Just looked at the SBS article and it is Dave Lewis so huge pinch of salt. 

His last article  was headlined “Aliens stole my left back and swapped his feet with his hands” 

Wazoisi the ageist. ;)

Well, it wasn’t really an age thing. Just not good enough. 

Hingert is not even half way through his rehab. I doubt we will see him before about round 7 (at least not at full strength). we need someone that can hold down his spot until then and then push him for a starting berth. I disagree that Neville is not the type of player we are looking for, he is quick and has a huge engine to get up and down the wing. he doesn't have a great cross but I think that fowler will not be relying on the wide defenders to whip in crosses (that will be the wide attackers or midfield job) the wide defenders will be asked to provide an outlet for the wide attackers midfield and recycle the ball (something neville is good at).

We will know more about the formation we will play once the signings start happening. i am, at this point, less convinced than waz that we will play 3 at the back. i believe to play that formation we will need 3 CB signings i would be a little concerned if otoole and hingert/neville are 2 of our starting 3 CB's. I would be much less concerned if o'toole and hingert/neville were wide defenders and we have 2 experienced CB's between them.if we are playing 3 at the back our squad is overloaded with squad defenders (powel, bowles, pepper, reardon, hingert/neville) if it is 3 at the back you would want 2 less of those players. 

Agree on the possible issues with 3 at the back and lack of defenders in our current squad. But I do think that’s where he’ll want to go but he’s going to have to sign at least two defenders this winter if he wants to make it happen. 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying about Neville's engine and speed, but his foot skills let him down badly.  As you point out, if he is recruited, he will probably be starting for a while and then pushing Hingert.  I hope I'm wrong about Neville and he surprises us, but defenders with Stefanutto and Franjic type skills are what the Roar need to recruit (I realise they are rare as hen's teeth).

The problem is there just arent that many options for RB ,when it come to Australian players.
Unless you develop your  own players you have to pay well over the odds for an average player when it comes to some positons .How many good RB's can someone name?

Replacing Hingert is a must IMO. Once I see that I will only then know Roar have aspirations to be great again.

So is replacing David Gallop at the FFA 

If we are playing with 3 at the back, i'd like to see 3 new CBs brought in, which is a huge ask. I don't think either Bowles or Pepper are starting XI standard (at least not in a team that wants to compete for anything). 

We tend to agree on this point...Hingert is a good team man and a good guy ....but unfortunately he is not a very good A-League starting back..just a squaddie for me ..and definitely not a team captain !

That’s rubbish. Strain, Atkinson, Grant, Curran, Risdon, Karacic, Russell, Millar, Hoffman are all good Australian right backs who could be targeted by or are already at A-League clubs. 

That's 9, 3 of whom are overseas or going there. So we need another 12 to have 2 each at our Australian clubs. I think that is a shortage, but who am I to be the judge.

If you’re on FB give the new Den page a like:

https://m.facebook.com/theden332/?ref=m_notif&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

I think the same about 3 at the back but then we would have way too many squad players in the backline. you would have bowles, pepper, reardon, otoole, powel, hingert, neville.

10 players for 3 spots with 7 of the 10 rated as "not a starter". you could rate otoole and hingert/neville as a starter as a wing back which would make it slightly better but the 3 CM's and 2 strikers would have to be well and truely above a-league standard to have any hope of being a good attacking team because you loose a lot of attacking strength playing hingert and otoole. 

last year showed that they are not the best attacking options. 

The back 3 have to be bloody good defenders, no attack necessary, just bloody good defending. 

O’Donovan, DWH and an unnamed visa striker may be good for goals but attack comes down to the three AMs in the midfield. That’s going to be the key. 

yeah i wasnt saying play hingert/neville or otoole as the CB's i was saying you loose a lot in attack if you play them as WB's. In my opinion they are not good enough in attack to be WB in a 3-5-2 formation where they will be the providers for crosses and wide attacking and they are not good enough defenders to play as in the CB role. 

i think they are suited to playing Full backs in a 4-3-3 or 442 where wide attackers are the attacking strengths and the FBs  get up to support and recycle the ball then get back to defend. I dont think we have the squad (or are capable of assembling a balanced squad with those already signed) to play 3 at the back. 

Fair point. It depends how he configures his middle 5. The more modern and increasingly common approach is to play with two 6’s and not with wing backs then the three remaining mids act as AM’s. 

The signings will will tell us a lot about how he’s approaching this. (If he is going three at the back, but I just can’t see him playing 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 is like speaking French for most English people lol) 

Yeah, we need to wait and see who he signs. Neville is the first indication to me of three at the back - he’ll be right or left  back. Two DM’s/6’s would be the next clue .... hopefully we’ll see some names soon. 

How is that related to Roars aspirations? Replacing Hingert, not Gallop is what is within the control of Roar’s management.

Have the Supporters Group heard anything re schedule of announcements?

Yes, we’ve got the exact dates but they won’t let us communicate them. Big week next week basically. 

I would imagine it looks something like this (assuming the squad is finalised already)
24th july - transfer window opens (2-3 players announced guessing: roy, o'neil, mells)
* 25th June - players return for medicals and preseason assessments. (1 player announced guessing: Tom aldred)
* 26th June - Membership Details announced (1 player announced: Marquee or returning club man ie bratts or kruse)
3 players announced with 2 day gaps between each (probably squad players leading up to first day of training
* 1st July - first day of pre-season training (rest of squad announced apart from possibly 2nd marquee)
* 9th July - Membership renewal opens (marquee player announced)
* 13th July - Fowlers first game v Redlands (H), 3PM 

Those are the public dates we could release. We were given the dates for the new player press releases as well (without players names so we’re still guessing there) so there’s a lot coming up (next week) 

Finding it difficult go get excited....no matter what shape we play. 

Thing is , I don't care what shape you play, if you're opponents are more skilful, stronger smarter and quicker than you then shape matters little as you're probably gonna lose most games.

at this point we don't look like those things so shape is a little meaningless until the squad looks at least equal. Just st my opinion. 

Stop being a pessimist. 2 years of shit will do that. 

So 3 more sleeps until the avalanche of announcements commence.  Would be nice to start the week off with the announcement of a visa player (other than ROD).

so how many players are we due to make up the squad numbers now ?

9 on the books apparently, plus Pepper (who hasn’t been announced but word is he’s staying) so probably 9 or 10 signings required. 

It sure does but I can understand Jimo8 feelings.

Fingers crossed these forthcoming player announcements will turn to optimism.