Enjoyed watching what the Roar are working on (even though the result was hugely disappointing). A few negative observations about the game;

• Set pieces were abysmal
• ROD should not be starting and played worse than I had thought he would.  Can't wait for DWH and Holloway to return from injury
• The defense looked a bit fragile and I think a lot has to do with Neville, who seemed to get caught out of position a lot

Have to disagree about mariners looking fitter and stronger . We dominated large parts of the game . Difference to me was they had about 1 shot first half and scored it and also the penalty . They had about 25 minutes second half where they pegged us back for awhile and had some wild shots (apart from Oars goalpost screamer) but overall I thought we completely  dominated play..Where I do agree is that we lacked that killer instinct up front. Not sure on our shot count but it was not high. Lots of good opportunities wasted by passing instead of having a crack. I am quietly hopeful Fowler can remedy this .

the good;
we came back from a goal down twice, that wouldn't have happened last season. some of our passing was very good in tight spaces, our movement seems 100 times better than last season. we dominated possession and did well winning the ball back quickly particularly in the midfield. i thought Mauk had a very good game. Our tackling and defence (once it was set) was very good Aldred and Gilesphie are great pick ups.

the Bad;
our bench was well bellow par. I though O'toole looked lively when he came on (probably the only one that lifted the output of the team off the bench) O'neil was passable (he didnt make any glaring mistakes but was pretty invisible, though akbari didnt have the same output as against SFC so O'Neil was probably on par with him) we lost a lot of our movement with Mauk coming off for pepper, who also was very loose with his passing, a big step down from Mauk. Finally when inman came off for Ingham we lost what little threat we had up front, another big drop in quality. A big worry for me is Neville and Mcging, that seems to be our biggest weakness and it is no surprise that CCMs 3 chances (the pen, the goal and Oars thunderbolt that hit the bar) exploited them on that side. In both our games now i have thought that Neville and Mcging have been bellow par so i would like to see a change there now. i think Neville is more suited to the WB role than the CB role and i think mcging should be dropped. Otoole looked good when he came on and we also have powel for the LWB role so JCP to CB and neville to RWB is what i would like to see. ROD was doing dropping back between the lines quite a bit but offered very little in attack. he needs to output more if he is going to lead our line (that may chance when we have AAH and DWH back as it will probably see akbari out with Inman and oshay dropping into the deeper roles, that lift in quality may mean ROD wont have to do so much work building up and will have a real threat with DWH and AAH running in behind)

finally our set pieces were woeful. we had 15 corners and i think that resulted in 1 shot on target not to mention all the fouls in good positions. that is really, really, really bad. we also struggled a bit on defensive set pieces time to dedicate some training time to them i think. 

On this in particular, I thought it was quite strange as from what I had seen in the past, O'Shea's delivery has been quite good. Hopefully last night was just a blip and not the other way around. 

I’m not sure we’re not in agreement though? 

I sgree we gad all the possession and play but I thought mariners were hungry for the ball, generally got to the ball in defence quicker than us, and won more one to ones. 

Its funny what we all we all see differently though - O’Toole when he came in was poor to my eye. He got one decent cross in and most of the time looked like he couldn’t be bothered running. Yet others were happy with him lol. 

It's not all dooma nd gloom like some on facebook and twitter are making out - for me CCM pulled an ambush on us like we did with Sydney and we weren't prepared for it, they pressed high and effectively for the whole game, even pushing three players up when Young had the ball.  A few cute passes unlocked their defence a few times but I think we were flick and backheel happy last night and credit goes to Stajic for implementing a sound strategy.

Highlights for me were Inman and Aldred (despite his very tired pen)

Lowlights were McGing, Akbari, Neville, O'Shea and unfortunately ROD.

While two games don't make a striker and he has shown quality in his time in the A-League, Fowler will need to do something to get his confidence up.  I feel ROD needs Mauk playing a little closer to the high line, Mauk looked to have a nice link up with Taggart in their limited time together last season.

There was a noticeable drop off when Mauk came off and the quality from the bench wasn't good enough.  I have to say I was surprised the Pepper came on instead of George Mells.

Tommy Oar had he best aleague game in around 5 years last night and CCM looked to have improved markedly and shouldn't be pushovers this season if that performanc was anyhting to go by.

Overall disappointed in a home game showing like that, but at least we made it to the next round for a change lol

I think we learned more about our team after last night.The strengths and weaknesses.
I am more convinced than ever that if teams want to seriously challenge for the premiership,having a seriously good playmaker is a must.(Primary marquee)
For all Roar's good play,they lacked someone to control that final third.
You can coach how to get the ball forward.But it comes down to class players to create  goal scoring opportuniites and finish.
For Roar when  the ball got to the final third ,play broke down pretty quickly.

I think a better attacking team would have capitalised on our defensive weaknesses.
We need better defence to those fast breaks and crosses from the wings.
We were exposed  and CCM should have scored from headers.
Simon is so slow ,but still managed to get past Neville.Faster strikers will be more lethal than him.

Our depth looked very thin.The substitutes came on and we looked a lot weaker.

Inman ,Mauk and OShay look to be our key players.When Inman and Mauk went off we looked very ordinary.
Pepper playing further forward was a surprise.He provided energy.But you know you have a problem when thats the ace up your sleeve.
Ingham is a one dimensional player.He can take the ball forward and do the basics.But he doesn't exhibit any creativity.
Is he really a winger or a striker ?
AON looked under done.He moved the ball well.But lacked energy to attack and defend.
Akbari,must  have been injured(i hope) when he was hooked,because he passed the ball to the opposition and couldnt run  to  catch the ball carrier.
There is a lot of improvement needed to stop those goals conceded and score more.
General play though is an improvement on the last three years.

At best BR played some good football but the worst football was truly awful, with horrible passing and abysmal set pieces.

As others have noted ROD was very poor and looks well past it to me. McGing was a notable problem. But the biggest disappointment for me was O'Shsa. Not only were hosted set pieces wasted but, frankly, he doesn't look like he's up to standard and it looks very much to me as though RF has underestimated the a league with his UK recruitment. 

TBH I think the team is just a notch short on class allover the park and O'Shea isn't up to the mark. What we need is our young Australian players to step up and make the difference and that may well happen. But Fowlers UK journeymen look exactly that. 

Honestly... ROD stinks. Problem starts there.

Yes it is a bit worrying that none of the visa players are standing out.
Aldred looks to be organising the defence.Stuffed a header which lead to a goal last night.
O'Shay has some  nice tricks.
Holloway -no idea -struggling with fitness.
Gillesphey- nothing special.
ROD-nothing special.
Basically team players like most of the Aussie players in the team.
CCM had no quality visa players last night.
But we beat (ambushed)SFC.

I can see where you are comming from with Otoole, when he first came on there were a couple of throughballs that he probably should have got on to but was tentative (i took that as being a bit scared of thugish CCM defenders after breaking his leg). but he grew into the game the longer he was on. i thought he had a good game as he got a lot of ball. when he came on he was our outlet and all our attacks came down that side. he didnt misplace a pass (though he did delay on some of his crosses which let defenders in). all in all the tempo of attacks increased on the left when otoole came on. 

The only thing that stood out for me as a negative last night was a lack of a cutting edge up front, I would hope DWH or AAH would fix that but I am not sure ROD is the right fit as playing off the shoulder of the last man I think he is pegged to play the role Inman is at the moment, he looked a lot more comfortable coming back to connect with the midfield than he did playing off the shoulder of the last man. Everything else that didn't quite work last night seemed to me to be more about the team not being quite on the same wavelength, so more early season jitters rather than a genuine structural problem in the team (as in last season).

Standouts for me were Mauk, Inman and McGing, I think were we really lost it was the subs, the subs the mariners brought on were all better than ours and made their side better whereas our subs didn't. O'Niell looked underdone and needs more time to connect with the team by the looks of it, Pepper had lots of energy but not much output, Ingham is a significant step down from Inman and O'toole can't really impact the game from his position but he did look good.

We will definitely get better during the season and some of the interplay in the midfield and back line was simply outstanding, if we can play that way consistently and find the cutting edge we will be a serious threat for the title this year.

Have to say the mariners look like a good side this year as well, and it was really good to see Oar hit some form again even if it was against us.

Who was rampaging down the left wing in the first half for Roar? Looked really fast ..

Courtney-Perkins?

If it was CAP HIM 

(although needs to learn to finish maybe 😬) 

Thought Mauk was excellent last night. He looked like the player we all hoped he would be when he signed. If he stays fit he will will be a key player for BR this season.

I'm really not convinced by the back 3 with this squad. I suspect that we will ship a lot of goals if RF runs with it. 

Ladder prediction hasn't changed. Mid table if lucky. Not wooden spoon but bottom 5 likely.

I think it was Inman.

Pressured one ball in particular down the left where he was about 4 metres behind the defender when a ball was put through and he flew past him to put pressure on Birghitti.

Hopefully the club gained interest and signed up plenty of members last night

The back 3 vs Brisbane City and again last night was exposed by pace - that’s difficult to deal with tbh but the fix is not 4 at the back but those central 3 midfielders keeping control over the Center of the park. I wouldn’t be panicking yet, 3 at the back is the way to go it’s just a question of can they make it work. 

agree on Mauk - MOTM vs SFC and again another good night 

What did you think of O'Shea's performance. I was underwhelmed. 

Love the way you guys feed and spew up own players , hate to have people like that at clubland .

He didn’t have his best game - but I don’t think the midfield had it together 

I know it's a competitive game. But I remember the preseason of our first championship watching the roar play CCM in a friendly. It was a draw I think the same scoreline. Everyone complained about similar things we are now. But what I saw was a side that worked together as a team. Knew the roles they played. There was something there to build on. Plus I thought the intensity and the speed we are playing at hasn't really been done in the league at sustainable level yet. So be interesting to see.

Maybe I'm seeing to much positive out of the Sydney game. That gives me confidence that the roar can address these issues. But I'm probably a little more optimistic than my own good.

At least we are not going to be watching dire football this season.

100% with you on your observations and our prospects.

The good things I saw at the game were really good things - they were not fluked and they weren't isolated moments.

Personally I think people are overreacting slightly. We dominated for large parts, just couldn’t find the net when required. We really should’ve won by a couple goals - ROD chance, Mauk chance, O’Neill post, Inman had a one on one too.

 ROD had an off night - this will change. We conceded from a pen and a breakaway goal late in the match when legs were tiring. Other than that I think we looked okay. Maybe want to tighten up a bit but it will come. 

If we won the lottery of penalties I think people would be having a different outlook on the game. We beat the champions of Aus in our last competitive game - no need to blow the house down yet.

I would’ve loved to have seen David Pourre’s face when Mariners drew Hume 😂

Theres plenty of questions raised out of this game, the only worrying one for me is RODs continued lack of form - he’s not having a good preseason at all. 

My only real concerns from the night were ROD (and I don't think it was just that night, as in the games I have seen, he hasn't shown that much), and the inability to break down a packed defence (although if O'Shea was having a better night, perhaps that would have changed). 
We are going to have to work out how to break teams down. 
On another note, didn't get a picture of the kit, however from what I could see, the black one looked very schmick. 

To be fair Roar should have had a hatful of goals in the first half, Mauk missed an open goal from about 5 yards out (admittedly a difficult chance but an open goal non the less). So to me the first half wasn’t “breaking them down” it was finishing them off. 

The second half was alarming because once we equalised our intensity dropped off and we didn’t create many chances again until late in that half. 

The first half of extra extra time was all Roar and you’re right, at that stage we really couldn’t break Mariners down but again, we’d got players cramping and 4 subs on disrupting the flow. 

Worryingly we we haven’t seen the enigma that is Holloway - it would have been good to see him against a HAL defence, especially Ziggy