The OFC Pro League is still in its infancy with season two fast approaching, but its effects are already showing up in the amateur game.
Ask Jacob Moli. His Central Coast FC side reached the OFC Men's Champions League final in Fiji in August, the first Solomon Islands club to do so in 17 years, and he credits part of that run to having the services of eight players who came back from six months with the Solomon Kings FC in the inaugural OFC Pro League campaign.
Moli says the professionals returned from their campaign with the Kings after a month long standdown with better habits, sharper leadership and a new standard that their amateur teammates are now chasing, and it was more than fitness or technique.
"The thing that I've experienced with the Kings players is their attitude," he says. "Their attitude has changed, especially towards training. They're always on time and they always lead from the front, especially with warm-ups," Moli reflected.
For a region where "island time" is a running joke, and sometimes a genuine frustration for coaches, punctuality and leadership in warm-ups are meaningful changes.
The effect spread to teammates who had never been in the professional set-up. Moli says the returning players, among them Rafa Lea’i, Eric Wanega and Javin Wae, gave the rest of the squad something to aim for.
"It's really helped the other players," Moli said. "It's also a challenge for them, because they look up to the Kings set-up as the next level of their playing career."
Moli says the influence came from example rather than instruction. Teammates saw how the professionals trained, and many adjusted.
The influence of the Pro League players reaches beyond the first team. Fordney Junior regularly helps the club's under-18 coaches, and Moli said young players look up to him as a role model and take ideas from him.
But the veteran coach also points to a gap. The Central Coast FC club has no strong structure below the older age groups. "It's just sad that we don't have a really good set-up that really goes down to the under-10s," he said.
The national federation is working on this, and Moli has a suggestion: get Kings players to visit on Sunday mornings and help coach the youngest children.
Moli is a student of the professional game as well as a beneficiary of it. He watched Kings sessions during season one of the OFC Pro League when Circuit Series 4 was hosted in Honiara in April. He says the main lesson was organisation.
He is cautious about judging the Pro League's wider impact after a single season. He notes that Kings coach Ben Cahn has had little time to assess the local talent. With a full pre-season ahead, Moli expects a closer look at who fits his style, and possibly at players from Moli's own squad who are not yet under Kings contracts.
"It's up to the players now," Moli admitted. "They have to really put their hands up if they want to be in the Kings set-up, but I think the players are there."
Moli's most pointed comments concern what feeds the professional game. A route to a professional contract in the Pacific is new and welcome. He wants it to be wider.
"I think it's high time for football to go to another level,” he added. "I'm more concerned about the grassroots set-up. That's the development pathway that we really need to step up so that we can feed more players up to this professional level."
Central Coast's run to the OFC Men’s Champions League final, built partly on professional habits carried back into an amateur dressing room, suggests what that investment could produce.