I you guys are talking about Striker's last year, then yes that was big fish in a pond that was breaking-up well before National cup.What's your explanation for big fish small pond?
If you want to discount the loss or addition of strong players as to why teams are doing worse or better, that's up to you. I disagree.
I've seen the Strikers play over the years. The team suffered from its reliance on a few fast physical players, at the expense of others. Other players didn't show much interest in possessing the ball, just booting it forward routinely. Naturally, a few times in a game those balls landed close enough for one of the so-called studs to run to it. Parents go home happy with those wins, even parents whose kid just got cheated, development-wise. Actually, the parents of the studs got cheated too. At U16 the fields will be full of studs.