moops

Such a good chance, Macca did really well there to pinch the ball and cut back These commentators have less life in them than my socks after a 12 hr shift.

Sakhi looked good on debut.

1-0 up, nice goal from Ugarkivoc, but it will be given to Jakolis I think with the deflection.

If we get flogged by Roar I'll be very worried, Mariners not so much. They look to have picked up where they left off and recruited well. They'll be our main competitors this season.

Got me on that one, lol.

Advanced hair, yeah, yeah!

Ah ok, I don't think he fit in sadly for Galloway, he has the talent. Yeah, it's not just his pace but his reactions as well, he seems to like the longball frustratingly as well more than not. Forgot about Aziz, so we'll probably not see the Talbot Hall thing again, I expect will Aziz start.

Forgot all about this game, I just watched the replay and this is my take in no particular order, just as my thoughts come to me. Nuno has really declined, which is disappointing and will be the whipping boy this season again. Hopefully Souprayen will fill that void. Lopane looks like a DM playing the 8, Ugarkovic looks like an 8 playing the 6 and they should switch, Ugarkovic was one of the better players in the match but made some pretty poor defending errors. Arslan looks great. Jacko looks ok, did some nice things but his teammates don't understand him yet and weren't there at times to take advantage, he also needs to get used to the physicality of the league. Hall and Talbot did alright, it may take a whole season to get them used to their new positions, Talbot probably quicker. Hall was alright, but no where going forward except for the second pen, that will be his biggest thing to learn if we are going to persist. I'm not against it, but I have to wonder about Galloway, is he not liked in the dressing room or something? Caputo looked ok and put himself about more than Macca, though those balls across the goal mouth would have been pounced on by Macca if he was still on the ground I feel. He had a bad miss, I reckon he was trying to curl it over the defenders leg, but didn't put any spin on the ball that he would have liked to make it dip enough, hitting it with the inside of his foot I'm sure that's what he was trying. Antonis looked good, would be a real game changer coming off the bench, able to play in the midfield or either wing, could be a good option to start but he had limited time. All our other players looked like they had just had 4 months off and pretty rusty, a bit more game time and they should be alright. We are still missing a creative force in the middle as good as Arslan looked, but he's not that type of player, could it be Ugarkovic or Antonis?

The thing is that a club is much more than players, it's coaches, support staff, youth set up, travel expenses etc. A club like CCM couldn't invest in youth and play most of them because of the spend, they had to rely on sponsors and the good will of their owner, but that would have been gobbled up by other expenses, as the player wages took most of the TV money. Other clubs were paying over inflated wages to players just to pad out the spend, see Hoffman as an example when he was with us. It's also ironic that the minimal wage wasn't risen and stayed around 40k, they could have risen that and just let the market decide what to pay the other players. It's why we see the same journeymen in our league, clubs aren't encouraged to play youth or a NPL prospect because clubs don't want to spend overs on prospects to make the spend. It left clubs walking a tight rope just to survive and the goodwill of the owners.

https://pfa.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Attachment-1-FACTS_BOOK.pdf Because the business couldn't contril their supply costs, it was mandated to them what that would be, the minimal spend was nearly all the TV money.

The PFA is to blame, they got to greedy and didn't care about the game as a whole, leaving most clubs running on the smell of an oily rag. The league was in a good place at one stage, there's been a culmination of things that have contributed, but the PFA has been the most destructive imho.

Tilio apparently injured, it's why he hasn't featured in any pre-season games.

Looks alright, I know nothing about him so can't say one way or the other. I've seen a few overseas games lately and we complain about crowds, our crowds are pretty good compared to some, just look at this clip.

He did pretty well, him and the other winger were the only ones to really offer a threat and it was his cross that got the goal.

Caputo played as a false 9 type of player in the national team, he carried the ball well and could stick a pass, I think he could do the VDV role pretty well, he won't get much of a chance as striker while Jamie is here. Oh definitely, especially with 4M in the kitty, I thought it was 3, but 5 gives us a lot of scope.

Have we signed Souprayen yet? I thought we had, anyway I'd have him for Nuno, and Nuno could be a versatile sub. You know my thoughts on Ugarkovic and Arslan, but I have nothing to base it on really, so you're probably on the money. I just think it's important for that DM to be able to read the game, O'Neil showed us how important that is and Arslan with the added experience could be good, he also wouldn't have to run around as much playing that role. bench - I think Caputo for a midfield role, the attacking one and I'll say Zane as either winger for our youth projects. I was pretty impressed with Caputo in the youth national team but I haven't followed our youth team at all, so I don't have any idea about those players. Do you?

I don't really know anything about Arslan tbh, But going by his transfermarkt he has played CD, DM, MC so that's my reasoning behind it. So if either of you have seen him play, you know a lot more about him than I do. I'd be really interested in how you both think we'll line up with the squad we have at the moment.

You could be right, we will see when the longest off season in the world ends and the season starts.

Bailey is off to Singapore. I wouldn't be surprised if Rogic retires. Karacic would be an amazing signing, would he come here, or try to get a contract in Europe? The others are interesting and are possibilities, nice thinking out of the box.

I actually think Ugarkovic would be a good replacement for Berisha, he's not really the best defensively, but does that middle role pretty well. I have a good feeling about Arslan, no real reason other than his pedigree, if he's good enough he's old enough and that applies to the oldies as well. I think he will be the O'Neil replacement, but we will have to wait and see.

I could see maybe 2 more signings, another foreigner and an Aussie from somewhere and I can see us promoting a couple of youngens to take a bit more of a role and being nurtured and introduced like Tilio was when he came in. Caputo for sure who looks quite good to me and someone else, maybe someone can make a suggestion or one of the new signings, but we need a bit of an injection of youth or we will be dads army come the start of the season.

yeah I just found the story 😪

I was going to say we should sign Angus Thurgate, but just saw he has signed for WU, really bummed by that.

Young has been the best keeper in the league for years, leads from the back and seems to like metel music, pretty happy tbh. Antonis had a falling out, but has been at some good clubs so he has talent, maybe we can rekindle some passion again and have him firing. Probably cheap and a 50/50 gamble as to what we will get, but if it goes well it will be a great signing. Ugarkovic is not a bad pick up, we could do a lot worse, he had a purple patch with the jets that year Riley was there and has kind of dropped off a bit, hopefully he can perform for us, our system of play probably suits him. At 28 there's probably not much growth there, he is the finished product. I'm pretty happy with the foreign signings, don't know much about them, but on paper they seem to be great gets.

It's certainly going to be a totally different City, there's no way to predict how we will go, but overall I'm happy with what has happened so far.