Getting a bit excited, I know. But there’s a lot more to get excited about in the Mens national team than there has been in a decade or so.

Interested to hear peoples takes on who looks the most promising for 2026 in each position at the moment. My 23 man squad below.
This is a bias youth favoring side. In reality I’m sure we’ll have more old heads.

Gauci 

Bos circati triantis miller 

Yazbak 

Metcalfe Irvine 

Mcgree waddingham irakunda 

Strikers really doesn't have any standouts ATM
Kuol Souttar bilokapic O'Neil genaru toure 

I agree. None of them have proven anything at a decent level yet.

I'd expect Yengi or Iredale to step up first. Just because they're older and physical beasts which Arnold likes in a striker.
But great to see we have so many prospects with Mo Toure, Botic, Alou Kuol, Musa Toure and Waddingham coming through... that I know of.
Really hope at least one of them makes it in a first tier competition.

well we have 3 players in cb that could be in the big 5 by then

souttar
circati
burgess

Rowles and triantis battling for the fourth spot. Let's go rowles for experience and also taking into account that there is no gaurantee triantis makes the cut at championship level

Bos is probably our best bet at lb though farrell is very strong defensively and could continue to grow
RB we have options but lack a real standout. Probably atkinson and miller look the strongest with strain putting pressure on them. Hoping we have a player come from nowhere

6 is also a weak position, I think O'niell is strong enough to wrest a starting spot in belgium. Teague looks about the same quality for victory so far (early days) but a few years younger.

At 8 Irvine and Luongo both could be in the big 5 next year, but 2026 might be aging a bit. Robertson will probably have kicked on, genreau hopefully is building in ligue one, yazbek hopefully has developed a bit and metcalf can play anywhere. A dark horse is yull if he turns out as good as people say. Another is segicic. Hard to choose 2 from that but I'll go genreau and robertson

at 10 I think mcgree and volpato are looking real standouts if we are good enough to get both. Sadly Hrustic has had back to back seasons out of the frame so he may have to go a league down, but he could also make an impact

For wings Mabil is young enough, but goodwin leckie and perhaps even boyle might be overtaken. Kuol and irankunda are a real chance despite their youth. I'm expecting tilio to make the cut too at celtic, let's see though, hrustic if he returns could be useful too. I think I might actually have metcalf since both he and mcgree can play in the front three or in the mids

At centerforward we have a few players poke their noses through in europe and its difficult to predict who will do well. Iredale, Toure, borello and Yengi are all options. I'll go borello and Toure as the most likely

One thing that makes it hard to predict is how many players are moving on and how unpredictable it is which youth will kick on. I'm pencilling in

GKs:Gauci/AM
defenders: bos, farrel, souttar, rowles, burgess, circati, atkinson, millar
Mids: O'niell, Teague, volpato, mcgree, genreau, robertson
Forwards: Kuol, Mabil, Irankunda, Borello, Toure, metcalf

Good squad. Maybe Burgess over Stenes though. Stacked plenty in every position except striker - but if Kuol and Irankunda keep developing to full potential it shouldn’t really be so crucial 😆

I agree. I forgot about Burgess. Would swap Stenses with him in retrospect.

Agree on striker. As long as our attacking mid and wingers (Irankunda, Kuol, Volpato) hit potential then we just need a striker who can play target man well. Like Duke does now, but he’ll be too old.

Positive is that we just have such a high sheer amount of natural strikers coming through right now.

I can’t remember a time in our history that we had this many big, fast, physically imposing young prospects for #9 (Mo and Musa Toure, Yengi, Iredale, Alou Kuol, Botic and Waddingham). Hopefully one of them can fill that role and play target man to compliment our attacking mids/wingers.

Great analysis.

I’m suprirsed that people are writting off Matt Ryan though. Guy is a mentality beast and will only be 34 (still in prime for a GK).

Hard to judge with these things, I feel what's lacking for this generation to be the best it can be it needs with 3 key positions.

A goal keeper to replacing an ageing Mate Ryan, not many talented goal keepers coming through unlike plethora of outfield talents.

A specialist No.6, something we haven't develop enough is players capable of playing as a single pivot alot of teams here play 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 or similar variants of that which doesn't help develop a specialist position like a No.6.
We got of No.6s but when they play together as double pivots but not one where they can control the tempo of a game on its own like a Busquets or Rodri in terms of profile but of course in a local level.

And striker which has been an achilles for quite awhile, we got some interesting prospects coming through who have got promise so we will see how they eventuates in a national team fold.

Get those key positions right then it sets up for this young generation to set up its own tone for success in the future.

Surprised the lack of people picking Strain at RB. He'll be our RB for the next 7 years IMnsHO. Excellent player.

Maty will probably hang on for 2026 although I really rate Gauci. If/when he goes overseas he'll be putting a lot of pressure on MR - which he needs. Still annoyed Arnie didn't take Langerak to the last WC.

Souttar is first among equals for CB with Burgess probably just young enough to make 2026. Rowles and Circati in there also. I don't like Rowles at LB - too slow.

Arnie has typically gone 4231 but I wonder if he's trying to change to 433? If so, the wingbacks become more important - kinda playing a double role. It gets a lot more goal threats into the final third (which is why Ange likes it - although his shape transitions constantly, often moving to 4222, 424).

The goal threats going forward are becoming exciting. Lots of potential options and (in all likelihood), 2 or 3 we've not heard of yet by 2026.

I'm very happy to see Arzani is starting to look the goods again. Imagine a front 6 of:

Metcalfe/McGree/Arzani
Irankunda/Mo Toure/G Kuol

It probably needs a dedicated DM in there but it'd be fun to watch.

Oh yes thought ryan was 38 by 2026 for some reason

yes one of our best keepers of all time. It is his until someone takes it off him

The lack of 6's coming through might cause us to do something drastic and put one of our ball playing cbs at 6!

Bos indeed is playing a different spot each week for westerlo. If only Rowles could play rb or italiano break through for his bundesliga club!

We’ve got depth we never would’ve dreamed of 6-7 years ago. Nevertheless, No.6 looks like it might be a problem for us going forward. O’Neill and maybe Baccus are our best options, or a converted No.8.

So true. The amount of depth we have is unheard of. And probably some of those players will step up and exceed our expectations in their mid 20’s - like some inevitably do each generation i.e. Culina, Holman, Kruse, Jedinak, Mooy, Ogenovski etc.

So true. The amount of depth we have is unheard of. And probably some of those players will step up and exceed our expectations in their mid 20’s - like some inevitably do each generation i.e. Culina, Holman, Kruse, Jedinak, Mooy, Ogenovski etc.

So true. The amount of depth we have is unheard of. And probably some of those players will step up and exceed our expectations in their mid 20’s - like some inevitably do each generation i.e. Culina, Holman, Kruse, Jedinak, Mooy, Ogenovski etc.

We say this every year. We over hype a bunch of young players get part time minutes in obscure euro leagues and somehow think this will translate to long term success at the highest level. It was exactly the same in 2012 as it was in 2016, and again in 2020. And now we're repeating the same mantra in 2024. And will so again in 2028 and beyond. 

For me I will get perhaps a tad excited when we can field at least ONE player in the Premier League. As it stands we don't have a SINGLE player who is currnelty getting minutes in the top four.

Get a grip

It's all crap depth though. We've always had crap depth. What we have is a group of about 30 players who are all roughly equivalent in terms of ability. They are all playing at roughly the same level, and no one really stands out because no one IS a stand out. They are mostly average players who will be lucky to forge decent careers in the championship. Once we get a a few players in the top leagues, we won't look so fondly upon our amazing depth tearing it up in the SPL and Bundi 2.

I often argue the same thing you're saying here.

But right now we have a lot more players being overhyped.

Perhaphs. But it’s progress on the last decade.

I prefer get excited about the positive progress we’re making rather than get down about how much further we have to go.

Yep ive got to disagree with Roosty on this too, I watched the young talent from a decade ago and even though we had some very talented players as well the difference with this era is we got more depth of young talent coming through.
Depth is key when building a strong pool of players when making the national team strong.

These days young players are playing more in the a-league than ever before along with improved academies at a-league and NPL level, throw in a new immigrant wave of African descent players along with the emerge of 2nd or 3rd generation of Socceroos with their kids coming through such as Robertson's, Okon's of the world and also the much talked about curriculum implemented 10 to 12 years ago finally coming through too.

These things weren't there in the past generation but it doesn't mean we never developed good players we always have, we cant forget how much the landscape has changed overseas with a much more competitive talent pool from all over the world making it more harder for the Australian player to stand out in todays market too.

If we can export more whilst improving the landscape here we can improve further, whilst I say this Arnie mentions the reason Connor Metcalfe's improvement in Germany is simply by playing more football has made him a better player and again mentions this point about why we need to play more football and have longer seasons.
I remember the NSL era had a decent year round calendar where AIS graduates would play year round in the state league in the winter and national youth league in the summer so I think this helped their development alot.
Maybe an NSD could help here we will wait and see.

You have to remember that by 2026 we could possibly 10+ players playing in top 5 leagues. 

Irankunda, Circati, Volpato. I believe Bos and Robertson will be in the mix. Irvine and Metcalfe are close to promotion already. Believe Okon will be in the mix and a few others. We are super early in this development of these crop of players that once the players are at that level obviously selection will become more consistent, tighter and harder to get into to. All we have to do is wait. Technically it should be the best team we've ever had and the most players playing in Europe by then and at the point higher performers in the SPL, 2nd divisions and A-League won't be as necessary 

Such a straw man argument considering the question is about 2026. With these questions you need to make predictions. 

Another illustration to show the improvement of our youth hype train standards:

Tommy Oar was once our most promising young player in the A-League (by a distance) and was frequently compared to Harry Kewell. What did he do to earn that hype?
2 goals and 23 caps in the A-League (which was worse quality back then).

Right now, that would place him about 15th in achivement for a player of around that age. It’s just not stand out anymore despite the league being at a better standard. Half the Adelaide youth players have achieved more than that at a similar age.
We’re no longer so desperate for high potential youth players that we overhype nothing achievmenets like that so much.

Tommy Oar is just the one that popped into my head. But I’m pretty sure there’s much weaker examples like Pasquali, Da Silva, Antonis, Babalj, Amini, Bulut, Teeboy Kamara etc.
At least the hyped talents now aren’t just 80th minute subs and have incredible goal + assist rates per 90. Irankunda, Garang Kuol and Tilio’s numbers are some of the best in the league despite their age.



Great points. Wasn't aware of Grahams comments about the reason for Metcalfe’s improvement.

with the magic round and the expansion to 16 teams we should have a 31 round season soon which isn't terrible. The nst should make cup games longer

I wonder if there is any movement to make npl seasons 30+ games a year. They seem quite short and are at a crucial stage of development

GK
Ryan
Thomas
Gauci
Izzo
Maynard-Brewer
Glover

CB
Souttar
Burgess
Circati
Rowles
Triantis
Rich Baghelou

RB
Strain
Miller
Atkinson
Rawlins
Russell
…

LB
Bos
Behich
Farrell
Gersbach
Elder
…

DM
Baccus
Oneill
Devlin
Teague
Yull
…

CM
Irvine
Luongo
Robertson
Yazbek
Genreau
…

AM
Metcalfe
Mcgree
Hrustic
Volpato
Segecic
…

RW
Boyle
Leckie
Irankunda
Kuol
Arzani
Vellupilay

LW
Goodwin
Silvera
Tilio
Mabil
Borges Rodrigues
…

S
Duke
Borello
Maclaren
Yengi
Toure
…



…Still thinking

I'm resigned to the fact Iredale will be Elder 2.0.

I saw enough. I don't want Stenseness anywhere near the national team.

I'm not thinking that far ahead - except for competition hardness. I want a youngish team at the Asian Cup and then of course at the Olympics. I won't include Volpato at this stage for the Asian Cup (unless he makes a point of committing to the Socceroos) but would consider him subsequently for both the Socceroos and Olyroos. The Japanese always treat this tournament as important to the development for the following World Cup and I think we should be doing the same. We need our younger players exposed in meaningful tournaments. My Asian Cup squad would still have  a decent sprinkling of experience  but with a definite eye to the future.

Ryan, Maynard-Brewer, Gauci, Bos, Farrell, Rowles, Souttar, Circati, Triantis, Miller, Strain, Irvine, Baccus, O'Neill, Metcalfe, McGree, Arzani, Silvera, Duke, Kuol, Borello, Irakunda & Boyle

As for the Olympics I don't want to see any overage players. The young players need to be tournament hardened 

FWIW
Greece beat NZ 2-0 in a non-competitive match overnight.

Starting XI

Ryan
Strain Souttar Circati Bos
Baccus
Robertson Yull
Tilio Mo Toure Irankunda

Second XI

Gauci
Miller Triantis Rowles Goodwin
Stensness
Metcalfe McGree
G Kuol Botic Silvera

I know Goodwin playing at LN seems weird but I think him playing there in a few years time will extend his career. His delivery is arguably world class and we won’t need as much pace to play as a full back.