobs said.
"It's not rocket science, it's going to work. You've got more people with more eyes and I guess my brief is that I need to produce players that we need to sell to make money or to put into Phil and Sully's first grade team."
