We'll know in just over a month right, by round 6 he'll have had enough games - God knows what the Bakries will do if he has a terrible start, I'm not sure we've got the money for another "global search" ;)

His absence was brought up at the forum. I can't remember exactly the reasoning but I don't think Aloisi was at blame for his absence. Vaguely remember some shit spouted about him being responsible for football and not administration and that he would be available at another forum meeting. Not sure if I remember that correctly though.

We look great.

Lock in the double lads!

We definitely have the quality to push for a spot between 3-6, only thing I'm worried about is that Aloisi hasn't proven himself yet. Hopefully we aren't in the position as we were last season where players that weren't performing were still starting.

Yeah I heard that too. Would've been good for the fans to have been able to ask him a few questions considering the situation with the club and the fact that he is new, but ah well.

IIRC Miller and I believe de Marigny were present at the Newcastle fans forums just days after being appointed so Aloisi probs didn't want to handle the heat

Can't remember where I saw it, but Aloisi will be holding another fan forum and it will be conducted in the Suncorp changing rooms.

Went to the FFA Cup game in Penrith and it was an extremely frustrating match. They overran us in the second half which shouldn't have happened given the quality of our side, along with the supposed improved fitness. We've scored three goals in four pre-season matches against A-League opposition and they all came in one half. I'm really not convinced.

As for the change room thing, it's happening on Tuesday, and Aloisi, along with Craig Moore, and Shane Stefanutto, will be there. David Pourre may be there too.

Unfortunately analysing Hearts form and Aloisi's time there in unavoidable, and it's a millstone around his neck that he won't avoid if Roars form is disastrous. Preseason form is also difficult to judge him on, against Victory they were more than a match over 90 minutes, against Jets they were fine for 45 then ran out the trialists and kids, against Mariners they were slow in the first half but looked good in the second - but all the preseason games the starting XI were mixed up so hard to judge. The FFA Cup game is the worry - we were the better side for the first 45 but couldn't score, that's familiar, and in the second half we were overrun and if anyone needed an ffa cup run it was Aloisi who - on paper at least - has a tough start with Adelaide, SFC, Perth & City all in the first six rounds.

We start the season with five injuries in a squad of 20 - DeVere, Ricky, Steff, Solorzano (who's been on the injured list three friggin times this preseason) and now Donachie is out for three weeks - MacLaren is still on the injured list but expected to return to training this week (but not be fit enough to start against Wanderers) And he's bound to pick up at least one injury against Wanderers given its early season and they play an aggressive style, so Aloisi has got his work cut out before a balls even kicked.

Edited by Waz: 4/10/2015 10:04:58 AM

Tuesday night at Suncorp stadium in the home changing room, sold out with 150 tickets gone. The reason given for his non-attendance last week was that night wasn't about the football side of things it was about the rest so Aloisi was given time away with his family on the grounds this week is all about the football.

I wanted to go to this JA forum. I just wanted one question ask, which is what has he learnt in his hiatus to prevent the 2nd half fade out, that plague his time at heart, but seems to have reappeared in the WSW game. What is he going to do to prevent thus. It seems his half time talks seem to do the opposite in what he wants.

Ill be there and will try and ask for ya bud :)

I was at a BBQ yesterday arvo and got chatting football with a couple of fellow Roar supporters and the topic naturally got on to where we thought we might finish this season with the consensus being, who knows? One wag made a really interesting point - with the current squad Roar have got and the freedom to add a couple more signings, the question posed by a non-Roar supporter was "how well do you think Roar would go if Ernie Merick was your coach?" ..... after a short pause the consensus was "quite well and at least be challenging for the title". Interesting, over to you John :)

If it is anything I have you finishing top 6. but to the bottom end.

I'm not arguing with anyone's predictions, it's almost impossible to predict with any certainty (the HAL always is right) and even I'm not sure myself; but it is rare for the bottom 4 to stay the same two seasons in a row alas Jets and Mariners don't look strong enough although having seen both up close in preseason Jets do look competitive while Mariners looked lightweight despite some other decent preseason results. I suspect the top 5 will be closer to the bottom 5 compared to last season, I'd have Roar in the Top 6 as well, possibly 4th maybe 3rd - some of which will be dictated by the return of Henrique next month, possible new signings in the January window, and the return of DeVere in February.

Is devere that far away from getting better, far out. He would be first choice CB for the roos if he was fit and playing.

As where we finish, I still think we will make the 6. I still don't think MV, Syd and AU will go as well as people think with their ACL commitments. I still maintain MV has no depth outside their first 11. If AU get the group stages i think they will struggle the most.

It's the same every year - predictions are generally based on last seasons table and while there's logic in that the nature of the salary cap means it's harder for teams to open up a gap and keep it - if victory do win the title this year it'll only be the second back-back in 11 years, that's pretty telling. This time last year few predicted Wellington and Perths rise or Roar and Wanderers fall - so people actually know jack about the future. This season there's only two safe bets for me -- Victory will finish at or near the top and mariners will finish at or near the bottom. Even then I wouldn't bet money on it.

Yeah I understand that. The second half fade was an issue, as mentioned previously further up the page.

The problem I have is that when we were winning titles, especially, our pre season form was excellent. Last season, frankly, it was dog shit, and if had an effect on the whole season. We haven't been too convincing this pre season, either.

See what I mean?

I'd love to have a come back that says "yeah but look at this in preseason it was great ..." but I haven't, I saw all but the Mariners game and while there were positives in all three games we didn't play a settled side and in the one that mattered away to Wanderers we contrived to lose a game that could have been won by half time. That said if Aloisi and Moore have done their job well the team should be physically well prepared (there's no excuses as the new training facilities are good and there's been enough preseason games) so now they just need to concentrate on how they're going to play the game. If there's a persistent problem that's bothering me its injuries -- we've got three forwards in MacLaren, Solorzano and Henrique and four days out from our opening game all three are injured and two will definitely miss out - what are we doing to these boys or are we just being unlucky?

Edited by Waz: 5/10/2015 03:27:00 PM

True.

Am also wondering/worried about all these injuries? They just seem to pop out of nowhere and last for extended periods of time. Devere out till February? Something is not right there.

Who's our physio?

Funny enough they've just changed physio, they ran a story on it a while back:

http://m.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/a-league-brisbane-roar-learn-from-last-season-as-john-aloisi-improves-medical-program/story-e6frf4gl-1227534021023?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

I think we got it way wrong last year, we had as many if not more injuries last season than Wanderers who had a heavier workload than we did (Roar had the second highest number of absentees in the HAL season caused by injury). So the move to the new training facilities at Nathan after the QRU debacle has turned out well, they've now got outdoor training areas, indoor gym and pool all in the same area - Aloisi was credited with finding that after Dobson got us booted out of Ballymore, quite frankly JAs finger prints are all over this club at the moment and if we are successful he deserves great credit, we all know the opposite of that which is what most people and the media are expecting this season ...

Are any of our strikers fit to play the first game?

The last physio and PT left because he wasnt getting paid - nothing to do with Aloisi. Old guys had loose lips as well.

I'm a little concerned at what the crowd figure will be like at our first home game.

Are we potentially looking at a figure under 10K? I think its a possibility if we have a bad performance against WSW.

No way mate, will be above 10k even with a poor performance which i dont think will happen anyway. If we cant get more than 10k on our first home game even though its against the Mariners we are in trouble.

Edited by MrBrisbane: 5/10/2015 08:24:36 PM

A lot depends on the lapsed members, many seem to be saying I won't buy membership but I will turn up. Normally I'd say 13k for Mariners but anything above 10k will be good. We need to avoid any more pr disasters before game day as well :(

Fantastic news!! Great to see that our new coach has all the skills, including the ability to Google "Training ground gym Brisbane".

Just what I'd be looking for in a coach.

Or he could have just sat back and let some one else friggin sort it out??? Or like you, he could take to social media and anonymously post critical comments that are as helpful a Frans Theijjsen substitute bench!!! Compare what JAs created at Nathan to the last 10 years - it's the best training facilities Roars ever got - so there's two lessons maybe, first is what the f**k has the club been doing for the past ten years and secondly, why did the coach have to sort it out? The fact is he did, but I expect Bam Bam supporters like you still to cry about it lol

Or he could have suggested that people at the club do their own jobs, and concentrate on say, I don't know, umm coaching?

I just wonder about the meeting that decided: "Umm, we need a new training ground. JA, the rest of us are a bit busy, can you look after that? Take my car, it's out the back."

What next? "Aloisi credited with getting better deal on hotdog buns at Suncorp Stadium"?