Chairman's Announcement

Since inception Brisbane Strikers have been proud of their development ethos and results. A large number of players (and coaches) have progressed from the Brisbane Strikers Academy system including many National Soccer League and A-League players who went on to overseas clubs and in some cases international honours. There is also a large number of players playing NPL Seniors in clubs in Brisbane and indeed throughout Australia at the current time who have made that progression.

That is why Brisbane Strikers are excited to launch a stronger, more highly focused approach and commitment to player development by appointing Nacho Ferrer as the new Brisbane Strikers Football Manager. Nacho will have full authority over and responsibility for EVERY team from U9 to Seniors with a very “hands on approach”. His role is to ensure that the practices and protocols in place throughout the Brisbane Strikers Academy, which now includes the Senior NPL team as well as the U23s & U18s, are solely focused on ensuring that every player is receiving the best opportunity to achieve his potential at every training session.

Nacho Ferrer is one of, if not, the best player and coach development facilitator to have ever worked in the football industry in Queensland. He has over 25 years mentoring experience and coached for 6 years at the Real Madrid Academy as well as in the Youth Development programme of the Spanish Federation.

Since his appointment in January 2019 Brisbane Strikers have seen Nacho’s commitment to player AND COACH development. Every session must have a “football” outcome so whilst ensuring that the FFA curriculum is covered he also ensures that every drill has a practical football outcome, just not a passing drill for the sake of passing as an example.

It is the commitment of Brisbane Strikers to give players every opportunity, through high level coaching and a comprehensive player welfare system to reach their potential and guide them on the pathway to their next step towards life as a professional football player. To this end we will be selecting the best young players to compete in the senior NPL mixed with a selection of experienced players, who will be instrumental in the “on field development” of the players.

When it is time for a player to progress on his development pathway Brisbane Strikers will have affiliations with professional and elite Australian and overseas clubs for that individual.

When the NPL format was introduced in 2013 Brisbane Strikers embraced the development philosophy and have invested heavily in time and money to ensure that Brisbane Strikers are the leading Academy in Queensland. This was evidenced by Football Qld awarding the club the highest Technical Audit score of all clubs in 2019. The supplementary works of our High Performance Unit in every facet of player development is leading the way in Queensland and is a very valuable tool in ensuring each player receives the maximum opportunity to reach their potential.

The NPL was introduced with the intention of home-grown players making up the bulk of their club’s senior team in the future. Brisbane Strikers epitomised this ethos by winning the 2016 & 2017 NPL Qld Premierships with a minimum of 8 Brisbane Strikers Qld State League or NPL Academy graduates in EVERY match day squad for those 2 years. In 2019 the squad that faced Melbourne City in the FFA Cup Semi-final contained 8 such graduates. Further, in 2020, a fixture v Brisbane Roar contained no less than 8 players in EACH SQUAD who had attended Brisbane Strikers Academies.

Therefore the dilution of development opportunities in the NPL since its expansion in 2018 has been extremely disappointing to the Board of Brisbane Strikers

Brisbane Strikers, as a club, will strive to reinforce the original development ambitions of the NPL, with this appointment and strategic direction.

Brisbane Strikers FC Chairman Mr Bruce Atterton-Evans and Board