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Opinion

Have we seriously overrated Brisbane Roar?

15th March, 2021
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15th March, 2021
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After Match Week 6 of the 2020-21 A-League season, Brisbane Roar sat second on the ladder after stringing together four consecutive victories.

It was an impressive run and one littered with attractive goals and the product of coach Warren Moon’s effective game plan.

The obvious markers of the Roar’s play were keeping the tempo of matches at an uncomfortably high level for opponents, pressing frantically when required and adopting a trigger happy approach in the final third.

It served them well and despite an opening week 1-0 loss to Melbourne City in Redcliffe, the net began to bulge with comforting frequency. Wins over Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets, Adelaide United and the hapless Victory for a second time brought 13 goals and saw just five conceded.

At that time, most in the A-League world were chuffed to see the powerful orange juggernaut potentially returning to its former glory, as well as being utterly entertained by the style and brand of football that Moon had them playing.

At the crux of the success was Dylan Wenzel-Halls, a somewhat divisive player when it comes to the broad array of opinions around his value and potential long term success in the competition.

However, a revitalised Joey Champness, a pair of obviously talented Japanese imports and the gifted Irishman Jay O’Shea also had something to say about the successful run as Brisbane became, Mariners aside, the talk of the A-League community.

No doubt some of the kernels of the success were laid the season prior by former manager Robbie Fowler, despite his eventual non-attendance, and a fourth place finish in 2019-20 should have clearly indicated that Brisbane had improved considerably on some of the dark seasons of recent times.

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Yet just when the old cliché of darkest hours coming right before glorious dawns full of hope and positivity seemed to have come true, things have very briskly headed south and the solution is proving extremely difficult to locate and activate.

The Roar have not won since that run; towelled up by Macarthur 2-0, thumped by Perth in the west 3-1 and beaten by Western United on Sunday with a solitary goal.

In between, scoreless draws with the Jets and Sydney FC, along with a 1-1 draw against the Sky Blues in a return fixture up north have perpetuated a sudden fall down the ladder.

Brisbane Roar now sit outside the six at the mid-point of the season, a whopping ten points in arrears of Central Coast.

Based on recent results it would be easy to suggest that something is fundamentally wrong, that the team is riddled with injury concerns or VAR has conspired to rob them of point after point. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

Barring the comfortable loss to Perth the Roar have been in every contest; appearing likely and hopeful of snatching a levelling or winning goal until the dying moments of added time. Yet unlike earlier in the season, the ball just will not find the net.

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Chances are being created, the strikers are letting rip when they see it and there is absolutely no evidence that the team is significantly underperforming or working any less enthusiastically than it was just a month ago.

The for and against statistics are an awful read, with just two goals scored in their last six matches and a total of seven conceded. It all adds up to the most Jekyll and Hyde season to this point and does raise a serious question around whether some of the early excitement may have been a little misplaced.

Corey Brown of Brisbane Roar looks on during the A-League

(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Are the two wins against a now forlorn Melbourne Victory worth far less than what we first thought? Was the success on the road in Newcastle merely a case of three points that a top six contender should pick up comfortably?

Is it also fair to say that their results against teams we can now confirm as serious top six contenders seem rather shaky and flimsy? Beaten by City on opening day, Macarthur FC in Redcliffe and losing away to Perth and Western United, Brisbane’s only recent highlights have been the two draws with the champions Sydney; a team who was also having problems creating chances and finding the net.

Perhaps it is merely a confidence thing. However, the short term future could well provide the answers, with Roar next slated to face an improving Wellington, the dangerous Western United once again, the resilient Wanderers, the red hot Melbourne City and Central Coast on the road.

Should the northerners come thought those matches with a bag of points their season will be back on track. Should they not, many will realise that they went off a little too soon about the Brisbane Roar.

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