Jacques Le Cube

We look like browns cows out there. It looks like we have changed to a back 4 with deng at right back, pierias pushed up to the wing and tilio at 10. none of it is working, holes everywhere

Every time I have seen the visitors play this year they have been woeful. They leave so much space in the middle of the park for the opposition to play. I was really worried that they would rally for this game and turn it into a shit fight (being a derby and they have a lot of players who like a scrap). So they have now lost 2 Melbourne derbies in 2 weeks and have their old rivals Adelaide next weekend! Shit time to be a visitor fan!

Brisbane are 4-1 up after 35min against Victory. The visitors are so disorganised it is ridiculous

The kid just needs a chance. He is so much fun to watch

I think its different for every player. A lot of our best players left Australia as teenagers without playing any senior Aleague/NSL football: Kewell, Cahill, Moore, Skoko, Neill, etc. many others left for Europe after only playing 1 season and not establishing themselves. I think he was ready to move to Europe, he was taking the piss in the A League. He was on another level completely - He made his contemporaries like McGree look ordinary. And at the WC he clearly outperformed Kruse, Rogic and Leckie. The poor guy lost almost 2 full seasons to injury at Celtic. At Utrecht he is completing for a first team place with Eljero Elia and they had a coaching change in November. Utrecht was an odd choice of club because they traditionally play a disciplined, physical, blue-collar style of football. I doubt City currently care about his development since he will probably move for a free when his contract expires in June. If he stays injury free he will have an impact in Europe and for the Socceroos. He can do things on the field that no other Australian has been able to do for a long, long time.

Jeez that's an ordinary looking starting lineup for Brisbane. DWH in midfield!? McDonald could be dangerous though.

Like a 7-8 year old kid would care where their team trains. If where a team trains has such an significant affect on the local population and a clubs identity/supporter base, why don't we have tens of thousands of fans based in and around Bundoora? The club has been based there continuously for over a decade now.

Good player. I am surprised that he chose to stay in the A League. He has already proven himself to be one of the better local players in the League and has several years of first team football under his belt. I thought he would test himself at a higher level.

Petrillo was interviewed Tuesday morning on SEN. Its worth a listen to hear how it unfolded. City had accommodation and a training and a training base organised in Canberra. All 3 Vic teams were due to fly out Tuesday morning but the FFA brought it forward to Monday evening to try to beat the border closure. https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=691509 I have a bit of sympathy for the FFA on this one. The other codes managed not to mess up but the other codes don't have 70% of staff currently stood down. It appears in the AFL and NRL that the clubs were more responsible for getting themselves out of Melbourne whereas the FFA seemed to do everything.

A good deal? TV revenue has dropped 81% from $171m to $32m. Also keep in mind there is a new team and an extra 27 games next season. As was reported, Fox wanted to reduce the $57m x 3 years to $11m x 3 years. At $32m, Fox are now paying exactly what they wanted in their initial low-ball offer and have engineered a face saving exit. Also, in shortening the contract length by 2 years Fox have saved ~$13m in production costs. (It costs Fox $40k to produce a game). But you wouldn't know it from the reporting of the new TV deal. Instead we get the headline: "A-League set for winter switch after securing new Fox Sports deal" Of course, the winter switch is not confirmed. It MAY happen, but there is no commitment. But that hasn't stopped Johnson from spruiking its potential: "The deal will see the professional game – for women and men – reactivated, and ensures that football is at the heart of all our thinking in the future" "The shift in the timing of the next A-League season is a strategic decision to enhance the alignment of our top tier professional men’s league " "better aligning the competition pyramid of Australian football to facilitate enhanced football outcomes" Just more jargon and spin to distract from the $139m the game has now lost.

TTIM: The prevailing attitude within the football community that Streaming/P&R/National 2nd Division/Allowing A League transfers will fix football in this country when none of it will solve the fundamental problems. The Socceroos and A League have lost naming rights sponsors, A League clubs are losing millions, 70% of FFA staff have been stood down, we have no TV deal for a comp that starts in under a month and its all happening against the backdrop of a looming recession. Not to mention the dodgy new expansion teams who are hemorrhaging staff and are both being sued by former employees. This is a Doomsday scenario playing out before us. You would there would be more written about this but half the football media in this Country have lost their jobs. And when someone does write about it (ie Lucy Zelic last Friday), the FFA release several stories talking about how they are open to, yes you guessed it, Streaming/P&R/National 2nd Division/Allowing A League transfers. And somehow it manages to distract the masses with its management jargon and lack of commitment to anything. Lucy's article Re the foxtel standoff (12th of June): https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/what-is-our-game-worth-the-bitter-stand-off-between-foxtel-and-ffa-heats-up Nikou open to 2nd Div (12th of June) https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/second-division-still-our-ambition-says-ffa-chairman-nikou Johnson open to domestic transfers (14th of June) https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-keen-to-establish-domestic-player-transfer-system-20200613-p55297.html

Visitors have announced the start of a search for a new coach. Last week on the 442 forum there was a rumour circulating that JA already has the job

If Simon Cox doesn't fire, the Wanderers are in a world of pain. Still relying on Yeboah and Duke to score. Their best academy products are playing at other clubs (Devlin, Silvera). Also, Babel said at the start of the season that Baccus is their only young player with talent. He wasn't excited by any players in the youth team.

Come on Mariners!

It is all very amusing to watch this unfold. I wonder if the Visitors hierarchy are surprised that removing Kurz didn't instantly make Kamsoba and Athiu competent A-League level players. I also wonder when the heat will come on Paul Trimboli for signing so many below standard players to multi year deals.

Ladder 1) Sydney 2) Perth 3) Visitors 4) City 5)WSW 6)Western United 7) Adelaide 8 ) CCM 9) Brisbane 10) Newcastle 11) Phoenix Champion: Sydney Golden Boot: Bruno Fornaroli First coach to be sacked: Merrick Bold prediction: The new, skillful generation of young local players like Metcalfe, McGree, Pasquali, Silvera etc will take the league by storm and make the previous generation of local players look very ordinary. It will end the merry-go-round of mediocre players who keep getting opportunities from conservative clubs unwilling to take a punt on talented youth and NPL players. City season: Score more, concede a few more. Noone will do well, Bart will be missed

It drives me nuts too but I don't believe it due to the model of the A-League, I think its the majority of blame lies with the clubs. Constantly changing owners, football philosophies and coaches because they don't know what they want to be. I could use any club as an example but I will use Adelaide. They spent 4 years under ex-Barcelona coaches, implementing a distinct style of play and philosophy and won all 3 domestic trophies. Then they changed tack completely and appointed Kurz who turned them in to a super disciplined counter attacking team that gave limited opportunities to youngsters. Then ownership changed (now 75% Dutch and 25% Chinese owned) and the new chairman , Piet Van de Pol, has appointed a fellow Dutchman and aims to turn the club into a developer of youth. WSW pulled the same shit, trying to replace Popovic with Gombau (whose philosophies and football are polar opposites) and we've seen it with JVS replaced by Joyce replaced by Mombaerts. Every new coach sees the game differently and rebuilds the squad with players capable of playing their style of football. I argue its the high turnover in A-League coaches that leads to the high turnover of A-league players.

Kurz won the 2. Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern. The following season he guided them to 7th in the Bundesliga. That's a massive achievement. Kaiserslautern has only been in the Bundesliga for 2 of the last 12 seasons (both with Kurz in charge) and are now in the German 3rd division. I would guess Kurz, A. Vidmar, Kisnorbo and maybe Scott Miller.

That would be some very interesting data. Amongst others Broich, Berisha, isaias, carrusca, adlung, bort, buijs, Fred, Hernandez, Keogh, Brandan, bonevacia, Cassio, Kurto, Henrique, Flores, van Dijk, Novillo and Germano all joined the league in their 20s.

I don’t mind the theory, but Harrison is not one of “Europe’s budding stars”. I wouldn’t even call him a talented youngster. McGree, Wales, Atkinson, Genreau and Pierias are all younger than Harrison and I believe are they are already better footballers. There is no point to signing visa players who are inferior to local players.

It wouldn't surprise me at all. In every dispute between Joyce and the players and between Joyce and the assistant coaches, CFG (most likely Marwood) has backed Joyce. What is the point of CFG backing Joyce so strongly for 2 years if they don't believe he is the coach to take the team forward?

Pre game: Kick off: there is no way that there was 4,950 in attendance. Maybe not even half that.

Neil Kilkenny only having 14 caps for Australia. Especially when compared to his (far inferior) contemporaries like Carl Valeri (52 caps) Matt McKay (59 caps) or even James Holland (15 caps).

Maybe @Heart of Melbourne can:

Or you could look at it another way: if it wasn’t for Joyce, we could have had a front 3 of Brandan/Bruno/ Arzani last season. With Kilkenny in the middle and Cahill coming off the bench. Oh what should’ve been.