I recon that win in Sydney secure Aloisi’s job for next season. The talk since then has all been positive and about how dangerous they were going to be WHEN they made finals. They basically started to believe their own press ...

I’d except the club to circle the wagons, there’s a shit storm raging on-line and they’ll want to ride it out and hope for the best next weekend. Quite frankly I think they decided weeks ago to stick by Aloisi and not making won’t changd that.

Brisbane got lucky with some great goal keeping saving them and poor circumstances for other teams resulting in some wins.But the motley crew were vulnerable to any team that played up tempo and exposed their slowness and poor fitness.
I expect JA will soldier on with what plan ,i have no idea.But if he doesnt ditch half the team,he is gone next season.
For us Roar fans its going to be more pain.

Can’t wait for EOS time to clear out all these old pretenders , start a fresh next year , hopefully we can recruit well from overseas , maybe some of the youth will kick on , big year for Caletti , Dagastino , Lexi and Ingam ,otoole has been our best young one this year but will also need to back it up next year as Brown is of to tards.
All in all disappointing but that’s football , good with the bad ..........

You can write a book on what’s gone wrong at Roar these past twelve months, we would make a great reality tv show 😞

I’ve just listened to John Aloisi’s post match press conference, worth a listen as he’s honest and straightforward about the performance. In it he says Bowles, Franjic, TK and Kristensen were injured and “touch n go” for this game - add in Holman basically a third of yesterday’s team were not match fit. Add in Theo, Avraam, and a couple of others injured and over a third of the squad is injured. While the club might feel “unlucky” at this situation the fact is this is what the critics predicted at the beginning of the season, so we recruited old and injury prone players and we’re struggling through injuries. Go figure.

JA also says the players “panicked” after a bad start. Why did they panic? Panic comes through ill discipline (ask anyone that’s been in the military or emergency services) and not knowing what you’re supposed to do - that raises three questions for me: over the quality of the coaching, the captain, and of the players themselves. There’s a lot of work in that lot but Roars history is full of comebacks and last minute goals because we didn’t panic in pressure situations, so why and how did we lose that? (yesterday was not the first time this has happened under JA).

Anyway it’s worth a listen, JA is refreshingly straightforward in his game assessment. And the club appear stung by fans criticism ... my only thought would be the club - in private - should be even more brutal than the fans are, how far behind SFC are we? Light years, and Jets, City Victory, and Adelaide look a class above us. Wanderers and Glory look better too, all that should be a sobering thought - how are we going to improve for next season??

Constructive criticism, no matter how harsh, is an essential component of continuous improvement - just ask anyone involved in quality management.

And positives for this season? There aren’t many but Jamie Young, the Academy, Logan and next seasons membership pricing all of which just isn’t enough because there’s too many negatives.

And on the negatives? It’s simple; if nothing changes, nothing changes.

Waz,,it would be enlightening if JA came out and told us how he want's Roar to play football.Because he doesn't seem to have a plan.
It is a bit like FFA,they have no plan.
In my experience if you have no plan and can't explain it ,you are going to fail.

@ crimsoncrusoe

I sooooooo agree with that.

Start with the plan - “this is how I want my teams to play”. Then the best formation(s) to achieve that.

Then recruit to that plan.

It’s a chilling result for JA, I think he thought he had it in the bag, hopefully it’s crystalised his thinking:

Gone: Maccarone, FBK, Gameiro, Holman, North, Oxborrow, Theo (already announced), Brown (open secret he’s gone) ... that’s 8 out the door.

Staying: Hingert, Bowles,

On the edge: Franjic, McKay, Pepper,

And new signings planned: Striker, Right Wing, AM and cover for TK

Just happened to be looking at some stats and noticed that it is now 8 seasons since De Vere won the Gary Wilkins Medal as Brisbane’s player of the year. And 7 seasons since he was selected in the PFA Team of the Year.
So much more talent than someone like Jurman, yet look at where they are now. Funny old game isn’t it.

If Franger was actually injured he should have play Connor.
I will be upset if we sign McKay because it means no Caletti development. Seems if he does that our starting midfield next season will be McKay (awful for two seasons), TK and Henrique. Henrique has never been a great starter in the league and was always best used as an impact sub. And that midfield will get stomped all over again next year.

Worse than the club are the delusional fans that still believe JAs bullshit. If you criticise the club they call you plastic or tell you youre being mean. 

Imo, theclub needs to come out and say, "We got it wrong this year. We let you down. Things will change next year, including an overhaul of our roster, and we will bring pride back to the shirt: something we lost this year."
Then they actually have to do it. Or they risk a bunch of people jumping ship to BCFC in 2019 with Broich as their coach.

@ BrissyRoo

I recon McKay will get an extension and I can live with that as he’ll be cheap ($140k) and most of his salary will get written off using the league long service provisions so he wont take up much cap space.

Possible starting XI:

Young
Hingert, Avraam, DeVere, O’Toole
TK, McKay
New winger, Caletti/Akbari, Bautheac
New Striker

White
Bowles
Henrique
.....
.....

That’s not bad - the two new signings are likely to be visa players but you could add O’Doherty to that list and play him at AM, Thwaite at DM, it’s just a case if getting the balance right which you’re right, they messed up big time this year.

Thwaite is a CB and hasn't actually been a good one of those since 2016. Can play CDM in a pinch but I wouldn't be rushing to sign him. Tbh I'd rather pay Genreau - the captain of City's youth team who is a CM/CDM by trade and looks a good potentially good one.

We shouldn't be aiming for 'not bad', either. I don't think I can handle another season of watching McKay walk around the pitch sulking and turning the ball over. He isn't a starting quality player anymore. I want a team with players that are inspiring to watch, players that get you on your feet, not a bloke who has clearly been hanging on for a year too long. If he can step back and be a role model and sporadic player, then fine. But I don't think he can. I also really think he needs to go so we the fans, our coach and the media can stop talking about the Ange era and how these players "know what it takes to win". It's been six years. We need to let it go.

@ BrissyRoo

But that’s the problem with a salary capped league, you get 7 good/best players guaranteed to start, 7 in the middle/average players some start but mainly bench, and 7 squad fillers who come in for injury. They’re all paid d accordingly - Mckay would fit in the middle and Twaite into the squad filler bracket.

There’s still room for 5-6 kids in there (Akbari, D’Aggers, Leck, Caletti, O’Toole)

Is Gameiro signed for next season? I'd way rather take Kenny Athiu on less money tbh. He scores goals and makes an impact. Corey is Skapetis 2.0 - runs around a lot but doesn't score or assist and that's his job.

I’m pretty sure Gameiro is signed for one year only so a free agent next month.

We have a lot of players that are squad quality but will never make us winners.
Take Kristensen.A good player.But he is injury prone and despite his obvious talent,he is getting very slow.He can take the ball forward,pick a pass and defend.But...pass him with the ball at your feet or kick it past him and he is stuffed.He can't turn and chase ,yet thats his primary job.
Look at McKay.He is still quite active,but he struggles to pick a forward pass anymore and critically ,he is a dm covering for Kristensen when he goes forward.But he barely can win a tackle,without going full pyscho mode.
Caletti,whatever talent he has on the ball,he still can't make a tackle.
There's the big problem we knew at the start of the season.A massive weakness ,ignoring all the other issues.

@ crimsoncrusoe

I love TK but would have been letting him go this winter, 36 is risky although Corona did a job for us at that age

But one of the crucial signings is a backup for TK, I wouldn’t mind Jordy Buijs as an expensive option who needs to start either at DM along side TK or at CB, or Thwaite as a cheap option (there’s probably others)

JA just has to learn from his mistakes this year. Starting point is a friggin striker (a Taggart, Maclaren-like player - marquee if necessary, visa player most likely)

Love what Matty has done for our club, but if he stays another season it can’t be as a starting 11 player. We must sign another DM, one that can actually defend, and play the ball.
Melbourne city seems to have 4 or 5 DMs, so maybe we could snap up one of theirs.

I’d have gone after Kilkenny but apparently he has “attitude”.

Also need a new team Captain next season. That’s a tough one.

Jamie Young.

How long after we get eliminated from finals before we start announcing cuts/extensions/new players/new coach/plans?

@ BrissyRoo

Almost immediately.

They’ll announce extensions first (I’ll guess Mackay, Bowles, Hingert, Franjic) and definite departures (Theo, FBK, Maccarone, Brown, Gameiro?)

Then they’ll wait until finals is over and drip feed new signings from other A League clubs and drop in one possibly two visa players.

I recon it’ll be fairly swift. Full squad in place by June

And all fit by about round 7 ... ?

Lol

Still low on McKay staying around and being a starting midfielder again next year. If he takes a back seat as a player-coach/mentor I would be okay with it as he'd help Caletti develop. I hope Holman avoids being re-signed as well but I get the feeling he'll get a new contract. Just so many useless turnovers and he's always injured.

Let's hope for a serious rejuvenation!

@ BrissyRoo

Agree, I’m not sure why they’d keep a 36 yo McKay on but I’ve s feeling they will, in the same way North was kept on.

Personally I’d prefer they kept one of Holman or Mckay but not both, Mckay is rarely injured, still fit, and as a squad player not starter he’s not a bad addition to the squad and very low impact on the squad - more than half of his salary would be written off due to the loyalty bonus freeing up cap space.

I like Holman but I’d rather see him replaced by Roly Bonevacia, younger and still to reach his potential.

I would prefer either of the Baccus brothers or maybe a Jordy Buijs type player , rock solid .
But we will probs end up with Thwaite

@ Jonsnow

It depends what the players being signed for, Jordy Buijs would be a definite starter, Thwaite would be a squad player. Both would get paid differently- the one thing JA isn’t short on is cash for players.

I get that the appeal in signing Thwaite is he is a Brisbane boy and might come reasonably cheap. But... Does JA really not learn his lesson and announce he's signing a 35 year old player? Roar FB will go off like a firework in a pantry.

Sadly,the real issue is JA and his ability to recruit decent players to fit whatever system he is playing(does anybody know?)
Shuffling aging players from other places in and out of the squad wont help.
What we need is decent younger players and JA has a terrible record of creating or finding them.
To date Macca is the only success story I can think of and he was hardly a speculative buy and is not that young.
Of the best youngsters ,none have become regular starters.
Caletti has big defensive issues and Ingham and O'Toole ,probably the best are not regular starters.None of the younger recruits have established a starting place.Not one.
Yet slow aging players that can't run,defend or make a pass still play.
Why with the same coach will anything change next year when young players don't get to play?
next year ,it's almost guaranteed CCM under Mulvey will be playing decent football playing out from the back and we will be long balling it to a forward.

The silly thing is we had the cattle to play 343 this season but JA had to try and prove how smart he was by playing '3+1' at the back.

Young
Bowles-Papa-LDV
Hingert-TK-McKay-Brown
Eric-FBK
Mac

Sure it's the same players we have been useless at points this season but if it's what he wanted to play he needed to coach it properly. He couldn't. And it could've really worked.

Oh well. C'mon young and dynamic recruits!!!!

Haven't seen much of Keanu but I've become a believer in Kearyn Baccus. Not quite to the level I'd think he can make the NT, but would be a big step up on Mckay imo. Still got a year on his deal and I doubt WSW would let him go to an a-league team.