O-LYM-PIC Football Dreams: The story behind a heartfelt documentary

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O-LYM-PIC Football Dreams
Images provided by Janet Merewether

Before the COVID lockdowns of 2020-21 shut down elite sport worldwide, some of the best under-11s players from Sydney Olympic FC’s Skill Acquisition Program (SAP) were given the opportunity of a lifetime.

This new documentary captures a whirlwind tour, where players, coaches and parents were faced with Europe’s powerhouse clubs in a number of friendly games against Bundesliga junior teams across Germany and at the Legia Cup in Warsaw, Poland, a high-level tournament for U-11 players. It marked the first time that an Australian team was invited to play at this European tournament where Juventus, Manchester United, Benfica, Ajax and other top tier clubs were participating. The film captures the tour and the perspective of successful Australian Socceroos and European coaches, who provide insights into the development pathway from youth to professional player.

As well as the fast-paced environment of football’s youth leagues, the film covers the rich, multicultural history of the sport in Australia, as well as what it takes to represent club and country at the highest level.

Shot across three years, then edited during the lengthy COVID lockdown, the film was released in October 2022 to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, after months of cinema closures and setbacks from the global pandemic.

Soccerscene spoke to the award-winning director and producer of O-LYM-PIC Football Dreams, Dr Janet Merewether, to discuss the intentions behind the documentary, the ins and outs of European football and the future of youth development in Australia.

Still from documentary ‘O-LYM-PIC – Football Dreams’
Stadium model at Football Museum Germany

Can you tell me a bit about what it was that inspired you to create this film?

Janet Merewether: At the time, my son was playing for Sydney Olympic in the SAP team, a nationwide skills development program. Most of the states implement it and it is a way for kids who are about nine or 10, who are serious about the sport, to step up into a development pathway to leave grassroots football.

For a few years, Sydney Olympic had a relationship with Germany, trying to bring out coaches and so forth, and they organised this tour. The kids all had to trial, and it was quite competitive, because only half of the squad ended up going.

I’ve made documentaries about all sorts of subjects over 25 years, but when I saw the list of the calibre of the clubs that they would be playing against, I thought what an amazing opportunity to get behind the scenes.

I said listen, if you’re going, I’m going to film this, because we’ve got an opportunity to speak with coaches, to see the facilities they have access to and how our small, Sydney-based NPL club goes against the best resourced clubs in the world. We’re talking Manchester United, Juventus, Benfica – this calibre of clubs.

We’re at this tournament, and for me it was really a parallel with what the Socceroos are up against every World Cup.

Still image of Socceroos goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne from documentary O-LYM-PIC Football Dreams

What were some of the major differences that you noticed between the youth leagues in Australia and the youth leagues in Europe?

Janet Merewether: Firstly, when you go to Germany and Europe, you see the facilities, but that is because their youth programs occur in these huge clubs which are very well-resourced, like RB Leipzig and Hertha BSC and so forth. That was one superficial difference, but the other thing that we speak about in the film is the coach accreditation they have in Europe and the ability for the national bodies to actually audit the development programs.

I have to say sadly, in Australia, and this has been only my experience in Sydney, I saw pretty much most clubs not conforming to the rules set down by Football NSW.

Educationally, for a 10 or 11-year-old player, the international recommendation is that every kid should learn to play in every position and get equal playing time. Time and time again, that was not implemented by the clubs in Sydney. When I contacted Football NSW, and they did send the rules which were supposed to be distributed to the parents, the club just went ballistic. Some other parents also put their hand up to complain and their kids were just dropped or thrown out of the club, so I noticed that people became fearful of speaking up.

Our curriculum is there, and SAP is supposed to implement the national curriculum. It was written in 2009. Han Berger worked with the FFA, which is now Football Australia, to develop that curriculum and it was revised in 2013. As Alex Tobin says in the film, there is this ‘golden age of learning’ from nine to 12 years of age. That is why SAP is called skill acquisition because rather than concentrating on winning games, it’s skills based.

If, for example, clubs aren’t teaching kids to play all positions, they don’t understand what positional play is about, and it’s just going to make them inflexible and unusable as a player, because they cannot be subbed on anywhere.

It’s the best practice worldwide, and if clubs actually did as the state bodies recommend in the curriculum and in the SAP guidelines, then the kids would have the technical ability. Until the states have the teeth to actually audit these programs and make sure clubs are adhering to them, not a lot is going to change.

What could Australian youth leagues learn from those in Europe?

Janet Merewether: What I would like to see is some sort of scholarships or some other financial assistance that can be offered to talented players who can’t afford to pay between $1,500 and $2,500 a season. A lot of talented kids leave, and it’s a real shame.

There are also plenty of really, really good players with a lot of flair who are still playing in grassroots clubs and aren’t on a developmental pathway. I can see that a lot of clubs aren’t necessarily playing by the rules set down in the curriculum either and in some ways my gut instinct came to light when the Bill Papas case broke in the press last year.

My son eventually went on to play AFL, and he fell out of love with soccer as well to a degree. I felt uncomfortable that the level of integrity I would have expected from the game just wasn’t there.

What were some of the most memorable moments from the tournament?

Janet Merewether: There was a lot that our kids went through, but the main thing I thought was amazing was that although they were very, very tired by the end of the trip and despite a string of losses, they still managed to pick themselves up and play their best.

They played against some of the best teams in Europe and they came such a long way. Anthony Williams, one of the younger coaches in the film, is a school teacher, and he was just terrific at trying to get the boys on target and get them reenergised.

The other highlight was watching the final of the Legia Cup between Ajax and Anderlecht. I felt like I was watching adult players – the quality was so good. I remember thinking oh my gosh, these kids are 10 years old – the energy, the talent and the skill was just phenomenal.

Legia Cup trophy
Still from documentary ‘O-LYM-PIC – Football Dreams’

What has the general response been to the film?

Janet Merewether: I have found that the football world has been relatively silent to date. I don’t know if that’s sexism that they think a mum making a film about a youth team is not important. I think also because I do ask questions about the system, and about the expense and integrity of the game, it might be uncomfortable.

It’s probably uncomfortable for Olympic, it’s probably uncomfortable for the state bodies. But the feedback we got from cinema audiences and parents, who were taking their kids, felt positive and they got a lot out of it.

What was also really nice was that people who don’t have knowledge of the game and who aren’t normally fans of the sport were able to go to the film and just see it as a really human story – an Australian team battling against the big guys overseas.

I was really pleased because I also wanted some of these issues to be discussed in school, so we’ll be rolling out to the education sector as well, although I would love to hear from the football community. I have reached out to Football NSW technical directors, but I’m yet to receive feedback from that level.

Still image from documentary
‘O-LYM-PIC – Football Dreams’

Following the interview, Dr Merewether was contacted by Football Australia and a meeting was arranged to discuss the documentary.

O-LYM-PIC Football Dreams is available for viewing in cinemas and sports/cultural clubs and streaming via watchantidotefilms.com.au. Readers can also contact the filmmaker through https://footballdreams.com.au/. For teachers, coaches and educators, the film and study guide is available at theeducationshop.com.au

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Football’s Growth Is Outpacing Council Planning and Clubs Are Paying the Price

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One Nil

Football is growing fast in Australia, but the infrastructure and planning behind it are not. In a Soccerscene-exclusive survey conducted between 19 and 30 January 2026, distributed through our 31,000-strong industry database, grassroots and semi-professional leaders raised consistent concerns that council consultation, long-term facility planning, and funding priorities are failing to match rising participation demand.

The risk is bigger than overcrowded pitches and volunteer burnout. If the foundations of the game cannot keep pace, Australia’s ability to develop talent, retain players, and remain competitive, particularly against structured football nations like Japan and South Korea, becomes harder to sustain.

Football participation in Australia continues to grow at a rapid pace. Local councils frequently emphasise their support for the game and its contribution to community life.

However, feedback from those responsible for administering football at club level suggests this support is not consistently reflected in long-term planning, effective consultation, or infrastructure funding that matches rising demand.

A growing game facing structural pressure

The disconnection can be seen in recent survey findings gathered from across Australia’s football ecosystem, including administrators, coaches, club executives and volunteers working predominantly at grassroots and semi-professionals levels. The results point to a consistent pattern of concern around how local councils are engaging with the game.

When asked how well their local council understands football participation demand, almost two-thirds of respondents (64 per cent) said councils had either a limited understanding or no understanding at all. Only one respondent indicated that their council understood participation demand “very well”.

Concerns extend beyond awareness to process. Three-quarters of respondents (75 per cent) described council consultation with football clubs as either inconsistent or ineffective. This suggests that while engagement may occur, it is often fragmented, reactive or lacking meaningful follow-through.

 

Long-term planning failing to match participation growth

The implications of this are most evident in infrastructure planning. Half of respondents said football facilities are not being planned with long-term growth in mind, with a further 19 per cent indicating planning is short-term only. In other words, nearly seven in ten respondents believe current approaches fail to adequately account for future participation pressures.

Funding priorities continue to challenge football’s expansion

Funding priorities also emerged as a critical issue. Almost half or respondents (47 per cent) identified the lack of prioritised funding as the single biggest council-related challenge facing football, ahead of poor facility design, limited engagement and slow planning processes.

 

Importantly, these concerns were raised by people deeply embedded in the game. The majority of respondents represented grassroots or semi-professional clubs, many holding governance, leadership or operational roles. Underscoring that these findings reflect lived, on-the-ground experience rather than isolated dissatisfaction.

Taken together, the data suggests the issue is not one of individual councils falling short, but of a broader mismatch between football’s rapid participation growth and the frameworks councils use to plan, consult and invest.

The reality on the ground for clubs and communities

The consequences of this misalignment are already being felt on the ground. Findings in a 2024 audit undertaken by Football Victoria affirm that across many municipalities, football facilities are operating at or beyond capacity, with pitches heavily overused across multiple days and codes, increasing wear, limiting recovery time and compromising playing surfaces.

For clubs, this pressure is most visible in how access is allocated. Women’s teams are increasingly competing for already limited training and match slots, often scheduled later in the evening or displaced altogether, despite participation growth being strongest in the women’s game. Junior teams, meanwhile, are frequently compressed into unsuitable or undersized facilities, with multiple age groups sharing spaces not designed for that level of demand.

In the absence of sufficient council-led planning, clubs are left to absorb the consequences. Volunteer administrators are tasked with managing participation growth councils did not anticipate, juggling scheduling conflicts, maintaining deteriorating facilities, and responding to rising expectations from players and families.

Over time, these pressures risk undermining the very outcomes councils say they value. Participation pathways become constrained, equity of access is compromised, and clubs are forced into reactive decision-making simply to keep programs running. What emerges is not a failure of clubs to manage growth, but a system in which demand has outpaced the infrastructure frameworks designed to support it.

How councils interpret and respond to these challenges ultimately shapes how football infrastructure evolves at a local level.

How councils view the challenge

Longstanding Councillor of Merri-Bek, Oscar Yildiz, acknowledges that funding football infrastructure remains one of the most complex challenges facing local government, largely due to competing demands across multiple sporting codes.

“We get requests from AFL, cricket, bowling and a whole range of other sports,” Yildiz said. “With limited funding, councils are constantly trying to balance those competing priorities and direct investment where it will have the greatest impact.”

Yildiz also suggested that funding decisions are influenced not only by council budgets, but by broader political dynamics between local, state and federal governments.

“If all three levels of government aren’t working together, you’re going to have fractures,” he said. “And when that happens, clubs lose, players lose, and communities lose.”

Consultation, another major concern identified in the survey, is an area Yildiz believes councils must continually improve. While he noted that council officers often maintain strong working relationships with local clubs, he acknowledged that bureaucratic delays and staff turnover can weaken engagement and slow progress.

“The biggest issue with any level of government is time,” Yildiz said. “Clubs want issues resolved quickly, whether it’s facility access, maintenance or funding, but processes can be slow. During that time, clubs can lose members, resources and opportunities.”

In municipalities such as Moreland, where football plays a significant cultural and community role, Yildiz believes councils have an added responsibility to recognise the sport’s social value.

“Football engages thousands of people across culturally diverse communities,” he said. “It’s not just about sport – it’s about connection, wellbeing and participation.”

What happens if councils fail to keep pace?

Ultimately, Yildiz argues that the cost of failing to invest in football infrastructure extends far beyond financial considerations.

“It’s about the return on investment for families and communities,” he said. “If clubs aren’t supported to continue operating and growing, the long-term social and health impacts are something we all carry.”

While councils face genuine financial and political constraints, the survey findings highlight a growing expectation across the football industry that infrastructure planning, consultation processes and funding frameworks must evolve alongside participation growth.

The question is no longer whether football is growing. The question is whether council planning is prepared to grow with it.

Moneyball for the NPL? How Dutch tech is fixing the biggest leak in Australian recruitment

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Image Credit: SciSports

In the high-stakes economy of professional football, the “eye test” remains a stubborn incumbent. While elite European clubs have long industrialised their data workflows, the Australian market often operates on a friction-heavy model of anecdotal scouting and manual video analysis. However, the trajectory of Dutch analytics firm SciSports suggests a shift in how the industry values data infrastructure.

Founded in 2013, SciSports positions itself not merely as a data provider, but as an end-to-end intelligence platform. It operates at the intersection of computer vision, machine learning, and applied performance analysis. For Australians, the company’s methodology offers a blueprint for modernising the talent identification pipeline.

Operationalising Computer Vision

At a functional level, SciSports addresses the primary inefficiency in football analysis: latency. Historically, an analyst’s workflow involved hours of manual tagging to convert match footage into usable data. SciSports disrupts this by ingesting video and applying computer vision to detect events, actions, and player movements automatically.

This is not simply about counting passes. The platform links specific data events directly to the corresponding video frames. This creates a “unified workflow.” An analyst can filter for a specific tactical pattern like a defensive transition in the final third, and instantly view the relevant clips.

For A-League clubs operating with lean backroom staff, this automation is a resource multiplier. It liberates analysts from the drudgery of coding matches, allowing them to focus on high-value tactical interpretation. The system effectively converts raw footage into a searchable, structured asset library.

Derisking the Transfer Market

Perhaps the most critical application for the Australian market lies in recruitment. A-League clubs frequently rely on the import market to bolster squads, yet the failure rate of foreign signings remains a significant financial drain. Often, this failure stems from a lack of objective context regarding the player’s previous league.

SciSports provides the mechanism to solve this. Their platform allows clubs to benchmark players across disparate competitions using objective performance indicators. A Sporting Director can query the database for a midfielder who fits a specific pressing profile, compare them against current squad metrics, and track their development trajectory.

This supports evidence-based “due diligence.” In a salary-capped league where one bad contract can cripple a roster for two seasons, the ability to validate a scout’s intuition with hard data is an economic necessity. It reduces reliance on agent-driven highlights and anecdotal reports.

Democratising High Performance: The DPL Case Study

What differentiates SciSports from competitors is its deliberate expansion into the “sub-elite” tier. While legacy analytics providers often price out developmental leagues, SciSports has targeted youth systems and semi-professional environments.

The proof of concept for this strategy is visible in their partnership with the Development Player League (DPL) in the United States. The DPL, a premier all-girls league, faced a challenge familiar to Australian administrators: how to provide professional-grade exposure to thousands of players across a geographically vast continent.

By integrating SciSports’ recruiting tools, the DPL created a centralised database for college recruiters. Scouts no longer needed to physically attend every match to identify talent; they could filter players by objective metrics and access video instantly. For Australian stakeholders, specifically in the NPL and A-League Women pathways, this is the operational model to watch.

Currently, the gap between the NPL and professional tiers in Australia is exacerbated by a lack of shared data infrastructure. If NPL academies adopt platforms that standardise evaluation criteria the pathway becomes clearer.

SciSports enables clubs to track individual players across seasons, monitoring progression relative to peers. For youth development, where decisions on retention or release have long-term financial consequences, this creates internal consistency. It moves player assessment from subjective opinion to longitudinal study.

The “League-Wide” Opportunity

The SciSports model demonstrates the value of centralised infrastructure. In Europe, some leagues have partnered with analytics providers to create a data ecosystem accessible to all member clubs.

This standardisation ensures consistency. It allows the league to monitor technical trends, benchmark team performance, and improve the overall aesthetic of the competition. In this context, SciSports functions as digital infrastructure rather than a standalone tool. It provides the “plumbing” that connects referee analysis, competition integrity, and commercial storytelling.

Looking ahead, the industry is pivoting from descriptive to predictive analysis. Current tools tell us what happened. Powered by the AI models of football’s future, SciSports is redefinining the next iteration of what sports analysis will look like.

This includes projecting player development curves, injury risks, and transfer value evolution. For an Australian club planning a multi-year roster strategy, predictive modelling offers a competitive edge in asset management.

Ultimately, SciSports represents a broader cultural shift. By presenting complex data through intuitive visualisation, it lowers the resistance of “traditional” coaches. As the Australian game seeks to maximise limited resources, the adoption of such integrated, automated infrastructure will likely define the next phase of our technical development.

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