With the list of possibilities,how nice would it be to have a marquee playmaker.Surely Fowler can find someone.

Aiden O’Neill confirmed by that magnificent rag, “The Burnley Express”. Marco must be on strike. 

Must say I'm very pleased. onwards and upwards!

AON 
ROD 
GM 
All on their way north

Who's GM?

Edit: never mind.

I'm happy with AON..A local boy ,with good technique who can tackle and that rare DM who can score.
RoD can  score and tackle.So can DWH.
It would be very interesting if Brattan was signed.
Reading  about George Mells,it appears people in England would know him well from his youth years at Chelsea and Southampton.He played DM in the Grand final AU won,playing out of position as a DM instead of AM.
He had a horror year of sickness and injury  in 2017 and missed out on HAL in 2018 after squads were full,when he was fit again.
So maybe not a bad choice if he stays fit.Fowler presumably has knowledge about him.
If he is signed that makes two young Australian DM's as Fowlers first Aussie signings.That says something.How many did JA sign?

The big weakness last year was midfield. It was old, slow and often injured. So assume a three man midfield Roar will need two DMs, an AM and two wide mids. So far there appears to be logic in what Fowler is doing there (although like Crimson I’d love Brattan in there). 

But then the Central Defenders need an overhaul. Pepper/Bowles are fine as reserves, but we need two good starting CBs

Will be interesting to see where Mauk fits. I would assume he is seen as a starting XI player, but whether at DM or AM remains to be seen.

Wasn’t there a debate on this last year? He’s an AM typically but he looks to have the mongrel for defensive duties  

I think so. Seems to be able to contribute well in attack. Think he gets a bit of the red mist, so someone would need to make sure that is controlled if he plays at DM. 

I'd be happy with Mauk at AM and AON in a DM role.

If AON rumour is true, then that's a great get by Fowler.  

Daily Oz twitter has the AON rumour.
They also have the GM rumour.
I would post it .But FFT have changed things up again and i cant  post it.

also started that season with Rhinaldo* and Dever they left in the summer . 

I think George Mells would be decent..  I have signed him on a free in the lower leagues in England in the past and he has turned out to be a gun at that level in the game lol... 

But he is a decent age, has been developed in England (Chelsea and Southampton) and has recently spent time in Holland but didn't play.  at worst could turn out to be handy squad player.  (was part of Adelaide's Winning season to).

Lots of people saying Mells was played out of position at DM, so if Mauk is starting as AM, I imagined Mells would be a squaddie. 
As others have mentioned, we need some strong, experienced players running our midfield, otherwise we have no hope. 

we had a strong, experienced midfield last season with tk, lopez and mckay but it didnt really work for us. i dont really care if the players we get are experienced or fresh, big or small, big name or never heard of them. as long as they have the right attribute mix, suit our style of football and are set up to play that way. 

Forgot about those two.  SHame Devere didn't hang around a bit longer back then.

I suppose I meant strong in all of the required attributes, rather than just strong physically. They were experienced, but obviously couldn't keep up with the pace of the game. I'd say Lopez had some of the creativity required, but was incredibly slow and pretty lazy. TK also had his injury issues. McKay had shown that he wasn't up to it anymore. 

We absolutely cannot have teams just strolling through our midfield again next season. 

If  we are to have chance next season we need a playmaker.

Yeah, Mells will be on minimum wage. 

Ok, just saying goodbye to you lot in the Orange Army. As you may have seen, I’m not particularly enamoured with the direction this place is heading, so before I get banned, I am going to cease posting. Some will no doubt see this as a positive step on the path to Saving the Forum. 
Anyway to Waz, Muz, paulbagz, crimson, miron, aok, paulc and the rest - I’ve enjoyed the banter. I’ll still check in when the season starts but looking only.
Looking forward to a big season from Fowler and the lads.
clockwork

Hey clockwork, I’m sad to read that.

The Orange Army page is the best page on this site imo because of the range of contributors and the diverse range of opinions offered up - some genuine football discussion takes place which makes it kinda unique. 

Hopefully you don’t stay away too long, you’ll be missed while you’re away that’s for sure. 

Sad to hear.  I agree that the direction the forum is heading is disappointing.  Maybe quit the forum and stay posting in this thread?  As Waz said this thread is a great thread that needs no policing.  Your contributions will be missed if you do decide to stay away.

Excellent suggestion 

Love this thread. Certainly have thread envy haha

what do you guys think of the Fowler affect? Will he get top line players just because they want to play for him? I personally think someone like Aidan O’neill for example might not have come to Brisbane this year but with him as coach he goes there. 

I genuinely hope you lot are successful next season, the whole league is better when you guys are on

@clockwork
When we are winning ,i expect to see you back.lol
I must just bypass all the rubbish on this forum.I didnt realise there was a big issue.


With regard to Fowler I'm still in positive mode.Everything so far is looking good.Of course we wont know  his real worth until we see the team play.

...that is a shame Clockwork ....not sure what happened to tip you over the edge but I understand .
I have noticed over the years that loud shouty people seem to be taking over forums ,twitter etc .
Hopefully you will be back . We need some sensible conversation on this forum.
I do agree though that this Orange Army thread is usually pretty good and most tend to just discuss issues amicably.
I often see a thread and know to avoid it simply by its title !

I am still in positive mode with fowler but that is mostly because we are still in the wild speculation phase. nothing has been confirmed by the club so i am filling gaps with positive speculation. Ie george mells has actually signed and is going to be a break out star, same with Tom Aldred and o'neil. Roy (has signed) has learnt his lesson and will be a saint tearing up the league, scoring for fun from all the service that he gets from our beast of a midfield. Mauk has recovered from his injury problems and bosses the league getting bought for Moyy money by a premier league team at the end of the season. Fowler turns out to be Ange 2.0 assembling a squad that plays out of its skin and goes 37 unbeaten and brings Broich 2.0 into the fold. Hell while im at it original Broich comes back and joins the team as an assistant coach eventually taking over from fowler (when liverpool take him as head coach from his wild success with the roar) and broich leads the roar to back to back doubles, ACL wins and club world cup wins. 

I am sure i wont be as positive by round 4 when we have been bundled out of the FFA cup, half our team is out injured, we have lost every game in the last minute of extra time and broich 2.0 turns out to be more Chinese Messi than Maestro. (but i still wont write the season off). the joys of being a football fan :) 

:D