Well said Ernie 

Hmm I tend to disagree. I don't see the problem with having the option. You don't need to use all the foreign spots and smart clubs would use it to their advantage. I don't know if Merrick would be saying this if Jets were (relatively) flush like in Martin Lee's first season. 

As stated before I think it’s wrong to reduce visa numbers.

Increase the quality of the league with more visa players, reduce the comfort zone of Australian players making them compete for fewer spots, with an added bonus the clubs will get to sign better players for lower wages. 

As we expand we will get a higher number of Australians playing professionally anyway and those that can’t find a spot can drop down to NSD or go overseas. 

Irs only the ACL where this becomes a problem but there is nothing stopping clubs setting up 3+1 for an ACL season. 

Hearts have 17 foreigners. Yup going up to 6 will be the end of aussie football....
5 is great, 6 even better with 2 new teams. 

How about you stop playing Hoffman ya twat.

Couldn't of said it better myself. Ernie is just a whinger, always has been, always will be.

Should be 3+1

Want to see more Aussies play, increase the number of teams
Want to see better quality clubs, remove the salary cap so there is a higher distribution of Aussie talent in our best teams

3 + 1 with foreigners not being included in the salary cap

So do I - so increase the number of visa players. 

If Aussies are good enough, they’ll fend off the visa players. At the moment they’re just not hungry enough. 

3+ 1 with no salary cap

Agree wholeheartedly with Ernie.

"couldn't of"... Is that you Robbie Slater? 

It would be interesting to see what a decent size survey from the fans of the game would reveal about the likely increase of foreign visa spots.

Something along the lines of

1. Would they be more likely or less likely to attend matches or pay for media subscriptions to watch A league games if the foreign visa spots were increased ?

2. Would they be more likely or less likely to attend matches or pay for media subscriptions to watch A league games if the foreign visa spots were decreased ?

3 quality foreigners should be more than enough for every team.

Also needs to be minimum 3-4 Australian U23's in every match day squad.

What if the U23 players aren't of the required standard? Should we be handing these players opportunities just because their young? If player is good enough: they'll play regardless of their age.

Moving on. For me: it's a tough one. There's no doubting that the standard of the league is dropping, and for many: interest is waning. I wouldn't be against more foreigners to a degree, just so that the local players here pull their finger out and actually start playing like professional footballers. There's too many players in the A-League on cruise control, purely because they know that if one club gets rid of them, they'll be able to move on to a new club in a jiffy.

It’s quite nonsensical for the franchisees to argue that we need more foreigners because our current recruitment of said foreigners (and locals for that matter) is shit

defenders only

Quality over quantity please.

I still see average overseas players running around when it could be an opportunity for an young player.

To me it just creates leverage to get away with flawed recruiting as well, just for the sake of signing someone from overseas when it’s best to invest in your own.

Do you see this happen in Japan or South Korea? Very rarely.

Just don’t know why we don’t go 3 or 4 + 1 and exclude them from the salary cap.

Quality over quantity indeed. 

But the same same argument can be applied to Australian players. Too many are lazy, over paid and guaranteed squad places due to the quota system ... increasing visa spots will increase the quality of Australian players, especially during A League expansion, as it will force out the lazy and mediocre 

Make the salary cap for Australian players and the foreigners outside of the cap (if the cap stays), then again the PFA will have a fit about it.

The lack of pressure in games makes a lot of the local players lazy and complacent if I’m honest. 

It's not just players that are lazy, look at BR after Aloisi left, they really gave a crap about anything and the football they played was a disgrace because there was no consequence. Look at CCM signing Matt Simon as a starter & captain, F' me, in which other league would that ever happen.

Unfortunately the HAL has become its own bizzaro world divorced from football reality and the way the metrics are heading, it wont be around much longer.

Although I agree with Merrick that we shouldn't be increasing the number of visa spots, I think he should not be pointing the finger solely at the HAL clubs. The HAL is the top tier, which means that it's role in player development is very niche. The role of the HAL is more of a refinement role rather than a core development role. The 2nd Div, Reserves League, NPL and Academies are where the bulk of development should be occurring. The problem is we have no 2nd div, no reserves league, academies are few and far between and the NPL lacks revenue streams and investment. The number of visa players in the HAL is very much a minor piece of the puzzle. The two biggest issues are the lack of pathways for young Australian players and the ridiculously deficient process for gaining coaching licenses. Those are all very solvable issues, it just takes some proper planning.

The balance is to ensure that there is a decent crop of players who have match experience for NT selection. This needs to be balanced out as well.

I'm a fan of the 3 U23 players in the squad as well.

Completely disagree.

Too many local journeyman stealing a salary-caped living.

Not enough local quality

League stagnating. 

Its a pro league.  Its not a developmental one.Fans are leaving in droves because the product is not good enough as it is.  Having more mediocre locals will not improve the league.

One thing you dont see in Japan or South Korea either is the salary cap

How can our game progress by imposing restrictions that other nations in our confederation dont have to deal with?

The foreigners aren’t so much the issue, as the journeyman locals. By the same token, you could say Merrick should be dropping Boogard for Jackson or playing Vujica instead of an out-of-position Hoffman. Is it that the young guys just aren’t good enough?

Extending the bench so teams could blood youngsters earlier and taking foreigners out of the salary cap would be ideas worth exploring for me.

Let's just have all foreigners then?

More mediocre internationals wont help either