Veart dives headfirst into new Joeys challenge.
Getting straight back on the horse after his exit from Adelaide United, new Joeys coach Carl Veart is looking forward to the helping to hone Australi's next generation and bullish on what's to come.
BUNDOORA, Melbourne – Named as the new coach of Australia’s U17 boys just months after departing Adelaide United, Carl Veart clearly isn’t one for resting on his laurels. And with there existing an increasing wave of optimism surrounding the talent emerging around Australia, the 18-time international is relishing the opportunity to play his role in bringing through a new generation of Socceroos.
Veart, 55, saw his five-year tenure at Hindmarsh Stadium conclude at the end of the 2024-25 campaign in somewhat acrimonious circumstances; his departure announced amid a late-season slump in form – the timing of which he questioned – and outgoing assistant Travis Dodd subsequently telling 7News Adelaide that the coach had been undermined by technical director Ernest Faber.
For his part, the newly unveiled boss of the Joeys is remaining tight-lipped on the circumstances of his exit from the Reds, remarking to JDL Media that he wasn’t “going to say anything negatively about the club” and wishing them well as they head into a new era under coach Airton Andrioli. Instead, back in the youth coaching ranks he occupied before his ascension to the A-League Men, his focus in his first week since stepping into a role vacated by Brad Maloney’s resignation is keeping a close eye on the talent at the Emerging Socceroos Championships at Melbourne’s Home of the Matildas.
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“It's something I've been quite outspoken about during my time at Adelaide, about providing opportunities for young players,” Veart said. “Before I was an A-League head coach, I worked in this system for eight, nine years -- working with these young players. It's something that I'm very passionate about. I'm also very passionate about our national teams.
“It's the right time for me. I spent a long time in the A-League, and I suppose it started to maybe fatigue a little bit at that stage. So this is a bit of a refresh for me, and I'm really looking forward to the years ahead.”
Veart is one of several key national team figures on hand in Melbourne to watch this week’s championships, with U20 and U23 coaches Trevor Morgan and Tony Vidmar on hand, as well as Socceroos assistant coach Hayden Foxe. Senior coach Tony Popovic, meanwhile, is set to fly in later this week for the finals.
“Unfortunately, we're in a very big country, so it's difficult at times for young players to have high-quality games and be tested in their own age group, and a lot of the time, our young players are playing up an age group,” explained Veart.
“So it's important that they get to play against kids their own age, at that level, so we can actually get that development right and put plans in place with individual players. It's not so much about team performances here; it's more about identifying individual players that we believe can potentially be a future Socceroo.”
Invariably, even with his previous experience with the Football South Australia NTC program, moving from the Australian top-flight to the U17s role is going to take some level of adjustment for Veart. The transition from the senior realm to the junior one, from the domain of club football to the international, carries with it a, sometimes radically, differing set of expectations, objectives, challenges, and circumstances.
All of a sudden, a coach’s priority goes from pursuing silverware and developing players who can transfer overseas to serving as a cog in a much larger machine — one in which, in theory, immediate results are subservient to helping the Socceroos qualify and compete at the World Cup in the long run.
But with Morgan recently leading the Young Socceroos to an Asian Cup crown and young players increasingly marking their mark in the A-League Men level, Veart is bullish about what’s ahead.
“I'm working for tomorrow with the young players,” he said. “When you're working with senior players, it's all about the result and getting the result today. Now, it's about providing these players a strong platform to go on and have successful careers, and it's about giving them guidance and direction and what it takes to make that high level.
“The key is, and we've seen that now with the under 20s, is game time for these young players in the A League. It's fantastic to see so many A-League clubs now providing those opportunities for young players. And that's all young players need: they need the opportunity. They need that, that belief in them, that they can play at this level.
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“We've always said that up to 16, 17 years of age, Australia does exceptionally well, and we needed to fix that gap from 17 to 20. I think the A-League has done that, especially in the last 18 months. It's providing more opportunities for our younger players to get that exposure so they can develop quicker.”
One of the key challenges facing Veart, one that hasn’t previously been confronted by his predecessors, is FIFA’s move to shift the U17 FIFA World Cup to an annual, 48-team model, which will also see the Asian Cup shift to a once-a-year model, too.
The Joeys missed out on qualification for the 2025 global showcase after being eliminated during the group stages of the 2025 U17 Asian Cup, their 2-0 loss to the United Arab Emirates in their second game ultimately costing them after a series of tiebreakers were needed to split them, the Emiratis, and Japan.
“It's about having a lot of contact with the clubs where the players come from, getting as many contact [hours] as we can with the players and the clubs, and it's about providing that next step for the players,” Veart said of the new World Cup format.
“A U17 World Cup every year, it's going to be exciting for the players to be on that stage and promote our football as a nation and show that we are competitive in that age group with the rest of the world.”
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