How do I oversee player development as a Technical Director?

Player development is the core purpose of the Club Standards framework. As TD, you're responsible for ensuring the club's development philosophy flows through every coach, session, and match day. Clubhouse gives you the tools to oversee this at scale.

Full walkthrough: Roll out player development plans in the guide covers the IDP rollout and review workflow.

The Football Criteria component of the Club Standards includes several player development areas:

Planning (submitted as documentation):

• Long-Term Player Development Goals — A holistic framework with goals matched to windows of learning across physical, technical, tactical, psychological, and social domains
• Player Development Model — Clear principles for each moment of the game, consistent across age groups, linked to IDPs
• Talent Development — Player-centric philosophy, player profiling, pathway ambitions, maturation and birth quartile considerations
• Individual Development Plans & Goal Setting — Detailed plans with SMART goals, regular updates, coach and player input

Delivery (observed by FNSW):

• Session Design — Clear objectives linked to the development model, age-appropriate, with scaffolding for player learning
• Coaching Delivery — Interventions, interactions, and processes aligned with the club's methodology
• Adherence to Development Model — Teams demonstrate the club's playing philosophy; coaches reference the model on match days; individual learning is prioritised over results

You don't need to wait for an admin to add a mid-season signing — you can register a new player yourself for any squad in a program you manage.

1. Go to your program and tap Squads.
2. Tap Add player (top right).
3. Enter the player's details, choose the squad to add them to, then tap Next.
4. Optionally add a parent or guardian contact — or link the player to an existing family if a sibling is already in the club.

The new player appears in the squad roster straight away and can be invited like any other player. You can only add players to squads in programs you're responsible for as Technical Director.

The cycle runs player-first: you send the pre-season self-assessment invites (confirming each player's position as you do), players complete them, coaches build each plan from the submitted assessment, and drafts come back to you for approval. The full sequence is in the rollout walkthrough.

To check where one player is up to:

1. Go to a program and tap Squads.
2. Open a player's profile within a squad.
3. The Development Plan tab shows a read-only summary — agreed strengths, active goals, and where the plan is up to — and links out to the full plan surface.

Each plan includes:

• Goals with target dates and progress tracking
• Focus areas across technical, tactical, physical, and psychological domains
• Coach observations and notes from sessions and matches
• Player self-assessment (completed by the player, or with a parent for younger players)

The IDP Plans section opens on To do, which holds only work that is yours: drafts to approve, open family concerns, and check-ins a coach hasn't answered in 48 hours (escalated to you because the coach's reply is overdue). Alongside it, Players lists every player by squad with plan-status totals, Activity streams everything happening across the programme with filters and in-place replies, and an Invites tab appears while players are still waiting on their self-assessment invitation.

To do is "what needs me", Activity is "what's going on" — if Activity is busy and To do is empty, the programme is healthy. The full workflow, including the approval gate and escalation rules, is in the rollout walkthrough.

Each program with S&C switched on has its own S&C Testing section, showing only your squads:

1. Go to your program and tap S&C Testing in the sidebar.
2. The Results tab (shown by default) lets you pick an age group to see player-level results, side-by-side comparisons, and phase-to-phase progression — the same view your coaches see for their own squad.
3. The Trends and Insights tabs show program-wide analysis across every age group — trend analysis across testing phases and automatically surfaced findings.
4. Tap any player to open their profile on the S&C tab.

FNSW's Club Standards award points for having qualified S&C staff (Sports Science/Medicine degree preferred) and evidence that physical testing is connected to player development plans. Record an S&C coach's qualification, and the certificate if you have it, on their Qualifications tab under Coaches.

Video analysis is an assessed area in the Club Standards. FNSW expects clubs to:

• Have a documented process for filming, storage, and distribution
• Demonstrate how video is used to support coach and player development
• Connect video analysis to IDPs and the expansion of playing style and player profiles

Clubhouse integrates with Veo for automatic match recording. Video clips can be published to players' activity feeds and linked to development goals. If a squad's footage never shows up in New Presentation, its Veo team may not be mapped yet: the empty list says so and lets you map it with Use this team. For live streaming, Settings → Integrations → Veo includes a Live Hub URL you can share with families and supporters so they can watch the public live page without logging in — use the link shown in Clubhouse when sharing.

FNSW requires a planned schedule of player workshops throughout the season, accessible to all players. Topics should be age-appropriate and may include:

• Nutrition and recovery
• Mental wellbeing
• Positive sideline behaviour (for parents)
• Understanding the development model
• Leadership and personal development

Evidence of workshops (dates, slides, attendance) should be maintained for the Club Standards submission.

The Club Standards assess whether your club has a proactive wellbeing program that goes beyond physical development. FNSW looks for:

• A bio-psycho-social approach to wellbeing
• Support for academic stress and career planning
• A mental health referral process
• A designated Club Welfare Officer with appropriate qualifications and communication lines
• Triggers for wellbeing support built into the club environment

FNSW tracks two key metrics:

• Player retention — The percentage of players who return season to season
• Player progression — Players moving to higher-tier clubs, APL academies, or representative programs (TSP, Emerging Socceroos/Matildas, TDS)

Clubhouse's player records and the Promotions Report help you track these movements within your club. For external progression (to other clubs or academies), you'll need to verify data with FNSW.