Who cares if every Socceroo came from there ?

all for a Southern bid to represent Sutherland region, but only if Wollongong have their own side. 

They don't deserve to be grouped with that.

Where does Skoko live these days?

Geelong - he's a junior coach at the North Geelong Warriors these days, as well as running coffee distribution business.

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/totalfootball/ep-16/8042650

Well that settles it surely geelong gets a gig?

Apart from if you ask him what he thinks of the HAL

We can also lay claim to Steve Horvat, Matt Spiranovic as well as Australia's greatest Socceroo - Adrian Leijer

What's Geelong like as a town? I never hear anything about it. I know they love their AFL team and that's about it. Is it like a less attractive Victorian version of Wollongong? 

The region has a smaller population than the Illawarra and they have less than half the number of registered players but the point that ways strongly in their favour over the Illawarra is that it is part of the Melbourne TV ratings region which is a big plus if we ever get onto a major FTA channel.

This bid is most probably the worst of all the applicants across the country. A complete mess. They just say random things like "of course everyone will love us, why wouldn't they?"

They seem to completely ignore the fact that the Gong want nothing to do with them, and all the hardcore football fans in the area are already members of another club. 

No research, no fan forums. Just big names and Chinese money. A completely hollow bid which is the last thing the league needs right now. We needs bids from passionate owners, passionate locals who are going to support their team til the end, win or lose, and give the league a real boost of enthusiasm. Southern expansion are even more plastic than Melbourne City. 

If you've got 12 teeth, you're overqualified.

Newcastle'd be a better analogy, IMO.

But in reality it's 3712 registered players. Considering the HAL only converts less than 1/5th regular participants in to attendees, it doesn't inspire much confidence.

But of course FFA is the sort of organisation that would jump on the bid becaues of some ideological fascination with getting the game on to channel 7 so we can get neutered again

@ kaifusi

So the worst bid in the country has a $300m stadium planned, a dedicated training ground and is backed by Chinese billionaires... what does the best bid look like then lol?

I get all the other stuff you’re talking about (community engagement etc) but that can’t start until the ffa release a formal date and that mythical criteria they keep promising to release.

@Waz
Upset Smurf. 
The premise of the bid that i heard from Craig Foster on interview is that they are taking the untapped population in Sydney's south around St. George/Hurstvile down to Sutherland Shire. 
Just lazy from the Smurfs in not trying to tap this area fully. Just like when the Wanderers started. I live in the far west of Sydney and never wanted to travel to Eastern Sydney to watch football especially when it was all bling and more like Hollywood. Sydney FC let 2 players visit my grassroots club before the Wanderers were formed and these 2 players were NOT allowed to kick a ball with the 30 or so kids there that night. You might guess my reaction.
Back on topic, the Wollongong bit imo has no substance as it is geographically separate. The other issue with Wollongong is that Wolves think they own that region. Wollongong should be separate but probably a new franchise.

The city has also supported a successful sporting team for 100+ years in the form of the Cats, in addition to providing Socceroos from the local region. Participation numbers don't show the whole story, as shown by Sydney FC who continually fail to draw a crowd befitting of their stature in spite of gargantuan participation numbers in NSW.