Good assessment. Assuming we add Neville soon and then we’re just about done. 

Question mark over the 23 yo CB - is he good enough and worthy of a visa spot? 

Question over creativity - who’s going to open up the stubborn defences like Broich did? 

Just adding what i consider perspective.

The selection process required more Roarcelona style than Hoofball style.
RF put up his case for how he would turn us around and get us back to where we wanted to be playing 'Brisbane Style Football'.
The selection panel chose RF based on what his plans were.
RF is now filling the spots as he planned, and as the selection panel endorsed.

All that remains is for a football great to inspire and motivate the team to play the way RF wants - which is not beyond a reasonable chance.

The names he has selected do not appear to be the sort who sit back on their record and pop the odd goal in - they look like hungry, hard working, hopefuls with dreams to fulfil.

I am excited for the new season!

Broich opened defences when we ran out of attacking options as often as not - and with our rather lame umbrella attack that happened frequently.

With the scoring options as Crimson mentioned, it sounds like RF may just have more opportunities to score from normal play than defensive opposition can shut down. Maybe we won't need the skills of a locksmith as much to get through the traditional bogey Newcastle style defense...?

A lot of love for the Irish Messi from Bury fans.
It looks like he is a dead ball specialist.
He scores a lot of penalties.
He scores a lot from outside the box
And he has some fancy footwork.
He can play winger  and striker as well as AM.
 He is used to playing in a possession based team.
He was involved in a 17 pass goal.

O’Shea and Aldred plus ROD are the pick of the visa signings for me. Very happy with all three. 

0’Holloway and O’Gillespie are less clear cut but assuming RF/TG have seen something in them they should be okay.

All 5 are known to the coaches (ROD probably through tv admittedly) so I see lower risk 

I am cautiously optimistic.....however....I was last season too ..and look how that turned out ! lol
I think that we need a bit of starch in the team and one thing Brits and the Irish do have is "starch".
They are very competitive when playing football.They take it very seriously.
From years of playing with and against them.... they play every game (even Sunday "pick up" games) to win (..and any way they can ..lol).
I like that .

I'm far from happy with the UK signings, unless we accept that the A League is League 1 standard.  Maybe it is and I need to adjust my set.

But O'Shea - really, Waz?  You're happy with a 30 year old English 4th division player as a visa signing?  Frankly, I think its embarrassing.

Lets hope you eat those words .lol

I'm hoping the total exceeds the parts CS.

I hope to have to stir fry them in black bean and soy sauce

Yeah. The angst from some people on this board is funny. If we do shit this year we’re gonna cop some flack ... but if we do well I think some people’s heads may explode 😂😂👏👏

Tis a worry though what it says about the standard of the A League if someone like O'Shea does past muster.

Waz, do you know whether the 30 Aug game against Sydney on the Goldie is open to the public?

If the SFC game is at Cbus then no, it won’t be open. 

I’ll check but the last few seasons the games at Cbus have been a package deal with GC council that doesn’t include opening up the stadium. 

Cheers.  

Deluded pumpkin he is. Old fart from League Two is much better than an international with 40+ caps including the World Cup last year. 

Please. Argue away that the HAL is equivalent to the championship 😂😂😂😂

I don’t get how people call the standard of a league as a collective. Perth were certainly miles ahead of the Mariners. And the standard of Celtic is very different. 

And also these comments about if any of these players do well it’ll show the A-League as a shit standard. Sergio Guardiola played la liga not long after being an Adelaide flop. Does that mean A-League is better than la liga? 

I find it stranger that people would use the Roar's performance to rate the league as a whole against other leagues due to it being such an indirect comparison.

You cannot reasonably take anyone other than true individual stars, put them in a new team, then rate the competition on the strength of results of their games. If they did not develop the same level of understanding in the new one there is reason enough in that alone to explain a drop in results. Similarly if they click with their team mates they may far exceed what they were capable of in their own league. Neither case would give grounds for rating one league against the other on that alone.

You would have to play a series of games against actual teams from other leagues to really build a comparison - one game does not a summer make, as Aesop told us. If you did play a series of club championships you would most likely find that our competition leaders may equate to one league or division, and the competition losers sit somewhere else. You may also find that playing here, with our officials and systems, benefits us and playing elsewhere may benefit them.

Far better to watch games from different leagues and based on what you see in the play, with your own views and experience, decide where the A-League sits by comparison - then argue that.

If Roar do great it means that RF was able to take a bunch of players from various sources, mould and guide them to a common vision, and as a cohesive unit win games. It does not matter that individual players are from 'lower' or 'higher' leagues - they could still play well or shite here depending on so many factors. It could simply be that playing in our Summer wipes good players out - that our environment is tougher to play in and the league itself is irrelevant. Much like playing teams at their home in high altitude.

It is the old adage comparing champion players to champion teams.

If Roar fail to fire it also does not tell us anything about the calibre of the league compared to other leagues either. It will give us a chance to spend many more months arguing about the cause being RF, an individual player, a bunch of players, VAR, FFA, salary capping, pyramids, tactics, recruitment, strategies, plan B, no plan B, fitness, backroom failures, and all the rest of what we come on here to discuss.

I know it will happen, but I find it pointless to argue that the HAL is equivalent to another league on the basis of one player who may or may not have performed well in their own league then performing well or poorly in our competition.

A well put case, as with Redkats earlier reply. 

Imagine if Roar has signed Jamie Vardie instead of Leicester. And he’s gone on to score 100 goals in 200-odd games ... that says nothing about the quality of the EPL. 

A good comparison for me next season will be these new players vs our two Scandinavians last year, and Lopez. All with superior CVs but all underwhelming on the pitch. 

The reaction has been knee-jerk but, in defence of those knees, when you see some of the Eurosnobs comments on-line maybe it’s understandable. God help the internet if Roar do well next year 😬

But Waz - we have God as our manager to make sure we do well next year.

We have Ralph to look after the internet.

Roar Twitter hinting at a 'big news' signing announcement today. I hope they know that Scott Neville isn't 'big news'.... 

Kruse?

Jedi? 

Kruse hasn’t played in the UK so can’t be him 

Mike O'Jedinak it is then.... with O'Neville next week.

I dont think ,'Big News', relates to a signing.
More likely sponsorship or a game against Liverpool/EPL team.

Any talk of jerseys being available before the season or at least near the start this year? Was ridiculously late last season.

The big news could be the formality in changing the club's name to BritRoar FC.

Can’t be Neville as “big news” but the rumour is he is signed, Hope they’re not overselling it? 

Was quoting Pourre who was responding to the fan group about whether there would be another signing today, so must be a signing.