I was talking bout this with a mate the other night, we just don't have the players in the Romanian league ect anymore. Think of Danny Invincible who played in the SPL and scored goals from midfield over the year, and yet never got a Look in at national level.

Until Chris Ikonomidis is a Lazio regular, we just won't cut it

Juric's red card has been dropped and he is free to play the next game according to Roda's Facebook page.

Good stuff.

May miss the match anyway cos he'll be tired coming back from international duty.

Definitely not spam for us reading on here! Keep the updates coming, love your work mate.

Almost. I saw kirriemuir v montrose once :lol: Ended in a all in with a spectator putting down his kid so he could chase the ref




Edited by tsf: 10/11/2015 10:05:46 AM

This. I really appreciate your contribution.

Precisely.

However, this problem works two ways. Football is far more globalised than it has ever been before and when access to Australian players was easy in comparison to obscure Central/South American and African countries. Those times have changed dramatically now with improvements in networking and technology. The world is a far smaller place now and Austalian players just don't stack up as well as players from football mad countries at the moment.

Lastly, the players from the GG era had very little choice but to make it in Europe. It was boom or bust scenario. Players today have a viable option in Australia where they can earn good money and play at a decent level as well as have a shot at continental competitions.

Hard to compare the context of the GG era with what we have now to be honest.

Yep. The rise of Africa, Asia and the lesser South American nations has hurt us.

Some blame Han Berger.

Some blame the new NC.

Some blame the formation of the A-league and no genuine pathways.

I think a little bit of all that, and a lot that were were very lucky to have so many good players for a nation that doesn't really play football. We have too many sports and the pathways have been diluted after the collapse of Socccer Australia.

Football needs to be cheaper and more accesable, we also need more support for community clubs from local through to NPL. Perhaps most of all we just need kids playing in the street. But I'm happy to just blame the Dutch mango suckers

Dont we have record number of overseas aussies at the moment (inc. youth contracts)?

Its just they are not getting much time.

100% on the money, football today is completely different to it once was 20 years ago.

But we made it hard for ourselves with the lack of player pathways and a youth system which went caput before 2010 which had outdated methods.

We were too slow to evolve.

I think we will get back there again. I think we only ever had 5-7 players at any one time regularly playing in the top 4-5 leagues. The team was always rounded out with a number of guys either riding the bench in a top league(Viddie in 1998, Lazaridis/Skoko/Sterj in 2006), playing in a lower league (Wilkshere in2006, McKain and Lubes 2005 Confed, CB in 2001- Shaun Murphy I think) or from the local leagues.

The A League has seen a lot of players return from the European minor leagues and those leagues are often overrated. When McKain was killing it in Romania in about 2004 their NT coach said he wished he could cap him. We've seen plenty of McKain in the A-League and at no stage has he looked like a hands-down Socceroo.

If it wasn't for injuries we could already have a team almost as good as any we have ever had. In a parralel universe Rhys Williams, Chris Herd and possibly Curtis Good could all be playing EPL, combined with Ryan, Langerak, Leckie, Kruse and Ikon. Without injuries, there could have been a chance of 8 players in a top league. If that is too much wishful thinking for some, my point is that we are not that far away.

I think we all look back on the early 00s with rose coloured glasses, when we had 8 or so players in the EPL. The EPL of 2004, was nothing like the EPL of today. Same is true of the championship. Sorry if I'm rambling, on public transport.

Would definitely agree that the poaching of African footballers in Europe's top league is probably hurting us.

Don't underestimate how much a player can improve as they approach their physical peak in their late 20s. Most of our current gen are about 23 or younger so this bodes well. Wait till guys like Rogic and Irvine fill out touch wood. Wright is only 23 I think so his peak may not come till he's about 30.

Jedinak was playing NPL for Sydney United at the age of 22. The only reason IMO he made it to the EPL was his physical dominance which didn't come into affect until he was about 28. Milligan is another who has dramatically improved as he approached his late 20s.

Mooy as well, struggled for game time in the SPL in his early 20s and is now IMO the best player in the A-league and being touted for a European career. He would dominate the SPL so hard now.

Imagine if someone at Sydney United had taught that little Mile how to pass a friggin' ball though. ;)

Anyway, not everyone improves as the get older but a lot do so hopefully, touch wood this new gen can rise or at least a few of them anyway.

Would agree with all of this. I believe junior Futsal is our street football and this should be championed a lot more for young players. Its also a lot cheaper. It promotes all of the one-on-one skills, first touch, small sided football that is being championed and is easily accessible for most people. Maybe if you sign up you also get free futsal membership or something.

Chris Herd played 55 mins in Chesterfield's 4-1 away win over United of Manchester in the FA cup.

Brett Holman played 85 min in Emirates 2-1 home win over Al Nasr in the UAE league cup.

Mark Milligan was of course missing due to international duty in Bani Yas's 1-0 away loss to Al Dhafra.

More news has come in for Ruka who on the weekend played 90 mins in Beitar Jerusalem's 2-0 away win over Maccabi Haifa. They are now 3rd.

I think a lot of people are hoping for more Harry Kewell type players that were ready to go at a high level at 18, but if we manage to produce more players with Tim Cahill type career trajectories (i.e. Do the hard yards at a lower level and then move to a big club just before peak years) then that should bode well for the national team.

However if we really want to make the jump to becoming a top 10 nation then we need to have more of the Harry Kewell type players, the same way Germany can pick full national team squads from each generation. Given our system I don't think this is realistic for many years so we have to be happy with the Tim Cahill type career path to get out best players.

Yep, all of this. Kewell remains our only ever world class teenager.

I really, really hope Holman comes to the A-League next year. I think he'd be a real asset to most teams.

Could see it happening. Maybe next expansion team?

He'd probably have 1 or 2 good years here.

His asking price would probably be too high though. He'd be on decent coin in the UAE that would just not be worth it.

Expansion clubs marquee

I'd go for someone bigger.

But almost every player who comes back to Australia takes a pay cut...

I reckon at 32, he'd be okay to take a pay cut and play in Sydney.

Not a fan of the trinity ?

I blame kevin muscat,

Basically any1 who plays like this psycho has no skill

Yes, because Kevin Muscat acheived everything in his career with no skill :roll:

Never did anything in Europe with his skillset

And Polanski is a great director despite the fact that he is a paedophile.

It's FFT. It's mandatory to love the trinity haha.