Blackout

Cahill played Under 20's for Samoa... We still managed to give him a few runs for Australia.

Wow, you're like a rabid dog as soon as anyone implies that Joyce may actually have flaws.

I have always wondered why the 'Loyalty Allowance' couldn't see a more immediate application. Something like an exponential increase, so that players have: 5% of their salary outside their cap in their second year 10% in their third year 20% in their fourth year, and so forth. With the money we're talking about in the A-League, this money is not likely to be monstrous. Given the small wage pool we are working with, once a player has established themselves in the A-League they're likely fielding offers from rivals for fractionally higher wages which can be hard to refuse when their current club cannot match due to cap constraints. In conjunction with the 'no transfer fees' rule, there is no reward for a player's current team for either developing or recruiting players into the league.

It was always an unusual decision in my opinion. I opened this thread wondering whether the newest post would be something to this effect. I wonder what the implication will be with the vacant national team job.

Don't ever change...

A fairly apt analogy. I tend to agree for the most part; except this is more like having a daughter who is 35 and has a curfew.

To be fair, it would probably propel him into a FIFA executive position.

If he does, Aloisi has the perfect man for his Mifsud-ball tactics.

I still can't believe that his appointment was so widely accepted, with only a few dissenting voices.

To be fair, Bouzanis doesn't really seem to be the most humble of people.

I don't know how I will feel when the A-League consists solely of subsidiaries though, a la Melbourne City, Melbourne Arsenal, Central Coast Celtic, Red Bull Brisbane, Ajax Adelaide etc.

That would be an experiment I would love to see.

Weren't Sydney FC up in arms about the decision to host the last year's game at AAMI? Something about them drawing a bigger crowd?

*deleted*

I just had a horrible thought that Kevin Muscat could conceivably be coaching our national team in the near future. *shudder*

So Ange has officially resigned as the national coach. Where do we go from here?

Does that policy extend to our forwards butchering a plethora of gilt-edged chances at the other end? Or does this only count when we need a pariah?

A World Cup game against England. Oh boy. If, by some chance we beat them, I would spend the following week hitting F5 on the British tabloid websites.

The selection of Marsh (34 years old) is amazing, considering they deemed the best domestic batsman of the last two seasons was unselectable at 35 years of age (Cowan). Oh well, I'm just happy they have abandoned the pursuit of half-baked all-rounders at number 6.

I'm most happy about Aaron Mooy getting a chance to play at a big international stage after missing the Asian Cup. Genuinely stoked for him. Also the rest of the country... but mostly Mooy, our beautiful, bald man.

... and we're on.

I don't understand why people use them. They're basically a counter to any atmosphere.

Pretty well where I stand. Having a token Kiwi team is never going to last long-term, who are the fans actually going to want to beat each season? Although it's going to be hard to replicate the ferocity and passion of the 'distance derby'...

I will be really disappointed if there is any booing if he gets on the park against us at AAMI future. I am sure that there won't be... but I also didn't think people would jeer Retre when he took the field on Friday.

For what it's worth. He made the BBC's team of the week.