Somewhere in the sporting pages in the last few days, you might have seen stories about our Olyroos.

It’s a strange name isn’t it? But given the senior national team’s nickname is the Socceroos, the under 20s are the Young Socceroos and the Paralympic team are the Pararoos, there was perhaps no other option for the Olympic team.

With the under 17s nicknamed the Joeys and the senior women being the Matildas, there is a slight break in uniformity. You would have to ask players from those teams whether they feel they’re nomenclatural winners or losers.

Anyway, why do we have a different team for the Olympic games?

Simply, the men’s football competition at the Olympics is an under 23s tournament. Each team is also allowed three over-age players (more on that later).

Professional athletes were supposed to be excluded from Olympic competition in its earlier editions and then FIFA didn’t want Olympic football to take any gloss off its World Cup. Hence there has always been some restriction on eligibility for the Olympic tournament.

These restrictions were usually confusing or contentious and often different rules applied to different nations (either by design or in practice). The matter was settled in time for the 1992 games in Barcelona. That’s when the move to under 23s was made.

Typically, however, there had to be one more fiddle. The 1996 games allowed each team to have three overage players and this absurdity remains.

Some countries try to take the best three players they have to join their under 23s at the Olympics. Some will take the three that are easiest to get hold of (as certain players might be reluctant, particularly if they’re tied to big clubs). Others won’t bother with overage players at all.

This has made the competition uneven again. In 1992 you could say that winning the gold medal meant you had the best under 23 team in the world. Now that claim is compromised.

To qualify for the Olympics, teams go through continental youth championships. Sensibly they can’t use overage players in those competitions (another reason why it’s silly to have different rules for the Olympics).

Since 1996 there has been a women’s tournament as well. There are no age limits for the women’s teams and there probably shouldn’t be.

It does mean that winning a gold medal can be seen as equal to winning the Women’s World Cup, however, the women’s game is underexposed. Restricting eligibility at the Olympics is unlikely to help.

Three weeks ago I hailed the beginning of the 2018 World Cup as qualifiers were about to start. They take so long because 209 teams enter and just 32 can reach the finals in Russia.

Only 16 men’s teams – including just three from Asia – will play at next year’s Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. So the Olyroos are already on the road to Rio in a round robin in Chinese Taipei with the host nation, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

With two comfortable wins so far they should finish first. As long as they do that or are one of the best second-placed teams among ten Asian groups, they move on to a 16-team tournament in Qatar in January 2016. It will determine Asia’s under 23 champion and the top three nations qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Competing in tournaments that are similar in structure to the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Cup is undoubtedly something younger players can learn a lot from. And given how difficult it will be for the Olyroos to win a medal, tournament experience is the most important part of the exercise.

Australia came closest to a medal in 1992 but an 0-1 loss to Ghana in the playoff for bronze meant a fourth place finish.

Nevertheless that top four finish was the product of several impressive results. The Olyroos recorded wins over Sweden and Denmark, and drew with Mexico. In qualifying, they stunned a strong Netherlands team.

It would of course be nice to do well at youth level and perhaps win a medal in Olympic football but there are more important things to be achieved in this Olyroos mission, such as exposing these young players to tournament conditions and getting them used to a style of game similar to the senior national team’s.

The ’92 Olympics was sandwiched between the FIFA Under 20 World Cups of 1991 and 1993, and Australia finished fourth in both of those tournaments as well. After a relatively ordinary 1980s for the Socceroos, these results gave fans confidence that better times were ahead.

But by the time we performed above most expectations in the FIFA World Cup in 2006 (after finally breaking the qualification curse), only three members of the squad had been in any of those aforementioned tournaments in the early ‘90s.

When the 2000 Olympics were held in Sydney, the squads of Brazil, Italy and Spain all included players who would go on to be World Cup winners. Yet Spain was the only one of those three teams to win a medal (silver) after losing a penalty shootout against Cameroon in the final.

The Cameroonians’ gold medal winning squad had some outstanding players but they’ve been a World Cup flop ever since.

It’s rarely acknowledged but results in youth tournaments are poor predictors.

Why is this rarely acknowledged? Because it’s much easier to generate interest by pretending otherwise. If the Olyroos do well, newspapers, magazines and websites will race to be the first to publish a headline like, “Our next generation of stars”.

If the team flops, you’ll get “in-depth” articles about all the things that are wrong with our youth development, complete with quotes from a long-retired coach explaining how much better it used to be.

There are other reasons why you shouldn’t read a lot in to youth results. One is obvious: the age range at senior level can be around 15 years. The 31-year-olds wouldn’t have played at youth level with the 27-year-olds and so on.

You also have many young representative players who don’t take the next step, and the ones that miss youth selection but show their abilities when they’re a little older.

When we had all that promise in the early ‘90s, I was one of many people who were convinced that a player called David Seal was going to be a star for the Socceroos (sure I was young but clearly already an expert!). He was a top scorer in the National Soccer League and he played in both the ’91 Under 20 World Cup and the ’92 Olympics.

Seal would become a professional in England’s lower divisions but he never made an appearance for the Socceroos.

Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, a club teammate of Seal’s in those days, wasn’t in any of those famous youth squads. With both Mark Bosnich and Željko Kalac in his age group (and other keepers at open level), what chance did he have of ever being the Socceroos’ top gloveman?

Yep, he should have quit then.

It would of course be nice to do well at youth level and perhaps win a medal in Olympic football but there are more important things to be achieved in this Olyroos mission, such as exposing these young players to tournament conditions and getting them used to a style of game similar to the senior national team’s.

If just four or five of them become regular Socceroos, that will be more valuable than how well we do in Qatar or Rio (if we make it).

Success in developing young players is difficult to assess until years have passed but results are instant. This might be why, when Australia’s under 19s were knocked out in a quarter-final of the 2006 Asian Youth Championship (by South Korea) and consequently missed qualifying for the 2007 Under 20 World Cup, Football Federation Australia decided to sack the coach.

Five players from that team – Mitchell Langerak, Matthew Spiranovic, Oliver Bozanic, Dario Vidoisic and Nathan Burns – went on to be part of either the team that Australia took to last year’s World Cup or the one that recently won the Asian Cup (or both). The squad also included Tarek Elrich, now with Adelaide United, who might make his debut for the Socceroos against FYR Macedonia tomorrow morning.

A different youth team coach didn’t choose Massimo Luongo for the 2011 Under 20 World Cup. For his role in Australia’s triumph in the Asian Cup in January, Luongo would be named player of the tournament.

Fortunately Luongo was rated highly by the current coach of the senior national team who happens to be the same guy that was sacked when the youth team he coached failed to qualify for the 2007 Under 20 World Cup: Ange Postecoglou.

Paul Marcuccitti’s soccer column is published in InDaily on Mondays. He is a co-presenter of 5RTI’s Soccer on 531 program which can be heard from 11am on Saturdays. Follow Paul on Twitter – @P_M_73