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Ange Postecoglu released the 23-man Socceroos roster this week and, alongside the out-of-contract Robbie Kruse and professional pine-warmer Brad Smith, the squad is dotted with some Australian players who are coming off their best ever seasons.
In fact this season might be the best collective effort ever seen by a group of Euro-based Aussie footballers.
Firstly and most spectacularly is Tom Rogic, who completed a truly invincible season with Celtic as a prominent part of a team that under Brendan Rodgers went undefeated in all competitions, a run crowned and gilded by a stunning Scottish Cup victory in which Rogic scored the winner.
Rogic is by some distance the best player to have emerged from the Nike Football Academy and if he isn’t Australia’s most talented attacker, he’s certainly our most technically proficient.
Here he is scoring a hat-trick for the Futsalroos in 2010. Is it any wonder a footballer with a high-level futsal background has evolved into our most skilled player? Anyone even vaguely versed in the rite-of-passage position the indoor version of the beautiful game holds in Brazil will be utterly unsurprised by this, and it’s a great mystery that futsal isn’t a more central part of our football rearing program.
We might end up with fewer Matt Leckies, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if we end up with more players like Rogic.
When Rogic scored that late, grand winner, he tore away, tugging at his shirt in pure ecstasy. Celtic have been rather patient with Rogic, who for all his obvious and abundant talent hasn’t been the most durable player. The goal that sealed a season treble, was his – and their – reward.
Second on the list of fine 2016-17 seasons – but absent from the latest national team sheet – is Brad Jones. Having spent the last few years permanently fixed to the Liverpool bench, Jones moved to Feyenoord in The Netherlands, where he was ever-present for them as they won their first Eredivisie title for 18 years.
It was a glorious cocktail of old and new that dragged the Rotterdam club to the championship, with veteran Dirk Kuyt spearheading a team stewarded by ex-Feyenoord and Barca and Arsenal star Gio van Bronckhorst in just his second year in management.
Jones kept 17 clean sheets – good enough for best in the division – and missed just two league games all season. He extended his contract with the Dutch club last month and in doing so also prolonged what has suddenly become a glittering career swansong. Postecoglu picked Mat Ryan, Mitch Langerak and Danny Vukovic ahead of Jones, all understandable choices.
Aaron Mooy, in his maiden European season no less, seized promotion to the Premier League with Huddersfield Town. He has been one of the Terriers’ best players all season, making the second-most key and total passes in the Championship as well as winning more tackles than any other midfielder in the division.
It took a tenterhooks penalty shoot-out to beat Reading in the play-off final – the tension was too much even for Starship Captain Picard to handle – and Mooy slotted his spot kick home with aplomb. As if winning the most lucrative match in world football wasn’t enough, Mooy capped this season with a fine individual bauble, being named in the Championship best XI as well.
On loan from Manchester City, Mooy has done literally everything he can to stake a claim for at the very least a bench spot at City, but even if he can’t force his way into first-team thinking in Manchester, there are already a hoard of other Premier League clubs lining up to sign him based purely on his excellent 2016/17 season. Huddersfield are of course one of those clubs, and it would be lovely to see him to propel them to further success in the top flight.
(Image: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Last is Jackson Irvine, and though he is also least in terms of team success, he has nonetheless carved out a fine individual 2016-17 season at Burton Albion. Although Burton finished a disappointing 20th, dodging relegation by a single point, Irvine was awarded the club’s player of the year honour following a hugely impressive and productive season.
Only nine other midfielders in the league scored more than his nine goals, and he led his team in this regard, with his tally nearly double that of the next highest Burton scorer. At 24, he was a strong, steady presence in the Burton midfield, inside the top 15 for both tackles and aerial duels won among Championship midfielders.
He garnished this fine club turn with a stellar shift for the Roos in their 2017 World Cup qualifiers, scoring his first international goal in March in a crucial victory over the UAE. He offers everything a team could ask of a modern, athletic all-action midfielder, and his Lampard-esque penchant for scoring goals is just a precious bonus.
One struggles to recall a season as filled with glory for our Aussies abroad as this one has been. What looms now is a cut-throat World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia as well as what ought to be a hugely entertaining Confederations Cup campaign kicking off against Germany on 19 June.
Mooy, Rogic and Irvine have all strode with purpose through their club seasons with a winning gait about them, all enjoying the best period of their footballing careers. Let’s hope they carry it into the national team.