Eyebrows raised over the signing of Brazilian trialist Henrique Andrade Silva for Queensland’s A-League finals campaign have not fazed unrepentant Roar coach Frank Farina.
Central Coast mentor Lawrie McKinna hardly masked his disappointment over Farina’s tactics after Silva came off the bench late in the Roar’s 2-1 minor semi-final second leg win over the Mariners on Friday night.
And he believed a deadline should be set in place by Football Federation Australia (FFA) to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
But after savouring a victory that sealed Queensland’s second preliminary final appearance in as many seasons, Farina made no apologies.
“We played by the rules, that’s governed by the FFA, and the FFA said that it’s all okay,” he said.
“And ours is legitimate. We’ve got (Josh) McCloughan out for the rest of the season, Reinaldo out for the season – it’s not as if we have tried to pull a swifty.
“And Tahj Minniecon could be out as well. We will need the backup.”
Indeed Farina faced an injury crisis with McCloughan (groin) out of the finals series and Minniecon (hip) “no guarantee” of proving his fitness for the preliminary final showdown.
But McKinna seemed to need more convincing.
“It seems strange that you can strengthen your team for the finals series,” he said.
“Maybe I’m old fashioned … but I don’t think you should be strengthening your squad for the finals – simple as that.
“I think it was a big surprise to a lot of people.
“But that’s the rules. If you can exploit it and get away with it well …”
McKinna conceded that Silva’s injection in the 76th minute had little effect on the result – the Roar were already up 2-1 by that stage.
However, he was adamant that the practice should be stamped out.
“It was not like him coming on cost us, but I think the players who went through the season should be the ones in the finals series,” he said.
“I think there should be something where a player can’t get signed after a certain date.
“There should be a deadline. But that’s just my opinion.”
Farina surprisingly injected Silva onto the bench for Friday night’s crunch clash despite the Brazilian only recently arriving for an A-League trial.
Farina clearly liked what he saw – he signed the 23-year-old on a short term deal as an injury replacement for Reinaldo (osteitis pubis) after receiving a last minute clearance from his South American club America Miniero.
Silva got a not so subtle welcome to the A-League when he finally got on the field – he was on the wrong end of an 88th minute high tackle from Dean Heffernan that earned the Mariner a yellow card.
The diminutive livewire still showed enough to encourage Farina.
“He’s still not as fit as the other guys but he’s sharp enough,” Farina said.
“I liked the look of him when we saw him last week. I think he can do really well.”
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Towser said | February 16th 2009 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Admittedly its hard to make an informed judgement after only a short time on the park, but Henrique made a couple of runs into space that lead me to believe that this guy can read the game well. If either one of the passes had been better they could have put him through on goal.
Laine whats this article about? The FFA allows this so whats the issue here. Whether its morally right?
Pippinu said | February 16th 2009 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
Towser
Is it a case of the FFA allowing it, or just being silent on it?
This case, and the Rostyn Griffiths case, are small examples of what could happen in the future – for the moment, neither of these two blokes is going to swing the championship one way or the other – but that might be a different story in the future.
As the rule currently stands, a team can have a 18 year old player out injured, and despite the fact that he may have only made one apearance off the bench for the whole season, they could bring in anyone at any price as a replacement (and thereby getting around the salary cap, and other rules for that matter).
So this is my problem with it:
1. Either have a salary cap or piss it off (because clubs like GCU will definitely be lining up to exploit a loophole like that);
2. there seems to be no recognition of registration periods – it’s hard to believe that a player can land out of the blue on the eve of the finals (which actually determines the championship); and
3. I thought the youth league was meant to circumvent the need to to look for additional players at crucial moments.
So yes, there’s the moral matter – but it’s more what this might mean in the future – that’s my main issue with it.
I will be happy when MV wins the championship not having to rely on last minute ring ins.
Towser said | February 16th 2009 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
Pippinu said
Towser
“Is it a case of the FFA allowing it, or just being silent on it?”
I’m presuming from all I’ve read that they allow it,but I have never seen an article which is directly quoting the FFA allowing it as one of their rules.
.
Personally i cant see that its an issue unless you bring in a player of Messi’s quality . Mortal players dont have the abillity to step straight into any team & make an impact. All I saw from Henriques was potential for next season. Also Rostyn Griffiths for AU.
Re GCU . This club mean business & have the money to back them up as you know. Saw on TWG that they have hired ex Sth Melbourne & somewhat notorious character Con Boutsianis as their free kick specialist coach.
dasilva said | February 16th 2009 @ 1:45pm | Report comment
This is very simple issue to resolve
Maximum wage of the replacement player should be equal to the wage the injured player is getting.
Therefore no salary cap loophole.
Pip
Youth league is there to develop players. However if they are not to required standards then I don’t see why clubs are obliged to use them and get replacement players for injured players who are higher quality then them.
Pippinu said | February 16th 2009 @ 2:34pm | Report comment
Towser
I know GCU means business! This is what concerns me about the current rules, it is rife for exploiting (I agree it would take more than a Blackburn reserves player to exploit it fully).
Das
The part of this issue is that generally there are periods open within which you register players – and then after that deadline, you play with what you have.
Clearly, we don’t do that in the A-League, otherwise no one would be allowed in during the finals regardless of the reason (and then you would make do with what you have, including the Youth team).