We qualified undefeated and top of the group through Asia. The rankings become a little bit meaningless and there will be plenty of national teams who would claim to be better than us who won’t get to SA 2010.

I don’t think the current Socceroos would beat Uruguay to qualify for a World Cup and New Zealand set to join us if they beat Bahrain.

The WC passage through Asia is the blessing the FFA needed to help continue to grow the game here.

Two things that impressed me about the Ireland game- Williams looked good at right back, and Wilkshire was strong as a holding midfielder, doing Cullina’s job. Couldn’t that be a permanent move? It’d certainly inject a bit of pace and freshness about the team.

If we are considering shake-ups, if is possible for Kewell to play striker and Chipperfield to play left wing? Australia doesn’t have that many top quality options in every position, but that has always been the case, and what Guus did pretty well was trying out different combinations and not letting anyone get too comfortable. Maybe it’s time to try things.