You’d think Australia’s most decorated footballer Craig “Skippy” Johnston might know a thing or two about the round ball game.

Inducted into the Football Australia (FA) Hall of Fame in 2005, the highly-respected Lake Macquarie product made more than 270 appearances, and scored 40 goals, for Liverpool in a glittering eight-year career in Merseyside.

In fact, he won five Football League First Division titles, one FA Cup, two League Cups, one Charity Shield and one European Cup at the Reds.

He’s even had the Craig Johnston Building named after him at the Northern NSW Football (NNSWF) headquarters in Speers Point.

However, the 64-year-old caused a bit of a stir at a recent Newcastle Jets’ function, slamming the code’s powerbrokers for dropping the ball in terms of national development.

Johnston boldly asked who was the Hunter’s last homegrown Socceroo?

He also took aim at NNSWF for its perceived lack of success in that arena, despite the thousands of youngsters playing football in the region.

While some in the audience thought it wasn’t the right forum for such a statement, at a social event, many pundits agreed with him.

If you discount Jets’ striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, who was born in South Australia, it’ll will take a bit of time to unveil our last “true blue local” Australian rep.

Yes, the girls are better represented with Emily van Egmond and Clare Wheeler current Matildas.

But, a male player!

Even though Johnston’s comments would usually slip through to the keeper, another high-profile ex-Socceroo Robbie Slater, who boasts 44 Australian caps, virtually implied a similar opinion when dissecting the Matildas’ poor performance at the Olympic Games.

Let’s not forget, our men’s team didn’t even qualify for Paris 2024.

However, as soon as the women’s side bowed out, the excuses and who was at fault came thick and fast throughout.

Coach Tony Gustavsson and FA have already parted ways, with the players complaining about the mentor’s tactics, while others felt it was the poor preparation.

Then there were questions raised about the Matildas’ attitude themselves… were they too big for their boots?

Sadly, that’s glossing over the major problem.

The current squad is getting older, with many of them expected to retire after the 2026 Asian Cup.

But, who’s ready to step up?

Australia’s girls’ youth national outfits have never captured any continental crowns in Asia.

More despairingly, our under-17s and under-20s have qualified for one World Cup between them in their past 15 attempts combined.

Again, the common theme for both Johnston and Slater is development.

That’s what FA needs to focus on, along with NNSWF.

If we don’t fix the issues now, the Matildas and Socceroos’ legacy will fall by the wayside.

For more sports stories:

• $2.6 million sports amenities building on the ball at Medowie  
• Sydney Kings bouncing into the Hunter
• Multi-million-dollar upgrades to support women’s sport

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