Nick Carle was a favourite player of mine, with his skill on the ball, but as he said publicly he struggled to keep up with the athletic requirements for top level football.

He said he had to work so much harder on his fitness than most of his Socceroo teammates.

From another thread (thanks Barca for life)

Exactly my point 

Players work on individual speed not just in team environments and teams are just a group of individuals. So their is an I in team its just silent....

Lessons for Australia
Mombaerts, whose tactical acumen and faith in youth has been on show at Melbourne City, said immigration has helped France. Asked to compare the Australian and French systems, he pinpointed aggression as a key differentiator.“Aggressiveness is one example: in the A-League the players don’t have enough aggressiveness. You can play more intense when you’re aggressive – more duels, break lines, press with more accuracy,” Mombaerts said.“Aggressiveness is capacity to win duels, offensively, defensively and to play with intensity. When dribbling, a lot of players stop. When you have aggressiveness, you never stop. You continue.“This mental energy makes the difference, You are on the front foot. When you have this kind of player (aggressive) plus speed, it makes a high level player.“If they have to develop one thing in Australia, it’s mentally. First you have to create more high quality academies. Lots maybe focus on the technical aspect, but the mental side of things I’m not sure.“We work on speed, speed, speed, speed. With and without the ball. Quality of muscle. Want to build quick player. Not many countries do this and build good mental strength.”Fitting into the team is constantly reinforced in Australia’s top sports - Aussie Rules, Rugby League and cricket. The French success reinforces Australian football’s need to glance over international borders in search of key developmental ingredients, more so than other Australian sports.“France is about developing the player. In Australia we think it’s about the team and players will come out of that. It’s not the case,” McBride said.
"They value creativity and individual moments and become excited and proud about. Almost the opposite to tall poppy syndrome, that's why you see them produce lots of confident players on the ball and in particular creative attacking players that can impact a match. That's the big difference" 

Fascinating that Mombaerts thinks Aussies lack aggression, but he might use it in a slightly different context.