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Why is my child sitting on the bench? Four things it might be, and what to do about each one.

9 min read

An Australian boy in unbranded navy football kit and a fluoro yellow bib sits at one end of a junior football team's bench during a daytime match, with two team-mates further along, while the coach and team manager stand watching the game in front of them.

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You stand on the sideline week after week and the same thing keeps happening. Your child plays twenty minutes. Three other kids play seventy. The coach's kid plays the whole game. By the time you're driving home you're already replaying the substitutions, and by the time the kids are in bed you've decided this can't go on.

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