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The Brisbane Roar, who have suffered under their fiscally unreliable owners the Bakrie Group for some years now, are currently thrashing out contract re-negotiations with their star striker Jamie Maclaren.
Maclaren, last season’s second-highest scorer, has knocked back the club’s latest offer, with the rejection coming as something of a winding body blow delivered publicly to the Roar. Grimacing, trying to suck in air without too many people noticing, the Roar are in a vulnerable place.
The Brisbane club aren’t holding the strongest negotiating position. Maclaren is, at 23, already one of the league’s most impressive goalscorers, and – without even considering the sort of gilded allure clubs in Asia or the Middle East might hold – there are several rival A-League outfits who would be extremely interested in paying Maclaren a handsome sum to play for them.
It must be difficult for the Roar to act with any authority in financial negotiations, when the club has had to reassure their employees that they would, in fact, pay them, on two separate occasions over the last two years. But further undermining these immediate talks with Maclaren is the fact that Brisbane’s two salary cap exemption slots are already filled by two of their longest serving players: Thomas Broich and Matt McKay.
That Broich should take one of these prized marquee spots cannot be questioned; he is, and has been for the last five years, one of the A-League’s most sumptuous talents, a potent, upright figure around whom the Brisbane attack is based. He has won the Johnny Warren Medal twice, and at 35, remains a conspicuous threat.
Matt McKay, the other marquee, is a less visible candidate. What McKay does, and the ferreting utility energy he provides, is more easily overlooked than Broich’s flicks and free kicks. His value, however, has not been under-appreciated by the club.
McKay has filled one of the two marquee spots for the last four years in Brisbane, and is something of a beloved figure, having made significantly more appearances for them than any other player.
His contract is up at the end of the season, and Tommy Oar and Brett Holman are due to take over his and Broich’s roles as club marquees. It seems unlikely, however, that McKay will depart the Roar, even if that means resigning on at a reduced wage. In October, McKay said this:
“If and when it comes to the time that the club want to speak to me, then they talk to me and I’m comfortable with that.
“I don’t worry about marquee (status).
“We’ve got a great team here and whoever’s marquee is marquee.”
So, in the midst of all this shuffling, with contracts ending and marquee slots being passed from player to player, it seems the Roar have erred badly in not rewarding their leading scorer.
If a contract extension had been organised with Maclaren before this point, things would appear much more breezy for manager John Aloisi and Football Director Craig Moore. In February 2016, Tommy Oar was signed, and was presumably promised a salary cap exemption slot. The same thing happened in September with Brett Holman. A
ll the while, Maclaren was the club’s most valuable asset, and may well have felt a little neglected, having just had a career-best season. As it stands, Tommy Oar might well be playing elsewhere next season, with various reports mooting that the winger is a target of a number of Chinese clubs. But until any such move occurs, the club must restrict any offer they make to Maclaren to lie within salary cap strictures.
Maclaren’s agent described Brisbane’s opening offer to his client as “disgusting”, and with little wiggle room available, perhaps the Roar might only mildly nauseate the Maclaren party with their next proposal.
The Roar played the Western Sydney Wanderers last night, and Maclaren, McKay and Broich all started the match. Typically, McKay buzzed around the pitch, filling in for wandering fullbacks, seen pressing opposition centre backs one moment, and making penalty spot clearances from inside his own box the next.
Broich drolly wafted, the shaggy jazz uncle of the A-League, prompting oohs around Spotless Stadium with an exquisite flick pressed up against the touchline, although not making much of a tangible impression on the contest. Maclaren won and dispatched a first half penalty, and was a snorting bundle of constant running and shooting.
One of these players earned his team a point from a match which, at times, was coloured by huge swathes of Wanderers possession. One of these players is in his early 20s, not his mid 30s. Perhaps it’s that player that should have been promised one of next season’s marquee slots, not the substituted Holman, or the substitute Oar.
Aloisi, perhaps sensing things to come, has publicly expressed the opinion that if Maclaren wants to chase a bumper new contract, he should look abroad. Coated by the patina of good intentions for his star ward, this statement might also be interpreted as Aloisi trying surreptitiously to make sure that his team’s direct rivals aren’t strengthened as his team is weakened.
The Wanderers – as well-taken and crafted as Jumpei Kusukami’s goal was – laboured through extended stretches of inconsequential possession. Most A-League supporters – keeping in mind that Kerem Bulut fruitlessly led the line again last night – would name them as the team most in need of a cutting edge. They have a spare marquee slot to fill.
With their leading scorer’s contract coming to an end, a striker who only stands to improve as he skips into his athletic prime, the blame for allowing the situation to morph into the current quagmire must be shouldered squarely by the Roar. This overt saga is being played out for all to titter at, soundbite tennis being pinged back and forth. Brisbane will be weaker without Maclaren, and it may well end up being a rival that he strengthens.