IT was a disappointing end to what has been a great season for the Football Margaret River Strikers at Barnard Park on Saturday with a 3-nil loss to Busselton Hotshots.

I can not help thinking what might have been, had Margaret River’s two youth league teams been graded from the start of the season, allowing the better players from each team to play together.

With no finalist once again representing Margaret River Football from either the U14s or U16s, is it now time to grade these age groups?

The weaker players will have more match time and the stronger players will not have to think about whom they are passing to and pass with confidence and not pass to only a handful of players they think they can trust.

The swapping of players between the two teams is required, training together at the start of the training session is essential; coaches can then share their opinions.

We are one club.

There needs to be much more inter-reaction between the two so-called Margaret River teams, not just a couple of handshakes between the coaches and players after the two derby games.

As most of the 16-year-olds finish their junior football career, especially those playing for United, I cannot help but feel that we as a club have under-achieved for some of these guys and never allowed them to experience the finals atmosphere.

We are a small town and can no longer carry on splitting our resources down the middle, these guys are old enough to experience failure, if failure is playing for the second team, we cannot continue to wrap our guys in cotton wool, “it’s a big world out there”.

If a player is chosen to play in the seconds, with a work ethic there should be no reason why the player should not be allowed to play in the firsts and visa versa.

These are not thoughts of a bitter coach, I have always promoted this attitude and belief, “better players need to play with better players to bring the best out of them”, before they go to another sport.