Looks like we failed in resigning Gillespie. Also the McDonald situation was due to a massive fallout with moon.

Losing Gillesphey will be a big loss to us. With him and Aldred we could finally start looking forward instead of needing to surround poorer defenders with more team mates.

He was a really good choice by Fowler.

Is the word that someone else in the aleague has signed Gillesphey? Heading back home?

Just googled "Macaulay Gillesphey News" and found an article from The Australian that includes:

"...due to his disappointment with the Roar’s attempts to keep him."
and
"At least two rival A-League clubs have tabled better offers for Gillesphey’s services, as have teams in England, Scotland and Germany."

Could not meet his sense of value - but others can.

I'm a bit surprised by that tbh, as I think he's been a great pick-up for you guys after a bit of a shaky start. Could also be that he's priced himself out of staying though, and I honestly couldn't see him getting any decent moves to England, Scotland, or Germany if I'm honest. England: maybe League One? Scotland: mid-to-lower SPL. Germany: who knows!? When things like that come out, it's just a case of an agent trying to start a bidding war tbh. Will be interesting to see where he lands if he decides to stay in the A-League, my guess atm would be either MV or MC.

Newcastle (aside from the money aspect) look in need of a new long term CB looking forward. NTS and Boogard have held the line impressively for so many years, but I guess the visa aspect would hurt any long term plans for clubs in the aleague. A visa CB is fantastic for getting a team through tough times but not where you want your long term investment to be.

He has marked up against some very skilful forwards and shut them down - I would have thought him a good prospect for a better English side.

They've still got Donachie to come back from India, and I imagine they see Lachlan Jackson as his long-term partner, as he seems to be quite highly rated there. I think Gillesphey is the type of import that we should be trying to attract here [rather than the 30+ journeyman that are typically recruited], and if he stayed long enough, he'd be a great signing for a club as a naturalized Australian. For me, he's probably not quite quick enough for the English game, which can be played at a ferocious speed at the best of times in the top-3 tiers there.

True - as a naturalised Aussie he would be a fine addition. Interesting to see if someone can entice him to sign for long enough to benefit from that. Is this as good as he wants to be in a place that he is happy to be?

We really are a small club these days.Players seem to know it.
Other clubs build their squads and we have a revolving door.
Anyone decent who develops ,wants to leave and doesnt come back.
The big clubs and even medium clubs end up with our best players .
From Berisha to Brattan to McClaren to Halloran....ONeil,Inman..

It’s pretty sad that the whole of Qld has a small club.

MacDonald to WSW is an interesting move. 

Is that so he can go to the optus studio without flying?
I m not sure how clubs are balancing the books with the salary cap.  Wsw have ibini, mutch, muller, Duke, yeboah, ...mcdonald
Sfc have alfie, bobo, ninkovic, baumjohan etc
Are they willing to take major payouts for these managers. 

Gillesphy is a big loss if true.  Hopefully it gives jcp or another youth a go at lcb. 

Has Cox gone from WSW i wonder.He was quite useful doing what Macca does.

1 down 2 to go. I had that pegged as the hardest of the 3 as well. 

I had the Nix as our most dangerous opponents - but our players out I thought would hurt us tonight more.

Of the 3 teams in question, Nix to me is still the team that we have had more trouble with over time - and as silly as it is, that does seem to hold true season after season.

Beat Nix and I will be calling us contenders - the "ifs" that Paulc and I discussed ad-nauseum earlier in the season have been lining up. And IF we can win games with our makeshift defence (that did pretty bloody well tonight) then that speaks volumes for us at full strength.

Go you Roar!

Footnote: Still not getting carried away. Just hopeful as ever.

Amazing win really.
Thankfully  Matsudo and Parsons scored,to give us a bit more up front.
Our midfield is still a worry at times though.

We coughed up far more ball than we should have - and even worse with them down to 10.

We played through them so well when they were pressing, then we suddenly lost the ability or focus to do that and kept feeding them.

Had we not got the extra 2 goals it would have been a horrendous last 20 minutes of nerves.

Plenty to be positive about, and still plenty for Moon to work on.

Kudo showed at least part of what I had expected - that if he got the ball in a winning position he would have the quality to net it. He is not fast over the ground so we will not see him playing through from halfway with the ball at his feet - but if we can provide quality balls in we should see more of what he has to offer.

Big shout out to Trewin and Brindell-South tonight. I think both of them had great games in a a team that really worked for each other tonight. That last second save by Young to keep a clean sheet was gold too.

Perhaps not a co-incidence that good teams seem to just have bad games when they face us.

And now we're 7th

Good to see we got the job done again without Scott Mac.  Hoping Scotty gets to enjoy an early end to the season with WSW.   

On the contracts, it seems there is a lot of back - ending of contracts these days, so a player signs for peanuts and then gets paid heaps in the later years. Even so, it makes for a lopsided "salary cap". I suspect that is why ALF is on two and a half years, he will be paid a bundle in the last year, when his part exemption for years served at the club comes in. Similarly Ninkovic would be on part exemption due to his longevity at SFC, so not all his wages would be counted (assuming he's not a marquee).

I think the issue with Kudo, apart from coming into the season a bit underdone, is that the way we play atm doesn't really suit him. With our current front 3 most of our attack revolves around running at defences, or the occasional ball over the last line to catch them out. Sometimes a quick counter even. But it's mostly facing goal. This is why we also have a high turnover rate in the front third. Kudo is not that type of player, he's your typical No. 9. More of a point man. He looking to receive with his back to goal, play off to the wings and turn into to the box. You can see what he's trying to do. Problem is, I reckon in his 8 games I've seen a total of 4 passes to his feet. If our team doesn't use him, he may as well not be there.

He obviously has pedigree, but it's whether the team can link up with him and vice versa. If we expect him to come on for DWH and run all over the field that's not going to work. I actually think we could do with a Kudo type player when we need to change things. Sometimes our exuberance up front, while exciting to watch, means we cough the ball up and end up defending more than we should. I tend to think this is what was missing a bit last night when we were under pressure in the middle of the second half - Someone to link with midfield, control tempo and keep a bit more possession in the other half. I gather this is what Moon thought as well when he was berating the front 3, hence the changes.

Also saw in the post match interview, Moon said Gillesphey leaving isn't a done deal as was reported by Marco. Still talking and I gather from what he said it's with the club to make a counter and they're seeing what can be done. Don't know if that's just spin or not.

That's good. Someone posited that he may not play out the rest of his time with us. His display last night pt paid to that thought, even if he does go. Very impressed with him as a person, as well as his on field displays.

I agree with that. Especially about not passing to Kudo. He gives the ball off and runs where he knows he can do damage and we just ignore him and pass elsewhere. Quite frustrating to watch when I want to see Kudo in action.

Last night we were patient with our build up when we were looking for goals early - but once we had a couple we went mad with the ball and just gave it away.

Unfortunately for us, that composure and tempo control is exactly the role I saw for McDonald to perform for us.

Yeah, I think you're right. That is exactly what McDonald brought, although he played slightly deeper. Last night gave me encouragement that the team can adapt without him though (more so  in the first half as you said). Neville showed us a bit of a blueprint for one way to use Kudo at the end there, so hopefully the other wings/wing backs take note. If O'shea and Akbari can hit his feet a bit more we could have another tactical option up our sleeve. That would be handy coming into a busy schedule.

Agree that is what smac brought to the team however at some points it was to his detriment (particularly towards the end of his time with us) he would often be trying to slow that game down right when we were getting on top or try to slow the game to his pace but turn the ball over, or more criminally get up others because he was not putting in to get in position to get the ball, when the team was looking to him to control the game

Another piece of ordinary recruiting from Robinson IMO.  He's a one season coach at the rate he's going.

If SMac's onfield antics are any indication, I would be 100% with Moon.    Comes across as a pain in the arse on the park.

In the most positive light possible - McDonald introduced control and composure to players who needed the guidance. What he showed and taught them they are now developing further in themselves without him.

I can hope that the team has gained by having him train and play with them to compensate for his engineered mid-season desertion.

I have no doubt he has a massive ego and is probably just as painful in the sheds as he is on the field. Looking at what happened at WU, it would seem to fit. There was something in the WSW press release about moving to a club with a ‘proven’ manager. I might be reading too much into that but players with egos like that don’t always respect rookie coaches. I did read in one of the Newscorp articles something about McDonald signing a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of release. So we may never get to the bottom of it.

Moon will be judged fully on how he replaces these players, as well as how he works his side without them.