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The last few champion A-League teams – Sydney last season, Adelaide the season before, the great Victory and Brisbane teams – have all had at their creative hearts a foreign playmaker.
Milos Ninkovic, Marcelo Carrusca or Isaias, Gui Finkler, or Thomas Broich; more often than not, the sources of incision, of invention, dotted over the pointy end of the starting XI tend to be foreign, often foreign marquees.
This is not a rant against their being there, or their being so important; these imports have enriched the league – especially long-term imports like Broich or Carrusca – and elevated it as a result.
No, this introduction is simply here to highlight the contrast present in the current goings-on at Melbourne City, where a stockpiling of Australian attacking talent is currently occurring.
Having seen Nicholas Colazo depart, as well as Fernando Brandan keel over with a serious knee injury in March – the latter was more often a substitute last season, in any case – there has been a clear manoeuvre by City towards Australian attackers. Yes, Bruno Fornaroli – still one of the league’s best strikers – remains a central part of the City attack, but around him is a growing creative support network of Australian players.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Tim Cahill and Bruce Kamau were primary tenets of the City attack last season, along with Luke Brattan behind them. Brattan has since – technically – become a Manchester City player again, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him being re-farmed back out to the Melbourne franchise for the 2017-18 season.
Nick Fitzgerald made some stellar cameos toward the end of the season, and Anthony Caceres – another on loan from Manchester City – also stepped out off the bench.
This season, all these players may well be involved again; this alone would be commendable enough, but City are also looking to add further local talent to the ranks.
Stefan Mauk, an underused asset in his previous stint with the club, has been brought back on loan from N.E.C., a Dutch second division side. Mauk won a grand final with Adelaide before leaving for Europe, but his time in the Netherlands has been torrid, largely withering on the bench, if he was in the first team squad at all. He plays at the heart of the team, in both advanced or central midfield, and will surely be a fine addition for City, hungry as he must be for playing time.
.@StefanMauk is back to where it all began as he looks to prosper in City colours once again. #ReturnOfTheMauk
? https://t.co/Efxoc0sRpz pic.twitter.com/ULJismlN9D
— Melbourne City FC (@MelbourneCity) July 26, 2017
Now, to James Troisi, and the astonishing case of his back-and-forth between the Melbourne clubs. It broke late last night that, having been on the verge of signing for City, Troisi – surely now suffering from a case of professional whiplash – abruptly went and signed a two-year deal with his old club, the Victory.
He had reportedly completed a medical for the Citizens, and with the biros and papers ready and waiting for his signature, he left City at the altar. If this is true, then it will complete one of the oddest transfer sagas this country has ever seen, but the point remains; City were gunning hard for Troisi’s signature too, another Australian attacker.
Troisi, Kamau, and Cahill are all – at either senior or Olyroo level – involved in the national team. Mauk and Caceres would certainly harbour ambitions of ascending to that level as well. As a byproduct of this recruitment policy, significant visa slots have opened up for City, to be used in other parts of the team.
The club have already displayed how valuable foreign defenders can be, with Dane Michael Jakobsen a stalwart pillar of the defence, to the point that when he was out injured last season, the back line tended to disintegrate much more frequently.
Often when teams have available visa slots, they turn too quickly to the idea of silken play-makers with exotic accents, and forgo the stolid defensive imports available. Spaniard Alan Baro, at Victory last season, was released and quickly snapped up by Central Coast, to no one’s surprise, as he’s a valuable defender of considerable grit and poise. City may well investigate a foreign attacking full back to fill the void left by Ivan Franjic or Josh Rose.
If Fornaroli picks up a knock next season, or feels like sitting out a match or two, it’s perfectly feasible that City might send out a first-choice starting XI the attacking third of which is comprised almost totally of Australian attackers. A team like this would not be a low-budget version of an ideal product, it would be a highly potent, youthful collection of largely proven talent.
Now, what should we make of this? One club, richer than all of their competitors, are hoarding local talent, players many of which were members of other A-League clubs in recent seasons not long passed. This sounds a lot like the kind of situation that Bayern Munich draws so much criticism for creating in the German Bundesliga.
Of course, City might have to make a bit more of a fist of the title race next season for Bayern comparisons to hold water. Really, though, the sort of flack Bayern courts doesn’t apply here, at least not yet; shining Australian players are too often lured overseas too early – like Mauk – and suffer terribly as a result.
More than that though, the league generally suffers whenever a starlet is prematurely snatched away; Riley McGree’s departure this off-season is one such example, and Adelaide United fans will enter next season a little more downbeat than usual as a result.
If Australian stars do feel as though they’ve outgrown their A-League clubs, then City swooping in with deep pockets to change their minds – if not quite solves the problem – at least keeps them in the league. I would rather have Bruce Kamau poached by City, as he was from Adelaide two seasons ago, than by some member of the German second division, or the Chinese Super League.
While the Victory must be relieved by Troisi’s apparent return, softening the blow of Marco Rojas’ departure, it still can’t feel great to see their crosstown rivals overflowing with local attackers. But for the rest of the league, the chance to see – up close and with pleasant regularity – some of our nation’s best and brightest, well it’s hard to find too many downsides.