“my striker laughingly shouted back “no, the A League is rubbish”. No one disagreed with him.”

and this is exactly the reason why the the a league has an issue getting fans, there’s a famous old saying that fits this narrative perfectly, “perception is reality”

the perception is the a league is inferior to most leagues in europe (which is 100% accurate), but when all you watch is european football constantly and witness for arguments sake the elite centrebacks playing eg saliba/van dijk/gvardiol and then you see someone like ben warland (not to be disrespectful) struggle to make a simple 10 yard pass multiples times in a match, which is the reality and epitomizes the a league as whole

the quality is just not comparable and that fine, but to completely bypass the only professional version of the sport in australia because you prefer:

*the money and prestige of the premier league
*the tactical acumen of serie a
*the attacking quality of la liga
*the fan culture of the bundesliga
*the pace and young players of ligue 1

is wrong on all levels, when you have the sport here in your backyard.

what’s the other common phrase ive heard for years ‘australia doesnt produce world class players’ (which is true) however the country has always produced competent players who are capable of playing in the best leagues.

there’s over a hundred teenage players in europe currently – will they progress to the point where they are a recognised name by joe blow on the street? unlikely.

*you’ve got kids being badly advised by a lot of agents (who are only looking at $$$) going to countries where they cant speak the language or know anything about the culture

(EG. i said i wouldnt speak anymore about nestory on here, but this move to germany has been in place for almost a year. His high school specialsizes in german and german is one of the easient european languages to learn. I would expect him or anyone to be fluent in that language if they have a year to study it – he is not fluent).

*cant cook a simple meal or iron clothes

*spend too much of their free time on social media or playing video games – when they should be doing something more constructive (like preparing for life after football)

australian football has come a long way, but it still has such a long way to go

as for the a league as competition, why would a fence sitter support it when 2 out of this years current top 3 play an awful brand of football from an entertainment point of view?

then we go into crowds……

its a worry that the only team with acceptable crowds this season is adelaide.

lose the derby matches (sydney v wanderers) & (sydney v victory) and adelaide jumps from 4th to 1st in crowds this season.

remember both sydney and melbourne have more than 2.5 registered members then adelaide – so why doesnt it translate to decent crowds for the 2 biggest sides in the league?

ive worked with 4 seperate NPL clubs (currently still doing contract work for 3) in a talent identification and analysis role & 1 victorian a league club for just over 12 months (western united) and im not exaggerating when i say victoria as a state has a massive problem with football in all aspects of the sport –

if you can fix victoria, you can fix every single issue with the sport in australia

because it goes against the mainstream view of womens football Marcel.

remember you cant say anything bad about womens football these days 😂 😛

you mean that stefan mauk who has been the best #8 in the country over the past 3 weeks (2 man of the match performances as well) from a statistical point of view?
if used correctly (which he has been) he is one of countries premier midfielders – especially when it not scared of voicing his opinion
east coast bias in the a league is real, its always been there when it comes to decisions of the league as whole, officiating and salary cap (absolutely no different to any big in europe in a league)
as for the serbian footballers comment – that was in relation to multiple players that australia missed out on because they were not contacted.
i could’ve easily have used croatia, england, germany as any other example

never been to a womans match, have zero interest in going to one

ariath piol for anyone who has paid close attention to anything i post, is a name i mentioned almost 3 years ago (i had put an article up on him as well)

He is one of the only south australian players that i put up a fight for to be signed by Adelaide United – however with the sheer volume of talent with african heritage coming through the state in attacking positions, he was passed over.

i was very surprised he had no other serious a league interest after being the best teenage attacker in the SA NPL with metrostars.

Piol ended up paying his own way to Sydney with a couple of the other adelaide boys that were passed over and after a recommendation from yours truly, he was signed to the wanderers academy.

Unfortunately like a lot of teenagers who go to the wanderers, he got lost in the shuffle of the sheer volume of players at the club and was soon on his way to macarthur.

regardless of the result, I was absolutely ecstatic that he scored and had a great chat with him after the match.

macarthur are ever so quietly building a very strong south australian core of attacking talent (raphael, piol, bernado)

i’ve been very critical of the football media in this country reporting things inaccurately, especially when it comes to nestory – i should not have people coming to me wanting clarification on what has been written.

as i’ve always said, you need to be able to read between the lines when it comes to anything the media reports, a player or a coach says or even myself – there are many agendas at play.

hidden away in the depths of this article, is a small paragraph that should’ve been emphasized more.

mike made mention of nestory hanging around after to sign autographs (nothing unusual from him). – i had a chat with a few of the players in the tunnel after the match and left at quarter to 10 and he was still there signing away.

45 minutes after it all finished, he was there with tears still streaming down his face and his mother’s arm around him signing autographs for every fan that wanted one (young and old) with many also crying.

smoke and mirrors Waz, never believe everything you hear reported from the media

players will be lost and players will be gained, that is unforunately an everyday occurance when you hold dual nationallity status or in certain cases can quality for 3 or 4 different countries

theres plenty of sliding door moments, where things could’ve changed had people acted quicker – lets looks in the past few years at the sliding doors between australia and serbia an an example with players either born or qualifying through a parent for both countries:

strahinja erakovic – who many believed (including myself) would have a great career in europe after becoming a regular starter at 18 for red star belgrade and was sold for 13 million AUD recently.

while his career hasnt gone like i expected, hes only recently turned 23 and hes still better than any CB/RB playing for the socceroos

he has never been contacted by anyone from the Australia FA (they were not even away of him)

william millwood – ex red star now partizan player who turned his back on australia after a lack of interest and is now fully ingrained in the culture and football in serbia

hes developing nicely through the different underage national sides – australia does not have many technical dribblers like him

luka jovanovic adelaide united- was contacted by the serbian fa, but then they essentially ghosted him for months – now the player is up in the air whether he wants to represent australia or serbia (preference has always been serbia though)

contrary to popular belief, this site has had many complaints from my postings – including clubs (remember last year when macarthur wanted a whole portion of one of my articles removed for revealing there financials) as well as players.

i will always try to provide as much information as possible, but i also have a certain duty to protect players/clubs (especially adelaide) as much as i can

i dont particularily want to to discuss Nestor (i’ve said more than enough on him that has been not been public knowledge over the course of the past 3 years and i’ve countered every misleading report by any journalist that has an agenda)

i’ve also discussed in great detail the run ins i have had with arnie in relation to player data + alot of the trepedation from current and past adelaide united figures (including myself) for selecting al hassan when he was already carrying an injury; only to get badly injured and has never been the same player since or lived up to his potential.

arnie is not well liked in adelaide, not sure that will ever change if he keeps selecting injured players *cough* goodwin *cough*

i have not once said i could do a better job than arnie, all ive ever wanted is for him to actually coach the side like an international coach – he breaks the simple fundamentals when it comes to international coaching over little things by not selecting the best performing players.

as for dual nationallity players, this is what i know:

circati – has been blocked by his club, he is comitted to australia (italy has shown little interest, because they have a lot of really good CB’s coming through.

robertson – made it clear he wants to play for australia but is struggling with injuries

volpato – theres a misconception that he turned his back on australia, hes matured mentally alot later than many of his peers of the same age group.

he’s concentrating on club football and i wouldnt be too concerned that he is being selected for italys underage side at the moment

as for communication i know for a fact that no one from the socceroos has directly/indirectly made any attempt to communicate with AP over why he has not been selected in the past 2 squads (a goalscorer like that gets called up by any other country in the world)

jason davidson has also not had any communication in terms of why he has not been called up to recent squads (that may be age related, but theres not another better performing australian lb anywhere in the world

spoken about the player more times than i can count, so i wont say too much else (especially with the media continually misreporting things) .

the olyroos have got a pretty tough task to get to paris (by no means are they a lock to get out the asian cup group, let alone beat south korea/japan)

its a tough decision and it still stuns me that victory gave him a stay of execution after last years disaster.

taking my feelings out of the equation (after he got upset at me for what i said about his son’s nearly half a decade ago) – spoken about that on here and so far; i havent been proven wrong about his sons abilities yet lol.

he plays an ‘archaic’ type of football, we all know he can set up a team up defensively and tactically is very good at that side of the game – but offence has always been the issue.

absolutely cannot play that type of football when you are (and its debatable)) the biggest club in any league and can outspend all other clubs

i think you’ll be hard pressed to find a victory fan who truly has enjoyed the type of football the club is playing this season (regardless of ladder position and brunos heroics)

milligan has been given permission by adelaide to speak with victory (theyve had a couple of informal chats about the role and he’ll interview for it at seasons end) – milligan is not the front runner for that post though.

poppa will not renew (this has been known for quite some time) unless something drastic happens, from what im aware he has been offered an assistants role in europe, but is trying to find a head coachs role

arzani is a different situation to nestor though, his body broke down and he was continually injured – it also didnt help being signed by a club that just wanted to stockpile talent.

nestor has not yet (touch wood) had a major significant injury that really effected his trajectory (compare him to any player with african heritage to have come out of adelaide – all the way from bruce djite up until musa toure)

hes incredibly durable, but then again no australian teenager player has had this weight of expectation placed on them.

this first upcoming season in germany is going to be incredibly tough with no family around for support.

ill be in germany for a week for the euros (hoping to extend it to a second week if i can get some tickets to certain knockout fixtures) – so ill be able to see how hes going first hand.

right now australian football fans just need to be patient and trust the process, people forget hes only literally just turned 18 and has been in the national spotlight since he was 15 (i beg to differe and say 14, but that just my view lol)

very loaded question Waz, because it has its merits (more so in australia where we have alot of migration from war torn countries) – but in general a dedicated team of sports psychologists in football still has a stigma attached to it.
based on my work with both adelaide united & western united (as well as my knowledge of the roar) as well as on my travels to eastern europe each year for 2-3 months i am confident in saying that:
*players believe they dont/wont have full 100% trust and confidentially in terms of private conversations – eg the psychologist will spill the beans as such to the coach.
*players dont believe this psychologist is on ‘their team’ – eg players these days have an entourage of professionals around them and they dont want to change
*players are more confident in confiding to other backroom staff members (who they have had a working relationship for several years) rather then a dedicated club psychologist
just my personal opinion, but every a league club should have its own dedicated psychologist department.
imagine had this been readily available to the kids who immigrated here from the balkans in the mid-late 90s and the african kids who immigrated here in the early 00’s – both demographics coming from wars which either indirectly or directly affected thier lives.
very different to kids who were born in australia – also add in the racial element that unfortunately alot of the african boys experience.
you can see why im all for dedicated sports psychologists

not enough south australian products in this squad, 7 is too small

😛

7 of the squad either born in SA or started there football journey here + the coach
lot of misconceptions involving australia and irakunda, let me clear a few things up that arent public knowledge and are being reported inaccurately (inparticular via social media)
*the player has not rejected an australian call up at any age level, his eyes are firmly fixed on the green and gold and not the country of his birth (who is still trying to persuade him to align with them)
*the player and the club are in agreeance that he should not play for the national team at olympic or senior level right now – there has been zero issue with arnie or vidmar in relation to this
*there is an agreement in place with bayern munich in regards to a certain amount of minutes played in club football this season – but not at international level
*”mental fragility” while may be accurate to a certain degree, is actually not the main reason he has not being selected for adelaide alot this season (there are over reasons i’ve spoken about on here in relation to what hes going through with his family that is a cause of concern)
============================================================
i just went through my post history and found my post that fully explains his situation where i broke everyhing down:
*adelaide have openly admitted internally they made an error announcing his transfer mid season
*adelaide have not invested enough money into a dedicated sports psychology team to help young players transition into fully developed adults (the club is in the process of rectifying that)
*adelaide have pulled irakunda from doing any lengthy media interviews (any short ones that he has done has been with a journalist that the club are comfortable with & that journalist is told what he can ask)
*irakunda has been dropped multiple times for his attitude this season
*irakunda has been dropped multiple times for his work rate this season
*irakunda cannot run out a match at this level, he is not fit enough
*irakunda is struggling with the constant scrutiny on him from the media and fans (this would not be happening to a white player with the same skill set at the same age eg arzani)
*irakunda has had to deal with an avalanche of racial abuse
*irakunda has a complicated family life, there are members in his family involved in gangs in adelaide – real cause of concern
*adelaide have asked the head of referees for better protection of irakunda, who every match has lumps kicked out of him and much older players constantly chirping in his ear to wind him up
*the reason he is not being selected for any australian squads is because adelaide and the player are in agreeance that he needs to concentrate on club football.
*irakunda is incredibly hard on himself, to the point where it effects him when does a simple pass wrong.
*there is an agreement with bayern and adelaide in terms of how many minutes he plays
*there is an ageement in place with the socceroos/olyroos to not select the players
*bayern munich have no issues with how he has been handled this season, i still communicate with markus pilawa semi regularly and he is fully aware of what is going on
*holger seitz is still extremely excited to be working with nestory in the bayern second team next season, he is confident in the players skillset

Role reverse imagine if that was a man shoving a women and stating those comments. – he would be dragged pillar to post by the media and fans

She wants her cake and to eat it to, like most women in football do

Absolutely should be banned for her behavior and while we’re at kerrr should face repurcussions for what she said ( but we all know she won’t due to her sexuallity, ethnicity and standing in the Australian sporting world)

well if you’re being technical, its gold coast – but hes still a qld boy lol

jelacic has always been a fine talent (he was on my list as a 12 year old) his issues are purely down to coaching and inparticular australian coachs not trusting a young player to run a whole teams offence as a #10 at a young age

until this mindset changes from australian coaches, as a country we wont produce #10’s and #9’s correctly

i’ve purposely held off on reporting anything brissy related, but ill give some info now:

*milusenic – already spoken about here quite a bit, hes had a very good offer from a nsw club (almost double his wage)- adelaide want to bring him home, but will not match that wage offer.

*majok – has a contract offer from brisbane, at this stage he has given no indication whether he will resign (spoke to him last week)

*rojas – has a pre contract agreement with auckland

*waddingham/browlie/hore/zabala – resigned pending club annoucements, there is interest in waddingham from rival clubs

*jelacic – open to a return to australia, but wants to push really hard this pre season to try to break into the Gent first team

in terms of incoming all i have heard so far is halloran.

adelaide are open to resigning him, but ben is very upset with how he feels hes been treated by the coaching staff this year (inparticular veart) and the new contract offer from the club is almost half his current salary – brisbane sounded him out in january, i would expect him to return home.

you’re right he should come home to the city where he was born – which he foolishly rejected for that ill fated polish move.

now he earns a lot more money, but isnt playing in his natural position

‘tapping up’ a player is standard practice that the bigger a league clubs always have used with the smaller a league clubs.

i guarantee you that 90% of young a league players who (show real potential) and re still under contract have been approached by a rival club

just this season Mike? – everything good with the mens version of the sport for the last 3-4 years has come out of south australia.
*each international team from the the juniors to the senior side has 6/7 players from SA in it
*the best player for the socceroos has been craig goodwin
*the best player in the a league has been craig goodwin
*4 head coaches from SA as a league coaches
*best youth in the country by a long way (and with plenty more to come)
*most attacking brand of football in the a league of the past 3-4 seasons.
*the best national premier league competition in the country
*the best national premier league side in the country
*one of the only debt free a league clubs
*best stadium in the country
*almost 8million dollars coming into the club from player sales
i could go on and on, but the bigger questions is given how much money both nsw and victoria put into the sport (compared to SA) why are both those states failing (inparticular victoria) when it comes to football and developement
i spoke with ben garrucio during the day whilst he was here at his parents place as he is an adelaide boy and would like to finish his career in SA (adelaide are trying to work a way to get him back home because hes got 1 year left on his contract with western)
what i didnt see was his post match interview, which after watching it earlier- echos what i have been saying ever since ive been doing what ive doing.
coaching has always been the issue in this country when it comes to developement
i could go on and on, but what the point when the perception is sydney/vic dominate all aspect of the sport?

the a league has always been a developement league, its just only 4 clubs ever treated it like one (adelaide/mariners/brisbane/wellington)

if covid didnt happen sydney/victory/wanderers/city would still be playing teams full of 30+ year olds

i shouldnt laugh, because it is a big blow.

but where are all the people gone that said danny townsend would save australian football (including a few of the main posters on here)

i warned everyone what would happen when you give a person like this so much power when they were already in charge of the biggest a league club (that had multiple seasons of salary cap breaching which were all swept under the rug coincidentally)

every decision he made whilst in charge was a failure:

*a league logo copied from an adelaide business.
*the apl board being 95% from NSW
*changing the name from w league to a league
*trying to bring inclusitivty to the sport in australia
*grand final debacle
*a round where every team players in sydney
*how ‘active support’ was handled
*30+ million into keepup
*intricacies of the TV deal hidden from clubs.

one of the most accurate posts I’ve seen someone write here.

lose the ‘foreign’ coach’s + players from the premier league and it would be a very average league