Reds rout Phoenix for their first win of the season

mckay is lost to the sport , his wifes business is doing very well - Freddy & Co. del piero is doing a lot of punditry work in italy as well as america for ESPN. broich used to do punditry work in germany, but he now coaches a youth team in germany

14 shots at goal in each of the last 3 games. uniteds XG is out of this world, just cant convert chances

not sure if i can agree with that waz. What i will say, is that clubs when looking at goalkeepers in australia are concentrating more on their footwork than anything else. the days of goalkeepers coming out to claim the ball in the air will soon be a thing of the past, its a real worry i have with young goalkeepers in australia

i've spoken about dukuly on here before - he is the finest african australian player i have ever scouted in australia in his age group and position (he was an attacking mid when he was younger) melbourne city stole him (like they do with most adelaide teens) and never played him. he's being played out of position as a winger.

i've heard that talay is under some pressure, theres talk that he might actually quit the club - there is still interest in japan for him and sydney are still lurking at season end

phoenix played as well as they could've with what theyre going through - scoreline flattened them easily could've been a 8-0 hiding

i have sung his praises before on here as one to watch in the next 5 years, as well as ethan cox. Adelaide united has the 2 best under 18 goalkeepers in australia from a 'potential' and stats point of view in my database. Hall is the most quietest keeper i've ever followed throughout all of australia, hes not a shouter at all - but his size and gangly frame make the goals look small for attackers. ethan cox is the opposite to hall, hes a 'shot stopper' not a 'goalkeeper' - both have very bright futures if they keep up their progress. adelaide has produced the best homegrown goalkeepers of the past 10 years (izzo, margush, gauci) while improving interstate goalkeepers eg galekovic, birighetti,delianov, cook (really should be the number #1 goalie at perth, club were upset to lose him) when it comes to goalkeeping developement, no state comes close to adelaide

Great ideas Grem, I too would like to know where so many of our former players are now and what they honestly thought of their time in the A League. I suspect, that the sport right now is where it is due to some of the points made already. With hindsight, employing David Gallop wasn't the best move for the sport, he may have had some 'connections' with NSW politicians and the media etc and maybe some businesses in Sydney but no connections with the sport. As an outsider [I don't live on the East Coast] I can see the similarities to our current administrators that we were burdened with when Frank L owned part of SFC. If I can see it why can't others with who are paid to run the sport see it? Whenever I have raised this with club owners, I get the same answers I did 25 years ago, "It's a NSW thing, they think they own the sport and will do it their way." Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, but as many have said before me, and I suspect many more will say when I'm gone, "it's the East Coast bias live with it, nothing is going to change."

I have tickets to the 2nd day of the Sydney test so I enjoy the game. Hopefully it doesn't rain or I contract Covid! It is obviously very popular, but they have a formula that we can't replicate in football because of their small world. I appreciate you probably already know this, but the size of our game kills us. Unless we can match or nearly match one of the top 5 leagues or our Socceroos are sitting in the top 10 then so many people unfairly criticise our game.

100%

Cricket is an institution in Australia. Saying that the game is played in just a few countries is irrelevant. It will always draw crowds or television eyeballs. BBL may not have the stadium crowds today but there are still plenty of TVs tuned to the game (measured in the many hundreds of thousands). Tell Americans that the NFL is a parochial, local game. They wouldn’t care less what a foreigner said.

Good trait to have if they go abroad for teams that like to play out from the back. Good luck to the kid!

“Nix going through the motions” - jb called it, and I agree. Their season looks done already through no fault of their own. Adelaide aren’t a side to go half-baked in to either - Roar are still missing a captain because of their assertive football in pre-season - so no surprises here I’m afraid.

All young Aussie keepers look good with the ball at their feet – they probably see more of it aged 11-16 than keepers in any other country.

Agree, didn’t have a heap to do but looked calm, particularly with the ball at his feet. Far too early to tell if he’ll make it but didn’t do himself any harm.

I'd like to see it start with more positive articles and comments on here as well. I'm a bit tired of the A League is dying - how can we help? - stories. There are so many great current and former players with interesting backgrounds that I'd love to read about. What is Thomas Broich, Alessandro D Pierro or Matt McKay doing now? There are some great clubs in the A League that should have a light shone upon them, whether it's the community support of CCM or the well run clubs such as SFC and others I don't know much about. Let's start here. I think a new year's resolution for all football supporters and writers should be let's be positive in 2022.

I absolutely agree. Because I follow football I now find it hard to enjoy cricket as much as I used to (perhaps 10 countries make up their world) or State of Origin in rugby league - NSW v Qld is the pinnacle of the game (that means drawing from a talent pool of about 200000 from 2 states only). I was just looking at crowds. Test cricket still draws reasonable numbers in Australia, but below that (Sheffield Shield), which is our country's equivalent of the A League draws no spectators. If our Socceroos were to play Brazil in a meaningful game, not a friendly, at the MCG, it would be packed. Unfortunately, like cricket, we are not getting the fans in the numbers we need/want below that level.

"no excuses"??? you literally just blamed the ref! :silly: :laughing:

grem -It may be unfair in your eyes but to me cricket is a minor sport played in a few countries around the world ,maybe 10 or 20. Football on the other hand is played in at least 150 countries and is without a doubt the most played ,and attended, sport in the world and should never, ever be compared with another sport unless that sport has similar numbers. Don't believe all the junk you get from a few "jocks" paid to publicise the sport and just open your eyes to what is happening right in front of you. Are the "Ashes" really "the greatest sporting contest in the world" or can it really be compared with a World Cup. that is now taking almost 4 years to "settle" from "whoa to go". Leave it with you. Cheers jb.

Mid - Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, my thoughts on how football is run in this country does not contain itself to the last 16 years of full time professional football. We have long suffered the "scourges" of business, being it nepotism, or favouritism, if you prefer a "kinder" word. Every time we get new management we are inundated with what is going to change, but , pandemic allowed for, we are still seeing "good ideas" wither on the vine." So you see my friend my thinking has nothing to do with JJ or anyone else in the latest hierarchy , it is simply an investigative look at what is going on against what has gone on in the past. It is not so long ago we had the architect of the A-League having to divest his shares in the 'new" Sydney FC,(a conflict of interest) and yet here we are, just 10 years later, being told a leading figure in today's football is having to make a choice between Sydney FC and the A-League. Co-incidence? or just a case of history repeating itself? I leave it to you. Go back far enough and you may find that is what has been holding football back for the last 50 or so years. Cheers jb.