Decisions over the last 5 years don’t leave many alternatives, though.

I can’t remember a time in the last 20 years when we’d be picking players as inexperienced as Burns, Khawaja, Nevill, Ferguson and Mitch Marsh (as an example) in the same team… let alone in the same top 7!

It says it all that even though some are agitating that Warner doesn’t deserve to be vice captain, there’s virtually no alternative. The last 5 years has just seen such a chewing up and spitting out of players that no-one has been established as a long-term test player.

The reason promotion/relegation is not yet an option for Australia is that at the moment the LEAGUE ITSELF is the marketable product, not the individual clubs.

When Newcastle Utd were relegated a few seasons ago, an entire city essentially lost interest in the biggest domestic league in the world and instead followed their club in the Championship. Until your WSW, Victory or Roar could do the same and essentially keep people showing up at games and more importantly watching on Foxtel regardless of which league they’re in then it’s simply too risky.

Ultimately the NPL will be a test model to see if a 2nd Division can be viable. Once that’s proven then there is still the question of whether the HAL can afford to not have all its biggest clubs. So promotion/relegation is a long way off.

In the meantime as has been pointed out the NYL is the combined youth and reserve league… and I note at least Brisbane and Perth (perhaps others?) will be entering their NYL teams into the local NPL competitions in those states.

There is no one blueprint for Australia to follow, because Australia is a unique footballing nation just like every other.

I would like to see us borrow significantly from both the American and Japanese examples in our development… both have significantly and deliberately improved their league and national team standards over the last 20 years (hosting a World Cup has played a significant role for each and it’s massively unfortunate we were denied the chance to do so in 2022).

Nice and well-considered write-up!

Not sure why you didn’t also consider the CB options… Spiranovic, Thwaite, Matt Smith and Sainsbury must all be knocking at the door.

It’s a real shame Jamieson got a serious injury as I felt he was the form Australian LB in the A-League and could’ve seriously pushed for a national team birth. As you’ve pointed out no other possibility is really standing up, and I’d say it’s looking good for Davidson to make the position his own (but who the backup will be I doubt even Ange knows!).

Not the best player Glory have ever had… but by a significant margin the best to watch. Sidnei reminds us why to love football!

If the rumours are true, we are not talking about the “older hacks” pushing Ali Edwards out the door… we’re talking about at least 80% of the squad not being happy and siding with Burns over Edwards (media reports suggested only 4 players supported Edwards’s position, 2 of which were the Edwards boys).

In any business, if those are the numbers and you’re the bosses boss you know you’ve got to do something. Tony Sage offered a compromise but Ali Edwards wouldn’t accept it… therefore there was no option but to go down this path!

Burns was speaking for virtually the entire squad, and as captain he had a duty to do so.

I’m not a fan of his on the pitch but my opinion of him has actually improved based on this sorry saga.

Tony Sage had no option but to change Ali’s role based on how things have panned out (Edwards apparently not even talking to senior players including Gallas and with all but 4 members of the squad not happy with his way of doing things) and when he wasn’t willing to accept compromise, he had to go.

It’s a shame because as you say Ali brought a lot of positive things to the table in terms of football philosophy and the willingness to trust youth, but he clearly wasn’t able to do the job in the whole. Hopefully the next coach keeps the good stuff Ali started at the club, and we don’t get a throwback to the Mitch/Fergie years.

As for Ryan and Cam Edwards, well if they really are up to scratch then the new coach will keep picking them and they’ll know they deserve it. That’s got to be a positive for them. I think Ryan Edwards in particular has potential, but the role he was being used in by Ali Edwards was so critical that by not being an absolute gun he made the entire team look worse.

Ali Edwards is proof that the ability to work with kids and junior sides is entirely different to working with a squad of senior professionals.

The stories coming out about his inability to work with the senior players are damning if true. It’s a shame, because the injection if youth that Ali brought to Glory is just what the club needed… but he seems to have failed to balance that with the ability to utilise his entire squad.

Love or hate Burns, but when you’re the captain and you’ve got virtually the entire squad complaining about the coach you have a duty to stand up and say something… and Burns did that. Sage really had no option here.

The trick will be for the next coach to retain Ali Edwards’s football philosophies, but get a better grip of the man-management aspects of the role!

The “senior players” group seems to consist of Burns, Thwaite, McGarry, Vukovic and probably Smeltz… a number of younger players who are also been sidelined behind the “favourites” (Zahra, Harold, Cernak, O’Neill, Makeche) are probably also against the coach but that’s purely speculation.

The fact is, Ryan Edwards has played almost every game this season… most games I would say he has been at best serviceable and some quite poor, despite playing in a key position. The fact that a number of other players including now Burns have been left out despite being available for Ryan is the great concern.

I would say Maclaren is the other who seems to play all the time even though for me Harold and Makeche have both shown more so far this season as forward options… proving that it might not just be nepotism but a general case of ‘playing favourites’ which happens to include his sons.

In fairness, any of the top 10 nations in the world could put out a reserve side that could beat any of the remaining 190 nations of the world. The gulf between the very best and the rest in football is bigger than people realise, mainly because the nature of football gives a better chance to underdogs than most other sports.

The 6-0 6-0 results aren’t reflective of where Australia is as a footballing nation… we had divisions in the squad, a coach who didn’t for whatever reason rate some of our most talented players, a very negative formation and heavy external pressures being placed on the side.

Under Ange, you can expect us to go out and play Spain the way we played Brazil in 2006. We probably won’t win, we may not score a goal, but anyone around the world who watches the game will see that Australians can play football. I’m expecting us to send a much younger, hungrier team to Brazil than what we’ve seen in Australia’s colours since the 2011 Asian Cup.

Agree here… to me a group of death is any group with 3 teams would have been expected to make the last 16 with a good chance of making the quarter finals.

I wouldn’t *expect* Ghana to make the last 16, and the US and Portugal are both teams I wouldn’t highly fancy as quarter finalists.

Spain, Netherlands and Chile on the other hand are all teams you might’ve picked as quarter finalists before the draw was made (2 were the finalists last time around, while Chile on its home continent and with a strong team were being tipped very highly).

Group D with England, Uruguay and Italy is a tough group based on their historic records but the England and Uruguay teams of today just aren’t really strong enough to demand making the quarter finals, so I rate this the third toughest group.

It was a deliberate tactic to reduce the game to a defensive line and an attacking line to take Melbourne’s probing midfield play out of the game, but it largely didn’t work because Ryan Edwards didn’t offer enough either in defence or going forward as one of only two centre-midfielders.

If we’d played the same tactic with, for example, Liam Miller and Jacob Burns as the midfielders… it may have worked. Of course we don’t have a Miller in the side anymore but Ali Edwards chose this squad and he chooses to persist with his son as a starter. This one error of judgement is doing serious damage to all the other good work he has done putting together a side that was a shambles for years under Mitch and Fergie.

The problem for me is that in the 4-2-3-1 shape that Edwards is playing, that central attacking midfielder has to be a real dictator to get the whole team functioning.

Ryan Edwards is an ok-but-not-great player, but once he’s in that role the whole team falls apart and we’re left relying on trying to play direct to the wingers and get them to make stuff happen from wide. It’s no prettier than when Fergie was the coach, and it’s largely based on that one player (who happens to be the coach’s son).

Against Melbourne, Edwards changed the formation and basically removed the midfield to counter Melbourne’s dominance in that area… which I think was a brave decision that didn’t pay off. The point is still that regardless of system or form, there seems to be a place for Ryan Edwards in the starting XI and he’s just not good enough to justify that!

I’d love to see us play Chris Harold in the AM role because his pace is always a weapon and he can get the ball in midfield and run at the opposition defence quickly, drawing them out and creating space for the forwards.

Sorry al but it *is* a group of death… but not for Australia’s presence in it. To me a group of death is any that pairs 3 teams who all might’ve realistically aimed for a quarter final birth had they not all been drawn together.

Assuming Spain and Holland would definitely be potential quarter finalists, then unless you think Chile are overrated then it’s a group of death. Australia is the unlucky fourth team in the group.

The only other groups comparable, for me, are the Uruguay and Germany groups. But I think both Uruguay and England would be doing very well to make the last 8, and also think Portugal are about equivalent to Chile while the US and Ghana would be delighted to make the last 8. Therefore I pin us as in the group of death (based on the criteria that it guarantees at least one quality side is eliminated at the group stage).

Yes a stretch maybe 🙂

I didn’t elaborate too much but I see that Ghana are seen as a side that rely much more on speed and strength rather than passing and technique to create scoring chances (rightly or wrongly).

We are seen similarly, so combining that with the more obvious similarities with the US in terms of standard and style and there is a definite case for Portugal using us as a warm-up match!

It’s also worth noting that the bigger teams often avoid each other in the lead-up to the World Cup, as they expect to possibly meet in the knock-out stages. In truth, Portugal would probably be more keen on using Scandinavian teams like Norway or Iceland rather than us, but we should definitely pursue them.

You may be right, but in the past we’ve had a good reputation for providing a top level physical workout for opponents. The 6-0 6-0 results may have damaged our chances in which case we pick from unqualified sides like Poland, Sweden or Serbia perhaps?

Of course… I meant Moutinho! I mis-typed with a C and the editor added the first name.

Still an interesting read Andrew! And I really enjoyed your discussion of the various cities / climates… something I’ve never given much thought to in the past but since reading this article I’ve researched the host cities a lot more and even looked closer at previous cities where Australia has played World Cup matches!

North African sides in previous World Cups have played with a quite similar style to Middle Eastern styles, so if Algeria follows that trend they would be our ideal draw due to our experience against those sides.

I wouldn’t fear any of the 5 African sides as much as a South American side in South America, but all of them are potential gun sides *if* they get it right… traditionally one will get it right and four will implode so hopefully we get whichever team struggles most to get their act together!

I keep reading that the positions in the group (say for Group C… positions C1, C2, C3 and C4) will be based on teams being from Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3 or Pot 4.

From what I’ve read from FIFA… however… plus from previous draws, I understand that apart from the seeded team filling the number 1 spot, each of the other 3 teams will be DRAWN into a position 2, 3 or 4. In previous additions a team was drawn into a Group, and then a second ball was drawn to determine the position within the group. Therefore the order that we play teams (seed first, Euro team first or African/S.American team first) will be random!

…and apparently FIFA conducted a draw rehearsal today. Australia drew, yep, 3 former champions in Brazil, France and Italy.

Wouldn’t actually be that bad, because expectations would be zero so just scoring a goal would be seen as an achievement!

The full result of the rehearsal, or so I have heard…

Group A: Brazil, France, Australia, Italy.

Group B: Uruguay, Nigeria, USA, Croatia.

Group C: Argentina, Ghana, Costa Rica, Russia.

Group D: Switzerland, Chile, Japan, Greece.

Group E: Spain, Ivory Coast, South Korea, England.

Group F: Colombia, Cameroon, Honduras, Holland.

Group G: Germany, Ecuador, Iran, Portugal.

Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Mexico, Bosnia.

I’ll back Ange over Woy any day.

My definition of ‘quite reasonable’ is “not negligible” 😛

I guess I meant “quite reasonable” in the sense that it could realistically occur. “A possibility” might’ve been more appropriate!

I wonder if there’s ever been a higher probability of getting 3 winners in the same group? Since Spain only became a winner last tournament and France has only been a winner for the last 3, I’m guessing probably not… although the smaller tournaments of years past would have an effect.

One day in 50 years maybe Australia can play in the first group containing ONLY former champions?!

There’s actually a quite reasonable chance that we’ll end up in a group against 3 former World Champions… Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay plus 2 of France, England and Italy.

At least if we draw against Spain or Germany we will be guaranteed to get Chile, Ecuador or an African side.

Colombia in South America or a very talented Belgian side will probably justify their seed status, so I’d hope to draw against Switzerland or Uruguay. Throw in Bosnia on debut or beatable Greece/Croatia/Russia and we can be very happy with the draw.

Unless we end up with nightmare KO times!

Federici and some of the younger players not playing regularly (Rogic, Amini, Herd, Rukavytsya, Halloran, etc.) would be better off looking for loans in Europe rather than coming back to Australia. Look at Massimo Luongo or Jackson Irvine… by going out on loan they’re right in the frame for the Socceroos now.

Jones could probably give up unfortunately given the tragic circumstances that led him to missing out on being a part of the tournament four years ago. Too many younger players ahead of him in the queue now.

DeVere is in a tough spot, as he probably won’t get a gig in the A-League but he needs to find *somewhere* to put himself in the frame. Holman is in the same position, but seems insistent that he doesn’t want to play in the A-League.

I doubt any A-League team would want Neill as he’s kind of a negative from a marketing point of view these days.

To be honest, unless you’re a left-back I don’t think there is much any of the fringe players can do to unseat the current to 25-30 players available for Ange. He trusts the known A-League quantities and guys doing well overseas enough that one good season after coming home probably won’t change his view. If anyone is going to be a surprise selection, it’ll be someone like Bailey Wright, Massimo Luongo, Jackson Irvine or James Meredith (yes our left back problems are so bad we could go looking at Bradford to find one!).