i see you’re finally catching on, JJ falls into the same category as does half the current board.
Perth and Adelaide have both made specific requests that were swiftly rejected for this upcoming season in relation to scheduling. (and they weren’t unreasonable requests either)
the league has always been very east coast centric in every way.
It would not surprise me if FNSW is consulted much like townsend at sydney first in relation to any major change/decision to the sport in australia.
NSW holds far too much power in the FFA

i’ve already told you why kossie went to qld for, he comes across as a jilted ex lover. The professional football community is small in Australia and you dont want to burn too many bridges. (especially where you’re born and the place you spent most of you life at)

I know a thing or 2 about burning bridges lol

like the retro look of it, however that front of shirt sponsor is a massive eye sore

whats that famous saying?

“loose lips, sink ships”

ill shut up now 😊

there will be upsets, more than likely blacktown against the mariners

i’ve checked with the judged and both your answer have been accepted.

winner winner chicken dinner!

you need to look at it from my perspective though.

if i start dropping names of individuals around super sensitive issues, not only does that effect my relationship with that particular person it will start a chain reaction for that person at their respective clubs which could lead to them potentially losing employment for revealing sensitive information.

It’s no different to when i said on here that channel 10 will be the new rights holder, several months before the deal was announced and everyone on here told me it wouldn’t happen. I had found that out from someone who was close to those negotiations (never revealed the name though)

Or for matters closer to home for yourself:

how much I know about the youth teams (one of your academy coaches is a colleague) – it doesnt meant that adelaide are trying to steal any of your young players, because our age groups are just as good as yours (brisbane and adelaide have the best kids out of any league club across multiple age groups)

the mileusnic transfer I heard months in advance, not only because hes a good friend of mine but because adelaide were trying to negotiate his return – we just lowballed him, brisbane didnt

Courtney-perkins I said at the start of the season would leave as he wasn’t getting any game time and Adelaide were in constant discussion with his agent and were 95% confident he’d be in red next season, unfortunately his agent had different plans

Even transfer wise (especially when it comes to players from Adelaide or who I’ve directly had some involvement in their development) I’ll reveal things months in advance, remember when I said Johnny K was going to wanderers and how much his contract was going to be and people doubted that as well? Look who signed this past week lol

There is a lot going on behind the scenes with WU that isn’t public knowledge, if i was allowed to do that piece with aliases for certain individuals it would’ve been an ‘interesting’ read, but i fully understand why the higher ups here would not allow it; due to my reluctance to reveal where i got my information from.

I think even you have noticed that im not as “passionate” (or controversial/angry lol) as i once was on here and that’s because i am a lot more guarded in what i say. Not every player/coach/administrator/owner i’ve mentioned in posts here has enjoyed what i’ve wrote about them (brucey certainly loved his article, but others definitely haven’t)

im not the be and end all of inside information and theres been posts made on here by others that even surprised me – in the regard that how can somebody know that information lol

1] bad way, in terms of the deception behind the scenes.

2] Knights will never leave somers st or be bought out by a souless entity like WU

The figures quoted for WU to renovate that stadium probably sounds about right. Especially when you factor into it the stadium has had very miniscule upgrades over the course of its 30 year+ life (you could say the same about most NPL teams stadiums though lol)

i feel i am probably a good person to talk about Elvis, since hes an adelaide boy and i was the one who identified his talent.

wonderfully gifted player, at his age and diminutive stature he ran an absolute muck in the local leagues in Adelaide and even though he was training with United he never officially signed.

I was very vocal about the club not signing him and my opinion was also held in high regard by the coach who departed Adelaide that season and elvis was in discussions in joining him at his next coaching gig in the a league, but the move never happened.

Elvis to me is not suited as a big club player, its the same thing i said was one of his weak point as as teenager – in that he seemed to go missing in big games.

He thrives at a club where the pressure is minimal, victory was a bad move and sydney is even worse.

Elvis might be earning the most money of his career with sydney, however he wont start and has signed for a club that has a bad repuation with african australian players – but like i said, money talks

regardless of my personal view of the sydney move and the melbourne one before that, we still keep in contact. (i sent him a text the other day congratulating him on the move)

there is 100% a solid player there, but he needs to find a coach that loves him at a smaller mid sized team.

i wrote an expose article on the investors and the reasoning behind why this stadium hasnt started yet and the issues in getting knights stadium.

i was asked to clarify my sources, which i didnt want to divulge; so the article never made it up.

its a shame, because it would’ve blown peoples minds

i tell it it how is. 😊

3 a league coaches were very vocal about east coast bias this past a league season, its as real as the man utd bias with refs in the 90s and real madrid/barcelonas stranglehold of la liga decisions.

i highly recommend investing some time in football manager, some absolute bargains from andoora

didnt achieve anything? lol

they won the premiership comfortably past much more fancied opponents (sydney/victory/adelaide) with the lowest goals conceded and unusually for a poppa team, most goals scored , Poppa also picked up coach of the year lol

He did amazingly well at glory, only towards the end of his spell like at wanderers did things turn out awful

i dont know much about tennis besides barty is #1 and swimming australia always gets medals, so i cant really give any input (football youth developement is another story) but they are individual sports that australia is good at, trying to get a team sport that has never had the infrastructure it badly needs like football on par with tennis/swimming success is a bridge too far.

i’ve given my views on the field i’ve worked in for over 15 years, and i’ve repeatedly stated we may never had a genuine superstar like Harry Kewell or Mark Viduka again (they were were genuine superstars in a time when viewing numbers for the premier league was absurd and people knew there names all over the world and were wearing there shirts.)

Australia produces very good technical footballers for the little time that is put into these skills, its a matter of how we get these 12/13 year old to keep moving up the ladder – unforutunately pathways are blocked.

it doesnt help with the medias obsession in this country with the premier league. The premier league is not the be and end all goal for young australian players, lots of good leagues in this world (the majority of second division major european leagues you could spend a decade in earning good money and having a solid career)

Australia media like usual wont showcase it

i mentioned on here that a couple months ago that they were sniffing around Rukavytsya, as adelaide also had made an enquiry for his services but couldnt offer anywhere near what his agent wanted. The transfer whispers started a couple weeks after that lol

Ruka’s had a great financial offer from a greek first division club so that could be the end of the interest.

don’t forget hemed to victory was almost a done deal until the wanderers offered a couple hundred thousand more late in negotiations and his head was turned.

his teams are always very disciplined defensively and normally play a counter attacking style
i dont expect that to change with the victory job, the team will be very functional and players probably wont stray to much out of thier positions
the victory job is a massive one, id go as far as saying its the biggest job hes had in the league based on victorys trophies, member base and finances. (even though all 3 of those have declined in recent years)
lots of pressure on poppa especially after the greek debacle, lets see how he handles it.

going to be tough to ship a 30+ year old injury prone attacker on those wages

we agree on many subjects, we disagree on just as many lol.

but at the end of the day we want what’s best for football in this country whether its grass roots, amature leve, semi professional, professional or even national team wise.

from a national team point of view i dont see any progress in terms of a playing style or tactics and thats the fault of one man, the coach.

can you imagine if the manager of a major football nation like Spain, Brazil or Argentina selected a player thats barely kicked a ball in 2 years (arzani) the media and fans would be baying for the blood of the coach

hey, i didnt say they were ‘exciting’ signings lol, very functional ones though that drastically improves the team. Straight away victory look a lot more sturdier especially defensively.

right back is solved with geria and left back with davidson (both upgrades on previous incumbants)

centreback is covered with the hamill/spiranovic pairing, they should dovetail off each other nicely if they can stay fit – spiranovic is a player i’ll definitely be watching.

brillante will shield that defence even more and if marchan performs anything like andorran players do on the football manager sim – they could have a bargain next to brillante.

ikon and rojas on the wings with kruse tucked behind them looks very damaging on paper, the problem is gettting those 3 fit.

the puzzle is nearly together for victory, they need a proven centre forward and 1 possibly 2 more midfielders and they will go very close to winning the league

the only bias is from the east coast (which qld is technically apart of, but the bias doesnt really favour you lol ) but thats the a league, lets talk arnie specifics.

olyroos were expected to finish bottom of this group, they had qualification in their own hands and threw it all away and thats the thing that hurts the most.

I have a working relationship (not close though because of several clashes lol) with arnie, so im able to give you fist hand accounts of interactions.

i think its safe to say we don’t get along well personally as well as professionally – I am not a coach, so when it comes to tactics/training that is not my strong point, much like his view is different to mine when it comes to youth developement between the ages of 12-18

theres an article i wrote as the squad was announced with players who could’ve been selected that werent. yes some clubs wouldn’t release players (deni juric as an example) and some players were injured. But i think its safe to say that there were at least 9 playes in this squad that shouldnt have been selected.

again i need to reiterate i am not a coach in any way shape of form, even though i am around an a league coach 2-3 times a week lol.

But players should be chosen on playing time and form, alot of these boys werent playing each week and some of their from throughout the year for club sides was pathy at best.

3 over age players couldve been selected, he chose his teachers pet (duke) who was a waste of a pick and another player who had to leave pre tournament due to a pending assault case. 2 spots were available still and there are problematic areas in this team that could’ve used an ‘old head’

yeah the olyroos got 3 points from the group of death and thats an amazing achievement, 100% credit for that.

but the team played like a 1980s lower league UK team and thats not something i want to see at any amature level club side, let alone an international one at a major tournament.

im not expecting us to pass teams to death like spain, but i dont expect us to play longball to the ‘big man’ either. We regressed as a football nation last night, Arnie plays the same dross with the senior national team

arnie should not be u23’s and senior team boss, there should be 2 seperate managers for 2 seperate teams. – if im being brutally honest, he shouldnt be a national team coach

goalkeeper wise? there were plenty of options.

its a travesty that Margush wasn’t selected as first choice, let alone even in this squad. He was playing behind a far worse defence than glover yet is completely overlooked for a non league goalkeepr in maynard-brewer?

there were 2 overage spots still available, 1 of them could’ve easily been used on a ‘safe’ goalkeeper EG matt ryan, langerak before his retirement, federici had an absurd season.

glover has never instilled any confidence with his keeping (he is a younger andrew redmayne) I think alot of people jumped on his bandwagon because he was part of spurs youth teams.

i’m not saying hes an awful keeper, but i dont think he should be #1 at a big club where every mistake you make is dealt with a lot more scrutiny then if you were at a smaller club

there are several young coaches who tactically are miles ahead of arnie as well as experienced ones – its a crying shame that a coach like John Anastasiadis still hasn’t received a prominent head coaching gig (i was devastated for him when he missed out on the western united gig when rudan left)

he revolutionized football in melbourne; always developed youth and had unique training session

tom glover is andrew redmayne reincarnated – people rave about both goalkeepers, but if they werent playing behind such good defences; they would get a lot more questions asked about their abillities. Redmayne had a horrible club season, glover faired marginally better

tom glover is a good goalkeeper but is far too error prone to be a goalkeeper at one of the biggest clubs in australia, let along playing for the national team

my personal thoughts on arnie are well known on here, i have dealt with him twice in person, multiple times in calls/emails and found him to be an arrogant, smug so and so.

He is completely out of his depth as an international coach.

Lets be brutally honest the Olyroos were never going to qualify from this group, if anyone believed they were going to they are lying to themselves – they actually got 3 points more than i expected them to get (kudos for that)

as soon as he made his selections, there was zero chance. – Players picked who have barely kicked a ball in over a year (arzani), over age players chosen who arent good enough (duke), tactics that are reminiscent of 80s UK football (get the big guy on the end of a cross)

This is exactly the same issues that the senior team has. I can name you several young australian coaches off the top of my head who have more tactical nous then this old fossil

people laud his club coaching achievements, but coaching at club as opposed to internationals are 2 completely different levels – the gap between them is massive

misconception about city’s finances, ever since the clubs foundation they have always struggled for money.

You can go though any decade in the past 75 years and you are guaranteed to find some form of financial issue that has effected adelaide city.

i wouldnt say thats a city problem, thats any club in adelaide problem. Its why SA is known for producing talent, there is no option but to play kids because 90% of the clubs havent got the money.

Citys home ground needs an upgrade, it might hold around 5000 people but amenities like the flood lights, seating and even clubrooms could do with a major upgrade.

This will happen when they get into the NSD, even though the club has publically said theyre not that interested in it (behind closed doors thats not the case)

City have been very prudent with money the last few years since the regulations breach and thats also because the stadium will need developement for the NSD (which they will be part of) and if they ever get promoted to the a league