What in the world happened to the Wanderers, Roar and Mariners?

Actually it did. Many of the squad were recruited despite injuries carrying over. The fitness coach left over a dispute which involved him working with bolt and there was a couple of months with no specialist guy knowing how to rehab. Gamiero was apparently mismanaged and has now a calf injury, aspro took months longer and golec is nowhere to be seen since reinjury. A right royal stuff up.

Nemesis....absolutely correct. My estimation is that it will be some decades away from the competition enjoying the financial benefits of the loyal supporter. Until then, the casual supporter should be encouraged.

Was......the valid pointers listed are ok, however they tend to be inward looking goal. None I would clearly determine as offering value to the Brisbane public to get behind the club, good times or bad. Granted, get the house in order first. Thinking further on this article....I tend towards thinking the whole league experience is disjointed and artificial. Each aspect of the game, administration and fan support concept is pulling so tightly against each other that it will either implode or meet it's common ground in due course, a time span that could be a few decades into the future. I still feel the biggest challenge ahead will be how promotion/relegation is handled. The potential is there for no Qld team being in the premier league and if it was in place now, I would be surprised if the Roar would still have the doors open for business next season.

JA if serious needs to manage an NPL side and gain experience. He clearly wasn’t ready to jump straight into a head coaching role at Heart and that has shown since at Roar. What we’re seeing with Rudan and now John Anastasiadis being promoted from Bentleigh to West Melbourne assistant role is that opportunities are now there. I think the recycling of old coaches may move away to promoting proven NPL performers, or at least it should.

"It’s a question of asking 'can I rely on these people to turn up rain, hail, shine; win, lose'?" Reminds me of this late 1990s boast by the suits of another fc in another code: "North Melbourne has the highest ratio of members to supporters" - which was spinmeister BS for 'we have the AFL's fewest supporters by several hundred thousand.'

Its pretty simple they spent their money on three turkeys. CCM had a bit of money for the first time, they needed to spend it wisely, then you hear the words McCormack and thats its wooden spoon. Their squad is poor, and they already had a striker in Simon should have been spent elsewhere, their fullbacks are rubbish, and they lack a defensive midfilder, Wanderers they already had their turkey Riera but at least last season they had the cranberry sauce to go with it. Now they brought in Baumgaurtner , and he doesn;t go with the turkey. Finally Roar and their prize turkey Taggart. Taggart doesn't press so they did Perth Glory a massive favour. That drags the rest of their team forward and out of position to compensate The other strange thing I have noticed about Taggart is he tries to monopolise the opportunities to score. Bauthec was completely unmarked in front of him and he shoots from long range. Then instead of setting up Dagistino he tried to dish it off wide , even though Dagastino was in the way, makes no sense, the ball rebounded off Dagastino and he had a shot anyway, but there would have been more chance of scoring off a lay up.

Invicta - If you decide to examine any educational programme on "man-management", a certain inclusion will be some chapters on how to manage,be it upwards,sideways or downwards. A successful manager will excel at these three aspects of the job. so the examples you give are not unusual. Cheers jb.

They clamped down on hooliganism at Wanderers games and crowds have fallen off a cliff.

Good point re Cox, worth considering the differences and why Mulvey was up against it as management foisted something on him which he did NOT want. Cox arrived at the end of the season in 2014, the pies had spotted him at a combine in the US, from which two were invited back to Australia. He spent the whole pre-season with a specialist coach away from the main group. He played in the reserves in 2015, did a 2nd pre-season and debuted in April 2016, for the most part, it all happened with zero publicity. Did you spot the differences? The Mariners could have given Bolt specialist training away from the main group for six months, if they had the resources. They could have then allowed him to play one season with the reserves (if they have them), and maybe 20 months down the track, he may have played his first game with the senior team. But the Mariners didn't do that, they whored Bolt out for publicity, which was meant to bring in untold riches, and they ruined their season in the process.

Yes, more ifs, buts and maybes. But what I said you can bet your house on. No manager, much less the squad, needs a distraction like Bolt when you are preparing, I mean seriously preparing, for a new season. It never, ever ends well. They were my precise words. It never, ever ends well.

Agree that coaching has been a major part at the roar but management/backroom/owners has a role. Alex Ferguson spoke of working well with owners/ management to sustain success. Melb victory consistently does well and is well managed. It is able to bring players back eg Milligan, Rojas, Barbour.. Syd fc have good management as well. Perth this year have a good manager, owner and administrator. Central coast lost arnie and their CEO tho Newcastle. Newcastle them improved... Wsw have supportive owners but lost popovic last year then have messed up recruitment and manager. Roar's demise may be coaching but the management side has not been great to me. How many players have been dissuaded to come out left due to the payment fiasco and poor training facilities? Others know more but I think it has a role.

Was that last year JB? Seems ages ago now. It was a different angle we took though. More about the complacency of a side having made the play offs as though that was an achievement! - well it is but not one to brg about unless you make the final!

"Throw in the respectable and steady improvement of Adelaide and a somewhat unlucky Newcastle Jets team; unable to take a trick, win a break or find the net and the top seven teams in the A-League are grappling with each other for points." - NEWCASTLE HERALD "THE Newcastle Jets are now Martin Lee’s only professional football interest after the billionaire businessman withdraw Shenzhen Ledman from the Chinese third tier." Further: "Ledman Group, which is owned by Lee, has also ceased sponsorship of the Portuguese second division." - Hopefully putting his attention fully on Newcastle will help improve their results. https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5789600/a-league-jets-owner-scales-down-football-interests-in-china/

Let me add, before I set off for Suncorp and cheer them on, that I don't expect a big improvement this season. I'd need to see Davies act more independently (from Aloisi's established way) before I raise my expectations, but I'll still cheer them on.

I find your logic confusing, of course getting regular fans is the holy grail and where did I mention sacrificing regular fans for casual fans, I did not. As a tragic I will moan about VAR and referee farces but turn up next week. But I still believe you are elitist if you say we do not need casual fans as well.

They're all good points Waz. I don't want to beat JB to reply but he must be taking his afternoon nap. I thought the Board and local owner representative had been addressed a couple of years ago, or was that just Fong talking? I'd say that Roar has to get back to play hard and fair. Any other manner will not favour them. Many fans are distraught with their increased foul count, and their little spats and tantrums. Hard and fair has to be their club culture. If their fans are smart, we'll also have a fair culture. Bottom line though is that they have to win matches. If they want to get to 20K at matches, which is achievable, they have to win with a couple of local heroes aboard.

Not a question of being elitist. It's a question of asking "can I rely on these people to turn up rain, hail, shine; win, lose"? Or, will they dump the club & find something else to do if their mood changes? If you can't rely on the fans to turn up regularly, then they're not part of your base. You can't use them to plan for the future. They turn up - wonderful; extra money that you don't expect. No different to owning any business. Yes, you want casuals as well as regulars. But, you cannot rely on the casuals; and you certainly don't want to do anything that pushes regulars away, in the hope of attracting a casual every so often.

Waz - Thank you for the prompt reply. In the short term there are some drastic decisions to be made with the on field staff and it is here the coach ,albeit he has very little experience with this group of players, has to show his skill at picking talent in a formation that will get better results. In recent seasons we have seen players who had been capped for their country being used (for some obscure reasoning) in positions that did not utilise their talents in the way that was expected. Tommy Oar and the French winger Bautheac were both stated outside lefts and yet were consistently played on the right wing. Corona and Hervas were brought and to the trained eye Corona fitted the playmaker's role admirably but like young Caletti after him, was played as a defensive midfielder ,a position neither of them had the physique or aggression to fill successfully. Are we seeing the same mistake being made with Lopez? Hervas was another story ,a man with half a brain could see he was a left footed player and yet he was consistently given a run on the right side of the field. I could go on but the last 3 years have multiple examples of this type of thing going on and yet not one "pundit" cared to mention these obvious gaffes. Back to today. The midfield need a huge injection of pace, power and passing ability. It would appear Mackay has removed himself from this part of the operation pushing forward into a more attacking role despite his dismal scoring record in his long career. At present both full back positions are week in, week out proving to be vulnerable, so it would appear that the system of using "wingbacks" is a tactic Roar cannot afford. Because of the midfield weakness Bautheac is finding himself more and more drawn into midfield so that his potential as a left winger is being substantially reduced. So,as you can see, I think there are things that could be tried to see if an improvement can be had,but re-hashing the same eleven players week in,week out,, can surely only have one outcome,,more of the same results. Cheers jb.

I know casual fans who go 3 or 4 times a season for what ever reason, I do not think we are in a position to be elitist and turn them away. I am a football tragic but people have different levels of support.

OIC