I wasn't sure which one it was from Caira or Trifiro.

Caira came straight from AV Reserves/youth set up, he may be within the Under 20 age range, if only just. IIRC he'd be born 1992/93. That Kwabana kid would be other yeah.

Guys they haven't signed Gibbs, Mariners have?

Poppa said on his TWG appearance last week that amongst their last 3/4 signings (Prior to Ono announcement, so now it's 3), they are required to sign one more 'Under 20' as per A-League rules.

Shouldn't be too hard to sort, Wanderers seem to have trialled and also played a number of NSWPL sides - Poppa would also have 'his connections' - there must be some kids from NSWIS or AIS that Poppa could give a look in. Okon and Edwards are over there and he could easily get the good word from his former NT team mates.

There should be plenty of good Under 20 options available.

Question is - Any truth to the links to Grella? Culina actually a chance, or SFC all but have him - seeings he trains there anyway? People have suggested Carney, but Carney rules himself out - But Wanderers do lack a little depth on that left flank there - so one of the final signings must be an Aussie squad player to provide some depth there.

Heck, if they're desperate - he's from Perth, but Todd Howarth is available. Glory was a little harsh letting him go, though the squad has upgraded alot since. Howarth would be a fair, 'late pick up,' for depth and competition. He was only in the A-League just last season too, so it's signing another A-League player like Beauchamp, Elrich and co, rather than having to promote a fresh face, unknown commodity, from state league. Especially at this very late stage when the season is about to begin - no time to trial and play in friendlies now! And he'd be cheap, well within cap, ok with the 1 year contract like rest of squad and keen to impress/prove himself/bee in bonnet after being released!

Edited by gloryperth: 2/10/2012 08:16:21 AM

Ok you are right there - Though it's 'soo late' now, if Poppa is still struggling, there are still ready made options elsewhere.

Hopefully he can find a good NSWPL left sided player, as clearly they need a bit more cover there.

in regards to Gibbs, i think there were recent reports that he was going to sign, but not 100% sure if he did.
http://www.westsydneyfootball.com/_/articles/joey-gibbs-signs-contract-with-western-sydney-wanderers-r149

they gotta pay their staff somehow :d

How are your ticket sales going?

Poor apparently.

Those of you who have WSW jerseys: are the logos (club, league, manufacturer, sponsor) embroidered, heat-pressed or sublimated?

According to what?

The main WSW is embroidered.
Everything else is heat-pressed as far as I know.

Finally got my membership today. Took its time getting here.

Really looking forward to Saturday night, hope to see Ono play. I think we will need that quality, especially against such an organised team like the Mariners.

You know what, given Wanderer's late start as a club, it probably means many areas of the team are 'slightly behind,' not just on the field, but off it too. Also, organising their off field staff, building up the club in that area, probably takes some time too. The 'initial club' only seemed to be Gorman 'and a few others,' circa that time just prior to selecting Poppa. They had only appointed CEO John Tsatimas (sp) not too long before Poppa too.

Who knows if the Wanderer's club set up is even as big as other A-League club set ups, yet? I wouldn't be surprised if they're still building, expanding and creating some off-field departments still.

But, same time, Wanderers are tight on budget and expenditure, so they might be tighter, smaller, off the field too? Would make sense, given the goal of communal ownership 3 seasons down the track or what not. Need to be an attractive, as close to break even, proposition as possible.

So doesn't surprise me there are a few inefficiencies and maybe the low numbers we've seen are slightly due to this, if there's a bit of 'lag' in processing members or what not? Given the Herculean effort to get this far, it wouldn't surprise me AND other A-League clubs have had 7 odd years to get it right and still some are still work in progress too.

Still, despite all this, Wanderers could hit 3k members by season start and given their context I think that's a good result and a result they can build on through the season and into the next. Crowds may build too, especially circa round 3 derby and maybe residual flow on there, especially if Wanderers see some better than expected results.



Also guys, forget the 'West Sydney is the promised land' hype for a sec and take into consideration how the other expansion clubs have faired, especially Heart. GCU mess aside, Fury, even though they are smaller market, had modest BUT ok crowds. Heart are modest too, but building, slow and steady growth as their member numbers help indicate so far.

It may be good to temper expectations short term - 8-9k crowds (Not unlike Heart's numbers), especially if Wanderers finished bottom 3, could be foreseeable, but quite a fair result. Hopefully it's a 10k-ish average and if so that's quite a success, given circumstances. But either way, this club should build.

Edited by gloryperth: 2/10/2012 08:14:27 PM

Got my membership card sent today and my membership number was just over 2800. Very close to the 3,000 mark and might even go over that after the first few rounds as im sure there will be some people signing up on game day against the Mariners.
I just hope we can get crowds of over 10,000 and i'll be happy especially with the derby selling out and a few other top games getting close to the 15,000 mark.

Was on ticketek just before and pretty much the whole eastern stand (Camera facing side) is sold out, bar the lower north corner. I presume with mostly FC fans since that is where their actives are. Wanderers will probably sell more tickets once they have played a game.

Was that the stand or the terrace and stand that was nearly sold out? If its the stand and terrace that is 8k capacity.

Got my membership pack today. Loving the foundation member cap they sent out with your membership number on it. Just a nice little touch.

Eastern Grandstand, Terrace. It was the entire eastern side pretty much.

WSW already almost 3000 members, the club they replaced (GCU) had a crowd average in its final season of 3,546....looking good to say FFA did the smart thing in cutting the GC loose.

WSW has a higher average attendance with its preseason games than GCU had :lol:

Even if WSW average 8k this season, its on par with many other teams in the league and won't hurt the overall averages that GCU did.

if anyone has a photo of topor stanley's autograph can you throw it up on here. i got a jersey signed by all the players and have confirmed them all, except one, but i just want to make sure its he's

Any word on the crowd figure, how much are they expecting?

Quite happy with the performance. Maybe a touch unlucky not to take a win but to grab a point against CCM is a good effort. Obviously Mooy and Ono both showed why they are a touch above but that was no surprise. I think they will partner each other in the midfield sooner than later.

On the crowd, while only 10,000, it was a great atmosphere with no trouble, I would guess even though it was a draw, everyone will be back plus more. The 10,000 shits on 20,000 at the SFS.

Really sad though that the club is paying Bridge money to play though.

I didn't hear any music at all except a bit at half-time.

i was down the eastern end, and i did not hear any music all night except for halftime entertainment

You guys are deaf :lol:

Or you got in after kick off.

Positives:

> Defence is extremely well organised. This is very important. It means we will hold on in games long enough to steal 1-0 results on the counter.
> Mooy and Ono together in the middle.
> Hersey: I thought he was very impressive out wide.
> Merchandise: Sold out of all but XXL home shirts on the Nike website, sold out of all home shirts in the stadium by 7pm. A lot of the fans were wearing club gear which I thought was superb. I hope the Nike Store in Parramatta still has stock.

Negatives:

> Up front: This is a big problem. Everyone knows Mark Bridge is pitiful, refusing to pass the ball to an open player to scuff your shot is inexcusable. So is losing possession by horrible bad passes constantly. Haliti is greedy and crap.
> Dino Kresinger: The golden rule with imports is this: 'Are they better than a local Australian player?' He looked very sluggish, did absolutely nothing in terms of pressuring in defence (because he is so sluggish), and his shot looked crap. I would much rather have had a hungry Robbie Younis up front who has scored a bag-full in the NSWPL. He would have come cheap also.

Agree with that 100% except for Robbie Younis.

:lol: Dino not pressuring in defence? The guy did not stop running and chasing Mariners defenders for the whole 90 minutes. Quite impressed he kept it up for the full 90.