Yeah, he'd just need his passport.

lol :)

The romantic in me wants to see players that grew up as fans of the club given contracts.

Didn't Maclaren play (and score) from the wing at Perth?

Maybe one of their fans could answer that question. 

From a squad building perspective we could have two players each capable of prolific hauls, and neither of them taking up a foreign spot. 

If we keep Rojas and Troisi I dont see the need. Lose either or both of them and it COULD work. 

He's a Roar player ?

Howard preferred over Beister, guess that's sorted then.

Yeah if that doesn't send a message that this little experiment hasn't panned out at all I don't know what does.

-PB

I know this is grasping at straws and probably had no outcome on the game but right before sydneys goal we won a corner but it was called offside as berisha was in an offside position when troisi took the shot... my erk is that its exactly the same as cahills offside in the ffa cup... except troisi's shot was along the ground, now the referees came out and said that cahill didn't affect the play even though his movement out of the way was as significant as berisha's.

One decision has to be wrong... which is it?

The Cahill one was wrong, the Berisha one was right. 

See that's what i thought too but the referees came out and said that the cahill call was correct.

I honestly think there needs to be an inquiry into why refereeing standards are approximately the same between regional competitions in australia and the a-league, with the only difference being that a-league refs have the oppertunity to see their wrong decisions after the match and STILL claim their decisions are always correct.

Thought that first half was the best half I've seen Bozanic play.


Baro is also very very good.

Either Bes learns to place a pen somewhere that isn't the bottom left or he stops taking them.

Besides that, amazing end to the game. Atmosphere was electric towards the end.

Yup, need someone else to take them now lol.

It's not worth having one saved or missed in the big games and then it completely breaks him.

-PB

Yep. Though in JP's (?! Where TF was Muscat? Still looking for Valkanis to shake hands with??) press conference he mentioned that 'it's up to Bes to say he's not going to take em' which is kiiinda fair enough, in the same way as losing confidence after missing a pen, being told you're not going to take them may have the same result. 

<3

<3

Archie made his debut for Murray United yesterday against City NPL. I was at the Twin City Wanderers FFA Cup game, and Archie playing for Murray was the talk of the town. Twin City was his original junior club.


Pic is from Archie's Twitter

Great to see old pros back in the semi-pro leagues - can be great mentors for the young players coming through and, as you said, can help generate interest for these clubs that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten.

Farken still another 24 hours till the game zzzz

-PB

So frustrating last night.
Was dying for FBK to come on and provide a moment of brilliance, for all his huff and puff Austin is so ineffective; everyone has worked out that he only has one leg. I feel like he had 3 good games to start the year and has done nothing since (injury notwithstanding). 

Would've felt dirty if Georgie scores (or the rebound goes to Rojas for the tap), but for this stage of the season and needing to keep the pressure on Sydney, that was the most listless performance. To say that last nights game handed Sydney the title would be disrespectful to their season but it has certainly taken any skerrick of pressure off them.

Such a f*cking shame Beister didn't work out, you could imagine he would've hit his strides about now, and coming into the end of the season :( 

All of this. 

I think this austin deal was a complete failure, ingham should be in front of him, but that game was made for fbk to come on with 30 minutes to go, he does need a rest but one moment was all we needed. 
I have no hope for the league but as it is i think were in for a chance for the grand final but weve got to change it up. 
I think my biggest disappointment is that with having besart here we all knew if we had an up and coming striker they were never going to get game time but the upside would've been they could've trained and learned from bes... but weve had nothing (maybe katebian but his brisbane trip doesn't look good either) we haven't got any options up front. What do we do when bes decides for a trip to the middle east we will be stuffed.

We need to start the ground work now for next season, we also need to get that acl spot.

Been pretty disappointed this year if not more than last. 
 

I don't think he's been a complete failure, [*edit* yeah he probably has been a failure] just don't think he should start, should probably make the bench. Maybe. I just get pretty annoyed when I see Sydney can bring on someone like Ibini and we're bringing on Matt Shirvington..... As I and others have said many times, Austin was more or less a direct replacement for Pain, which in effect means we are starting Connor Pain, which isn't enough for a team expecting to challenge.
So FBK was being rested? We need FBK starting and after last night, Ingham needs to be ahead of Austin in the pecking order.. Also need Baro and Donks to start. Hopefully Baro pulls up ok but unfortunately for Ansell, I think Donks is just so much better on the ball, we really play out better with Baro and Donks.
Midfield also sucked. Really exposed our reliance on Valeri. Would love Milligan to come back but don't expect it to happen.

Can't remember (or can be f*cked looking it up) our contract situation, but isn't Bes coming off his contract? If so, get him and Oli under the cap and replace the most-likely-going Troisi with some real quality creative mid. Ok, quick check says no, him and Oli on for another year. Nevermind.

double post

Trimmers and the accounting department need to be working over time to ensure that Bozanic is under the cap for next season or removed from the club. Him squatting on a marquee position (for accounting purposes only) is REALLY hurting us. We could've easily got a foreign replacement for Milligan if we hadn't been fucked over by the FFA changing the rules at the last moment - AFETR we'd locked in Bozanic for three years.

I think the club has slightly wavered with our youth in recent years - I understand you don't change a winning side, but as things stand we've got a very good 1st XI, but outside of that we have virtually nothing. Promising youth is not even sitting on our bench at the moment, which is a slight worry imo, and highlights the need for the board to get our Academy up and running asap.

I don't think it is panic stations, far from it - just that we all know as supporters that we can be so much better than we currently are.

It was Newcastle. Regardless of how well we're doing in a season we always struggle there and in Perth. Frankly I'll take the point.

We've had a run of the most difficult games we'll play (Sydney in general, Perth away, Newcastle away) and now it's leading into some easier games to play ourselves back into form before facing Sydney.

Was interesting to see how much better we played when Bronx went into the midfield (I think our only real chances came after he was on the pitch). We also only hit our stride this season when he regained his starting spot. It feels like he's almost our metronome, he sets the pace and the rest of the team follow: hard running, quick passes rather than dwelling on the ball and always looking for the forward pass. Obviously not our most talented player, but I think his constant hard-working attitude is important for the rest of the team.

Agreed with all of that.

-PB

I think in regards to youth, it's very very hard when you're a team at the top to balance it out.

Sydney have Ibini simply because he's coming back from major injury, I don't think he would be a player off the bench player in any other circumstance. 

Attacking wise is probably the hardest. Ingham has been quality off the bench and Austin is a good option (albeit 25).

In previous years we've had Galloway in defence competing for a spot, now we don't have that which is unfortunate. I would like to see Nigro get more of a run out in Def/Mid.

We do have Deng coming back though, and I expect one of Ansell or Donachie may move on so he can get minutes. Potentially, Baro could move into midfield next season to rotate with an ageing Valeri. 

In attack, it really is a shame we lost Pasquali as he could offer something completely different when Troisi is off his game, as we have no replacement in AM. 

A back up for Berisha really is a must, with how his consistent (sounds odd considering he's scored more than everyone) form this season. Howard just isn't good enough. 

Just look at Nigro. he is nowhere now. 

Ingham was starting to show promise then was left out the side - hard for these players to get momentum. 

Was really expecting a break out year for Nigro tbh.