Mat Ryan was almost cut by Blacktown when he was 15. Pretty surprised he didn't boycott the Australian national team after that due to the disrespect. 

Germany 2010, the football we played against Japan in the 2011 AC final, the 2 6-0 losses in 2013, the 2014 world cup, the whole 2012-2014 period in general... yeah thats about it. We've had a decent team since 2015 when Rogic and Mooy became center stage (one of which Arnie has explicably left out despite only being 29 and fit again).

Rejected by WSW & Sydney FC would suggest the system and or individuals scouting talent has failed him. 

Just a personal opinion, there is probably some form of resentment against FA and former clubs from Volpato, which is why he is saying FU to Australia at this point in time.

As for Simunic, what a player he was, bring back the AIS. 

He definitely learnt how to rugby tackle in the AIS.

I have mate, a couple of times... Even as recently as this qualifying phase. 
I envy you if you are happy to hide behind the fact that we have qualified for 5 WCs,
I personally am dreading the feeling of watching us bow out AGAIN in straight sets without firing a shot in anger.
Look past your evident satisfaction that ":at least there are no more wog clubs in the national league chanting Hellas - Hellas anymore" and tell me you honestly think we are on the right track?

Don't remind me :(

Maybe if Marconi hadnt shown him so much love as junior and then CCM gave him a go as professional he may have been in the same boat?

You can tell the level of cray-cray by the number of spaces between words in his posts these days ... hahahahahahahahah

I didnt know that Pat, thanks and fair call if this is the case...... 

during the nsl era we got knocked out by some pretty weak teams. The best roos teams during the era we had leagues were during the nsl era, but also the worst

I suspect it has nothing to do with a league v nsl but more to do with the fact that all oz sporting teams seem to have their quality go up and down during the same eras and that probably has to do with funding from the government

In just over 12 months we will begin the era where we basically have the nsl and a league at once and that will put us in structurally the best place we have ever been to ride the next wave in oz sport

We had some pretty dismal performances in the past sure and arguably, maybe, even weaker performing teams in previous eras. Perhaps it IS a fair touch of "rose coloured glasses" syndrome but even our worst performances in the past didnt seem to show the same level of apathy, cowardice and tactical naivety as the last few years. (And before anyone tries to bore us to death with comparisons between 1980s and 2020s formations, fitness and gameplay - remember that it is ALWAYS relative to the level the rest of the world is playing at AT THE TIME).

I dont think it is entirely the fault of the Aleague at all mate, but rather the shortsightedness of FFA... Completely on them. In their eagerness to "cleanse" the game and give foreign investors a blank canvas from which to market themselves to consumers, they forgot to prioritise the development of our playing pool. Youth football, almost overnight, became an expense, with an attempt to recuperate losses from a growing middle class, instead of the organic, club based (and state based rep-squads) nurseries of previous times. NSL was a shitshow of nepotism and agendas, as where the rep teams in pre Aleague times and yet we still seemed to develop players for the Socceroos and overseas quality leagues.... 

We had 32 years of no World cup. That was rather embarrassing losing to New Zealand, Israel, Iran.
We've never been on the right track mate!!!! I'm a wog too, but I got over it.

I love the blindness of these people, he calls me an old man. Yes maybe I am, I was around, when,  pre A-League, 32 years of no WC, but shit we did well in youth WC. Since A-League (yes 100% FA is not doing a great job, but shit better than SA), we have made 5 WCs in a row.
We just had a player signed by one of the big clubs (Yes Newcastle are one of the big clubs now) at 18 years old, when did that happen before? Another now starting at Roma at 18 years old, only think of Kewell doing that before, there is a young guy in Adelaide Ikrandu (spelling) some saying the best 16 year old we have ever seen on these shores. Yeah maybe we are starting to see the rewards now.

Israel was hard fought slog with players giving their all, Iran was just a disjointed performance overall I agree. I wasnt "embarrassed" by either of them, you dont get the point obliviously and are on the defensive.... all good.  Glad you got over being a wog, thats awesome mate. Happy for you.

Irakunda looks great I agree, scored some easy tap ins against the Mariannas islands the other day, but lets see him in a few seasons first yeah? (Have heard about dozens of "best 16 year old weve ever had" and so have you I bet) As for Kuol I admire him more than anyone but, again, being signed by Newcastle probably means being loaned out to a lesser club for a seson or two first, lets wait and see. As for Volpatto, sorry cant claim that one ..... he left the very same glorious non-wog league you are glorifying after not having enough "metrics" about him..... 

Yeah didnt we get kicked out by hong kong, kuwait, israel, new zealand and iran?

The nsl was around for 30ish years and the a league 17

the average quality of player produced is probably higher in the a league, even though the peak has been lower.

In any case we probably don’t have to choose between era if the nsd finally happens as we will be on a path to football firing on all cylinders

No mate, no getting over being a wog, I'm always got that in me. I've got over it being a problem.
So I ask again when were you embarrassed by the Socceroos since 2006?

Yeah, whatever mate, you want to discuss Australia football or you want to push your little agenda of wog leagues, then go on push that barrel, understand you're pissed off your team is not in the top tier of Aussie football, but hey.
If you are a keen to discuss Irakunda, get hold of the highlights reel of him against China & see what you think.
As for Kuol, he's been produced by the system, he's got it, whether he has the mental aptitude & luck to reach the top that is another issue.
Volpato, the system created him as well, whether you like it or not, by all accounts it was more his attitude more than his ability that got him turned away, he's not the 1st Aussie to turn his back on Australia, Craig Johnston, Joe Dorigo, Sumenic, Ivan Egric, Ersan Gulum.

I guess that is fundamentally where we are different then mate. I NEVER saw "being a wog" as being a problem in the first place.

Lucky for me a guess this country is changing ..... slowly slowly but it IS changing. 

Yeah, nah the conversation is getting a little circular now Robbo. I dont need the higlights reel against China i watched the whole match and agree the kid bossed them around but if you think that was an indication of a talented forward against a rock solid defence and therefore your plastic system has produced a finished player I am a little ashamed for you. Do you also think Archie Thompson is the worlds most clinical striker because he scored 17,000 goals against American Samoa? hahahahah
Your 100% right about the plastic system "creating" Volpatto. If it wasnt for the the foresight of the national curriculum and the failures of your plastic academies the kid wouldn't have turned to a privet coach and headed overseas to become a better player and get the opportunities he needs to develop his craft. Sadly for us your "system" created another wasted opportunity... well done FFA...

Yeah, those 32 years (thankfully I wasn't alive for the extreme majority of it) were hard but if we had the same qualification conditions we have now, just getting to the WC with those squads wasn't going to cut it IMO.

Now that there are 48 slots, it's going to be significantly easier to make it, and that also means for majority of the world too. We're going to gain and lose a few allegiances here and there. The world has globalised at an extreme rate. People are hitching with people from other corners of the globe. My son is technically eligible for 6 nations to choose from with current FIFA guidelines. That just means more fighting for WC slots. It's going to go both ways but it's just going to be a dogfight between federations of who can attract and appeal the mercenary more. Let Volpato go. He will be the least of our headaches in 2 WC's time. We are probably going to have a dedicated thread to just this topic for 2026. SO SO SO many kids coming through globally with multiple passports beyond what we have seen before.

This sh!t is going to explode and IMO the integrity of international football is going to sink to a whole new obscure level that it makes me more sick than any Qatari bribe.

Gee ,  now   THAT   sounds    embarrassing ...

NSL was around for 27 years but you do realise soccer in Australia (even the national team) has a storied history at least 50 years before that right? Even before the World Cup was even a thing. If anything, pathways for junior soccer players BEFORE the NSL were even better than during (although a lot less money involved) and a thriving local comp meant they could see alot more senior football minutes.... The  8  club, foreign, plastic competition dreamed up by Lowy came along and dismantled everything before it for the supposed "professionalism" of the game.. Some goose on here keeps harking on about how the Socceroos couldnt even afford to fly to tournaments before Lowy the white knight came along, never even pausing to think abut how many tournament the Socceroos, Matilda's or any age groups have actually been to in the last 10 years.... What did this revolution bring? Do we win tournaments now? Are we a better national squad now? I would argue that a bunch of part timers qualifying for the 1974 world cup is a thousand times more worthwhile an achievement than our last 2-3 qualifications .... but I guess thats obviosuly just me.....

The NSD is simply a reaction to 17 years of non existent player development. A bandaid to stem the bleeding. I hope it works but dont hold out hope that it will be allowed to.

However your posts says something different, you are still playing the victim in all your wog post.

However, yes you are right we are fundamentally different. I will always want the best for Football in this country & never let my own little pathetic agendas cloud this.

Again your ignorance never astounds me, you new dawner.
Now since this 1974 WC qualification was pre NSL & definitely pre A-League we are in neutral  territory!!!
Now the 1974 WC qualification was huge, great achievement from those wonderful Socceroos, it was my first world cup, I could nearly give you the lineup,  I was hooked. Did you know that they beat other part timers in Asia to qualify for that WC. There was not any professional leagues in Asia as that time.
Did you know that when Celtic won the European cup in 1967, all the players were born within 30 miles of their home ground, does this make Celtic achievement a thousand times more than Liverpool's 6 European Champions/Champions League victories? 

No victim here buddy. I am proud of who I am and who I support. I refuse to let you or any other person on here tell me that the birthplace of my parents doesn't allow me to be Australian  I can be whoever or whatever I want,  I have two drivers licenses, two passports and one birth certificate and you can go on considering your heritage a "problem" all you want ... I celebrate mine.

You crap on about agendas but you also happen to be the only one left on these forums (thankfully Paulie has now transformed into a beautiful Lowy loving remotecontrol) that seems to have a racially discriminating bias against certain Australian Soccer Clubs. Wonder why?  And, for some reason I am not yet entirely sure of, the only time in history that they whree permitted to compete in Australia's top tier soccer competition , seems to draw this massive hatred from you..... Are you defending your plastic entertainment franchises perhaps? hahahahaha that is sooooo cute.. Your NOT defending football in this country Robbos, lets be clear, your defending plastic garbage.......

WTF??? Hahahahahaha Sorry I only followed South Melbourne Hellas in the pre-NSL era so the 1974 WC achievement is "MY ERA" cant be neutral because your plastic FC werent even a thought bubble back then    hahahaha you are such a goose Robbo..... 

I mean we didn't qualify before 1974, so hard to buy that was a golden era either

There have been ups and downs throughout our history. 

We had a brief period where we produced a great generation and managed to beat the 5th placed south america team, qualify for the confeds final and make the round of 16 over around 8 years and have a bunch of players playing in big 5 leagues in a 100 year history. Incidentally this era corresponded to when p&r was removed from the nsl. Probably that wasn't the reason - every sport from olympics, to rugby, to cricket to rugby league produced a golden gen around the same time. Countries sports cultures go through highs and lows


I think we have never had 2 national divisions with the top division getting crowds big enough for main stream appeal, sustained across 2 decades aside from covid. We have never had an era before where football participation numbers are this high, we have qualified for 5 world cups in a row due to the stability of being in asia and having a professional top division mainstream appeal. We have the ffa separate from the governing of the top league. The NPL has improved in quality, the kids playing underage are better than any of us have ever seen (I would give credit to the ntc) and there should finally be pathways from the top to the bottom being introduced. Football has never reached its potential in oz, and has faced challenges a lot of people seem to gloss over. But at some stage you have to take a glass half full approach surely?

I think we can claim him. His development as a young boy to med-teens was entirely in Australia. I'm no expert but people keep banging on about how these are the most important years in respects to developing technique etc. 

I like your approach grazor, I really do. Ill try to keep the glass half full but Jesus mate, its gets cracks in it all the time :)

BTW, Australian Soccer was only accepted as a FIFA member in 1956 and also was suspended between (I think) 60-64 so to make a WC in 1974 with players ALL part timers from a state based comp is a pretty decent achievement.