Can the A-League survive as a selling league?

That was educative writing!!

Back in my day Cavendish Road was the school of excellence for the Brisbane South association and Kelvin Grove was the equivalent school from Brisbane North. Not sure if Brisbane is split the same way these days. Cav Road came first and for a while Brisbane South dominated junior state tournaments (perhaps because of the work done at Cav Road). The talent identified from south-east Queensland is mainly the work of Rado Vidosic. Frank Farina can take credit for Mitch Nichols but all he did was witness him play well for Palm Beach against the Roar in pre-season. Mitch had scored a goal-a-game from midfield in state league leading into that game. So, my grandma could have identified him. Rado has been around Brisbane football circles for a long time and knows its ins and outs. I suppose it helps to have a son come through the system (then again, Jordan Farina did as well). John Paul College also have a good football program. Ki Sung-Yueng (AKA David Ki) from the Korean national team and Celtic went to JPC. They have lot of Korean international students in their program (they come to Brisbane to learn English). I believe Jeff Hopkins who coached Ki at JPC is also part of the Brisbane Roar technical staff.

Thanks for that info TheMagnificent11. I knew about Kelvin Grove ,but not Cavendish Rd. Given that pre Ange we did well at finding talent in QLD I expect it to step up to another level given that Ange is a self proclaimed "development coach" & puts himself & the Roar out & about locally.

apparently its just a paperwork hold up between United and the Saudi club. He's signed a pre-agreement for what thats worth. I hope he signs by the end of the week:) But I expect nothing in the odd world of football. As I said above, the addition of McKain would round out a very nice first XI. Rini Coolen being the dutchman that he is could likely use a bench defender like Mullen on the Right Back slot, moving Dilevski inboard in the event of injuries to our back 4. Osama Malik provides a very handy midfielder to come on in the last 20 odd minutes as n impact CAM. If McKain signs, I would say this is the best United squad assembled(in terms of overall quality) and one I look forward to watching in 2 months when the season finaly kicks off! that said, If McKain doesn't sign, I'll still be there, just hoping our paltry defence doesn't sustain too many injuries:)

so there's no strength to the story (also reported on SBS and a few other sites... http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/a-league/news/1065343/McKain-set-for-A-League-return) ? if true, Adelaide wil have a reasonably good defence (if the all stay fit etc) to match its decent strikers/ mid. impressive goalies too - cld be a good year for the Reds.

Brisbane Roar can be a selling club because their talent identification is quite good. I've said this before, they hand-pick the best talent from Cavendish Road and Kelvin Grove State High Schools. These schools have football programs where players are invited to join. The program allows them to do football as a subject from year 8 to 12. You have to be invited and the players invited tend to be from junior rep teams (from all over Queensland, not just Brisbane). And, because they are training every day at school, plus twice a week with their clubs, once a week with a rep team and then playing games on top of that, they are getting something similar to what teenagers in Europe are getting by being in a club's youth academy. Rado Vidosic (Roar assistant coach) helped set-up the program at Kelvin Grove back in the day. It wouldn't surprise me if the Brisbane Roar assist these schools with their coaching curriculum. You then supplement all of this with the QIS football program and you have a pretty good development pathway for Brisbane teenagers. And, the talent that has passed through the Roar shows that what they are doing is working. The next step for the Brisbane Roar is to assist selected junior clubs with their coaching curriculum (to be more specific than what the FFA has already outlined). These can the serve as another feeder stream to the Brisbane Roar NYL team. Until the A-League gets huge media contracts and sponsorships this will be the way A-League clubs will have to operate this way to survive. So many clubs around the world do this. I highly recommend reading Soccernomics (it has a chapter on why Lyon are the best club in the world at this). Udinese are another significant European club that does this. Clubs in South America have been doing this for decades. It's the reality of where Australia sits in the football marketplace.

And this is why I didn't get OTT excited, you just can't trust a news Ltd paper to get things right, Val here in ADL has a bad habit of jumping the gun to try to get the scoop, but has himself been scooped by the AUFC Fans at Wearethereds.com.au a number of times, most notably with the Coopers sponsorship:) Stout Australian stopper signs (yesterday)becomes Issues cloud McKain's deal with Reds (today) but to make up for it he prints that AUFC are being linked with John Aloisi(the family is Adelaidean. and a bonus new rumour that a so-called n Inter Milan Star( CALVIN Mbarga - who?) is interested in signing, but still Val name-drops Samuel Eto'o into the piece...rubbish the lot of it:( don't read it, you'll feel dumber as a result:( Val reprints the Levchenko rumour...see what we have to put up with, tis why I never get OTT excited about a player until i see the obligatory coach & player photo holding a club scarfe or kit on the club website:)

Actually it may well be awesome. That part of the world has some truly beautiful scenery and is steeped in history. Indeed the civil rumblings in the region are the distant echoes of the tussles played between the Persians, Ottermans and Czars. As a place to spend some time working it would be utterly fascinating, as a destination for football my judgements are a little more reserved, though much depends upon the ability of the Alanians to achieve promotion.

Special K ...This 7 month off-season is a single year oddity, like the 10 months between domestic fotball seasons when the NSL was shut down and the A-League started up. Next season has the HAL GF on April 20-22nd 2012 which only leaves 5 months until October the AFL GF is always on the last week in September(except when the fools can't figure out how extra time would work;) so a 5 month off season allows time for the Euro Summer internationals come WC years and May isn't exactly football free with the UEFA trophies being fought over. English football starts in August for those that need a fix of club football. If getting up early isn't your scene, the move of Austraia into Asia provides plenty of World Cup Qualifiers andexcepting the 2015s edition a raft of AFC Cup qualifiers in our time zone. Next year alone the AFC WC2014 phase 4 qualifiers run from June2012 -Jun 2013. Plenty of football to whet your appetite and keep the game in the headlines. Barring that we could always make a play for Tim Cahill...and try to spin that story for 4 of the 5 months...excepting Tim's agent isn't a cokmplete kent;)

Re: McKain to Adelaide...I haven't seen anything official yet, but it would be a marvelous pickup if we did get him:) I've been saying since Fyfey was sold to the K-League in January11 that our defence leaked too many goals and that's what ultimately killed our chances of lifting the toilet seat.....We were all waiting for Rini to sign a CB or 2, so far we've signed Djite, Vidosic, Caravella and Dilevski, but McKain would slot in nicely to a CB pairing with Boogard IMO. That would also bringto 5 the number of recent internationals(**ed below) in the United first XI, withSergio ready to get a cap with Indonesia. I forsee a line up resembling this one: ---------------Djite(*)-----------van Dijk--------- ----Slory--------Caravella---------Vidosic(*) --------------------Usucar------------------- Cassio------Boogard---McKain(*)-----Dilevski --------------------Galekovic(*)---------------- Subs: Birighitti(GK) Mullen Malik Ramsay Which for me appears to be a very strong squad and a team capable of tearing up the new season. Especially if Rini has been working withthem solidly for the last 2 months and next month ontactics and formation play prior to the October kick-off:) COYR

He is playing in the 2nd div in Russia in the armpit of russia Brisbane must be pretty crap place to live and play football. The Town The 2010 Vladikavkaz bombing took place at the Central market in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, Russia on 9 September 2010 when a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives killing at least 17 and injuring more than 160. This was preceeded by the 2008 bombing the assination of the mayor in 2008 and the 1999 bombing. The province North Ossetia-Alania it self was subject to the Beslan school hostage crisis where 380 people died. Average wage is about 2500 ( AUD) Average winter temp -5C Sounds awesome

mckain to adelaide

Bring it up to NSL standard? We were playing at the Stadium for 10 years in the NSL before the viduka money came in from the Celtic deal. And the money from the Dinamo transfer did what exactly? Honestly what are you on about? Knights Satdium was built from the money out of the pockets of members of the Croatian community

This morning's SMH has a Hassett article on Michael Beauchamp returning to SFC for exactly that reason:) To try to return to favour in the eyes of Holger Osieck...Take note Pim Verbeek:) http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/beauchamp-hopes-sydney-will-be-springboard-for-return-to-socceroos-20110718-1hlig.html

I thought that was the CCM MO? Fly under the radar, then when you are 'ignored' by the football media, turn it into a motivational tool.."Ohh Look, they're disrespecting us again!" Then quietly accumulate points and make the finals again:) They even stopped playing their 'traditional' long ball crap last year and actually looked decent under Graham 'never again for the national team' Arnold:) I'll be very interested as to how they go without Musty Amini's impact off the bench this year. Still. the CCM model is surely the way forward for the HAL. By the time other clubs cotton on & get to building their academies, the Mariners will likely have a 10 year head start on the others, and probably a production line of talent coming through it. As for fozz, maybe he will start paying attention to Newcastle Jets because of their new home kit this year? fapfapfap ohhBarca fapfapfap;)

Funny no one at FOX has written anything on the CCM's academy as well, or did I miss them, cough, cough..

Geez, who's a little touchy, no cigans to pick on to make you feel better? Croatia might well have bought the land, but who's transfer fee to Dinamo Zagreb paid for the improvements to bring it up to NSL standard? For those playing along at home who might not have had he 'pleasure' of beeing an away fan at Somers St, the answer is written on the front of the main (only) Grand Stand. When ever I went to Knights away, I was always reminded of that great quote from Ben Kenobi as he and Luke Skywalker are looking downfrom the plateau towards the Mos Eisley (sp?) spaceport where they meet Han Solo. That and I knew I would get good cevapcici at HalfTime ;)

Can the A-League survive a 6 month off season? Still 3 months to go before the first game.

The Mariners have based their long term survial on the a-League being a selling league ... and that the building of the countries best training academy will get the best youth to the Mariners to be unsold [well those good enough]... Watch this space for Berine .... another who will soon attrack overseas attention...

Adding to that the Mariners have spend every season developing a football academy fousing on skills .... you must have read Fozzies comments on it ... funny I missed them too...(cough cough agendas at SBS never).... Real an excellent point what an emdorsement of outr league and our skills development programs...