Sydney can't get past nine-man Bulls, Wanderers on life support, Cahn departs

that was when we were Qld Roar. The decision's been made, we're Brisbane Roar now, so dump the Qld colour (maroon).

My bad! Thanks for the pick up on my maths. Not my strong suit. Let's hope for a win on Friday night

"Four wins, four losses, three draws with one to go under RZ is the sort of form that over a season might just have enabled Roar to nick a spot in the six.." What I have counted is "3 wins; 4 draws; and 4 loss until today". By projection, the points in next full season will be: "((3 x 3 + 4 x 1 + 4 x 0)/11) x 27 = 31.99)" A 32 points-result in a 27 full year matches will not make top six for sure. Let's have a look of the sixth points of the recent 5 years. They are: 40; 37; 39; 39 and 35. At least 35 points. Still, it is lucky to get on top 6 with just 35 points. At the moment, the leading team's (Pheonix) GF is 39 which is the same as the GF Roars have. However, the Roars' GA is -12. So, statistically, the defence is misserable. Already said weeks ago that ever since the injury of Scott Neville, Roars have never had a clean sheet. It is expected that RZ has to build a new whole squad. Looking at RZ's record in his head coach job in Perth Glory, he recruited and displaced 17 players to form his squad. With this squad, Glory's ranking at the end of the year was 9th. However, nineth place was not Sage's appetite. Result is sometime not a good indicator. For instance, Ange's Yokohama Marinos was almost relegated in his first year of coaching. But the team won in his 2nd term. So, why Sage did not let RZ coach continuously? Just a ? Without refering results (only 1 win in the last 5 matches), RZ's Roars have been playing a good style of football. "Sit back, relax and enjoy the play". For now and for the next season. Just see what will happen in the 2-year experiment by him. Patient! Of more concerns are the active members in the Den and the ghosts in Lang Park.

Leon, That’s a really good post. When you say “ Appointing RZ is sensible without being ambitious” I would agree, but also add that it’s a low risk approach as well. We also need to hope Kaz & Zac stay at the club. Much as I have been disappointed by their communications this season I am prepared to concede that probably their worst sin was underestimating the hole the club was in, and even not realising what poor planning Fong had done eg planning to play at Ballymore without any working lights. If I could go back to my posts from last year where I said we need to sign a center back and a proven goal scorer, it’s the same this year - only with Aldred and Trewens departure we need two CB’s. It will be an interesting off season.

Keep the orange. Go back orange and maroon like the old days.

Hi Lionheart I too am keeping the faith. I received an email yesterday about auto renewals and based on that I am hoping that we will be getting more comms from Zac real soon. I am also keen to hear more about the new teams coming in which I hope will end the lottery of uneven home and away fixtures. That has been another bug bear affecting the integrity of the competition.

Ridiculous! Three years to someone unproven and hasn't done F-all for the club. The board are crazy. We really need to get rid of him and get a new recruiter/s that will find a quality striker rather than an old slow striker that has passed his peak (Krpic, Antonsson, Hemed, Cox to name a few).

good comment, no one will care about the colour or the stadium or whatever, if they win. They've dominated so many times this season, against top teams, but just haven't scored. The inconsistent games that brought most of the criticism were during both the injury crisis (7 or 8 out) and coach dilemna. It's surprising we aren't lower down the ladder. It all starts with good management, in the office and I've got faith in our execs, that they're slowly turning the ship around. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Zac about the points he mentioned in his recent update.

For the record, it is three seasons outside the top six for the men's Roar. Whether or not the signing of RZ is exciting or not, I guess it will have to do until the real excitement comes along. Four wins, four losses, three draws with one to go under RZ is the sort of form that over a season might just have enabled Roar to nick a spot in the six, without necessarily setting the world on fire. To be fair, he walked into something of a firestorm and has put out the fire and stabilized the ship. Roar supporters may have hoped for more, but in fairness, RZ has delivered on what we reasonably could expect under the circumstances. RZ has had sufficient time at the club to put a slide rule over the current crop of players and have input into who stays and who goes. He said as much in his latest post match interview. Appointing RZ is sensible without being ambitious. Whether he gets to keep the players he wants to keep will be revealed very soon enough. Trewin is rumoured to be going. Jelacic is a loanee who achieved what he came to do by achieving Olyroo selection. Rojas is another where the rumour mill has run hot since he arrived. If we can trust the weekly Queensland Injury updates, there are a number of players not listed as injured, and not featuring, who I assume RZ deems surplus to requirements. Armiento and Parsons come to mind. Whether RZ can get the players in that he would like may take a little longer to be revealed. Certainly, based on the disappointments, false starts and missteps of past years, I am not getting overly excited. I don't think Roar will be splashing the cash anytime soon. All eyes will be looking to more of the youth coming through, with hopefully one or two shrewd older signings along the way to bring in some more quality and experience. Can RZ take Roar forwards and upwards? Can he build a team that not only dominates possession, but actually can score more goals than the opposition? Personally speaking, if he can achieve that, I won't care what colour strip the team wears. We dare to dream.

Morning All, what a weekend of football. Friday night was interesting, I don't believe i am going to say this, but I cannot believe our lads won. Young Bayliss for the Jets was nothing short of impressive and every lad gave his complete and utter all to that team. I can only hope that the Jets lads now come out and in the words of Ryan Scott "give the Mariners a kickin". And wasn't Scott impressive. The fact that he said to Rufer ' I hope you score this" before the penalty, was sportsmanship and a distaste for the Mariners all in one. And forgive me for saying this, but if the display of refereeing on Saturday night at the Bull Ring was not an embarrassment, degrading to the game, and completely and utterly amateurish nothing was. When Alex Brosque is heaping it on the Ref in bucket loads, and Sydney is playing, struth it has to be bad. That was the most appalling effort I have seen since the retirement of Kurt Ams. Even the Sydney players were protesting the decision making If the APL wants greater fan engagement, then the first thing they have to do is to start engaging the Referees body and issuing a WTF to them. Explain that s#@te on Saturday night. If I were on the Referees Assessing Team, Elder would be overseeing the local under 7s this Saturday. He made this country and it's professional football league into a laughing stock. I am beginning to think he has two options A) To stay as a sports adjudicator he should seriously think about Lawn Bowls, or B) Consider taking a job as a Lollypop man. Saturday night's game also demonstrated that even with 9 men Sydney couldn't get the job done. Against the likes of a full strength Bulls, Victory, an ever improving City, Nix and Coasties, they've got Buckley's and none With reference to Brisbane, I feel for those lads. If they don't give Zadkovic the job for next season, they're nuts. He has put confidence back into that squad, they've punched above their weight and with some sensible purchases in the off-season, then they'll be pushing for the finals next season. As for Wanderers, is it just me or am I seeing a common thread of occurrences at clubs managed by Rudan. He comes in, instils discipline, but it seems he doesn't know when to take the foot off the accelerator and then he loses the dressing room. He won't be there next season. Then there was the goalfest that was Perth v WU. That game served two purposes, that if you can put football into context for what it is, that as an entertaining game, and there definitely is some valuable young talent starting to surface in this country. The next few weeks are going to be interesting. Support Australian football lads!!!

Queensland Roar (maroon) is not such a bad thing as it would be much easier to find a home, anywhere from Gold Coast to Cairns, plenty of suitable stadiums and parks available for home grounds. But given the number of players, m & w, and growing population, I think they should stick with the Brisbane moniker.

That’s the problem with branding, we all see different things: I hated the Orange n White Other than that deviation, a solid post :silly:

indeed, but no to the maroon, it's Queensland and rugby union and league, not Brisbane in any way. When there used to be Brisbane rep teams their colour was white, but orange is Roar history, don't throw that out too.

Happy that the Roar have confirmed RZ as coach for two years. He has shown he can get good football out of the club, even if the results are not yet there. It is his continued rhetoric in regard to stability for the club and positivity that I feel (hopefully) will be the difference in the team going forward. I feel he seems to be on the same “realistic” page that Zac and Kaz are on. That is, that the club has 10 years of mismanagement to overcome before they can really start looking at titles again. You have to right the ship before you can send it to war. We just want what all supporters want, 1) a competitive team made up by some exciting local lads. 2) A few quality senior players leading the group and building a culture. 3) going into every game with a positive style of play that could get them a win mor often than not 4) a great matchday experience where we can bring the kids to sing, shout and march. It does not seem too much to ask. I am not expecting any big signings, but that is ok. We have a strong core group of players that have been playing together for a while. Hopefully he can find that missing piece to get the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis. I reckon it is linked with the missing maroon shorts. Bring back the maroon! Having said that, I quite liked the orange and white on the weekend.

Doubt that will happen - Popovic to WSW?

Three more years with Mark Rudan in charge at Wanderers. Unbelievable.

The VAR to me it gives more opportunities to make dodgy decisions based on interepertation. The two times the refs have got the opposition down to 9 men Sydney have lost and two penalties were missed as well the other time. Brattan to me showed his mastery of the situation delaying the pass to ensure Lolley was offside. Last season it was Brattan Cabello, now you have Brattan La Cerna. Talay is no different to Corica, Macarthur, Western United, Wanderers, Jets have a level of mystery to them as well as to what is going on. If they are broke as Tuckerbox the 1.5 million cost of the VAR versus the journos junket saving a couple of grand surely VAR has to go. The W-league finals no VAR CCM Sydney was a great match.

Spot-on. If only Rudan could turn back time. Paul Lederer‘s emotional outburst put a bit of strain on the situation too.

It was a toxic response by Rudan and this is the outcome.

Thanks David - great to read about actual football. Away in WA at the moment, so I could only watch the Sydney v Macarthur game (while others watched some derby game from their state!) I hate any game being spoiled by a red card, unless it is for reckless or malicious conduct. The first red card was a joke. The second was probably fair, especially after the precedent set from the Robbie Mac red! Well done Macarthur - they certainly deserved their victory and with Davila coming back, they may have a run in the finals. Zadkovic has been appointed for two years and hopefully he can get the Roar further up the table next season. Hopefully they can also retain Waddingham and gain a couple mother players. WU at home next season, Perth with new owners and direction and Roar with Zadkovic. Next season is already looking promising!