I love self-fulfilling prophecies. Rumours suggest Josh Risdon will return but can you start a rumour that Mikael Doka is going to Perth Glory? That would be very good news. Risdon can be reinvented as a holding midfielder, which is where he should have made his career anyway.

So, the Pommy press is saying the definition of a Dutchman is a German with an excellent grasp of English? 😁

I hope PG keep him and move Epakis on from the Women’s team. There seemed to be massive problems in the management of the Women’s team whereas the men were simply short of talent in the spine. On the Women’s front, it is worth noting Staj has a daughter in the Women’s squad who I think failed to get on the pitch during the season. (She was named on the bench once as far as I noticed.) Blood’s thicker than water, so maybe if daughter stays, dad stays.

Why A League?
How about because it is something to talk about?!
My son played NPL WA as a 16-17 year-old before a serious injury stopped him in his tracks. Football was all he was interested in though school teachers did try and tempt him to AFL. Even though he was as good if not better than his peers he only had a passing interest in AFL and cricket.
I grew up playing a number of sports but AFL and cricket were always essentially ubiquitous. I love sports so I followed them.
My interest in AFL faded when my kids came along, most of my interest shrinking to just Finals games.
However, my son and I have both been sucked into the AFL universe in recent years because our friends talk about it and in my son’s case bet on it or engage with tipping competitions.
Of course we need more and more people playing and making a living from the beautiful game but if you want to get its following to another level you have to tip the balance on the number of people talking about it against the numbers following the talking points courtesy of the AFL/NRL/CA politburos.

Interesting and worth considering.
However, being slightly facetious, who would incur more points? Mak for the simulated back-hander or Cancar for the simulated fall?
Looking at the situation another way, I think most of us want these incidents dealt with during the game. They are part of the beautiful (and not so beautiful) game.
In that spirit I would have liked to have seen the referee give out a yellow to both Mak and Cancar, for different types of unsporting behaviour.

It’s not just about the men’s team. The A League needs to retain Newcastle’s ALW team as well.

On replays I thought the tv coverage suggested it was deliberate. He looks across the goals for the cross initially but just before his boot connects with the ball his eyes seem to be looking exactly where it went.

As a long time critic of EVE as a midfielder I am going to give her a pass for last night’s bloopers. It can happen to anyone on occasions. Two good touches and we would have need have been singing her virtues. I thought she played the same role with some aplomb during the World Cup and is actually one of Gustavsson’s successes. He has got value out of her when she was going from bad to worse as a midfielder. However, she remains a conundrum. She looked a class above in her short ALW stint but her slow legs mean every touch needs to be next to perfect to perform reliably at international level.

Call me crazy but I actually think this issue may have had its genesis on the 25th September 2021.
Football followers everywhere watched as Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver et al run directly down the ground kicking goal after goal in an humiliation of Western Bulldogs. Cynical viewers of the game (to my shame, I was one of them) were shouting at the screen urging Western Bulldogs to employ a big-bodied player to run directly at those three Melbourne players and deliver an old-fashioned shirt-front to stop the momentum. In short, very much like Maynard did to Brayshaw last year. (We probably didn’t envisage the jump, just the bump.)
I believe the Collingwood “brains trust” (pardon the term Mr Brayshaw) remembered and reviewed that game from 2021 and had every intention of charging at Brayshaw, Petracca & Oliver and stopping Melbourne getting momentum early in the game and avoiding Western Bulldog’s fate in the 2021 Grand Final. Like a lot of things that seem like a good idea at the time I am sure there are people who prepared the Collingwood team last year that feel very bad about the outcome for Brayshaw.
I would like to think that protecting the head is an idea whose time has come.

Since 2008 Stajcic is now managing his 6th team while Postecoglu is managing his 8th team.

It seemed to unravel when there was a raft of substitutions. Like some others here I thought Arnold’s 70’ and 73’ substitutions were appropriate and timely but by my estimation every one of them misfired. I expected Bos to boss but he hardly had a touch and McGree should have been a threat scything through the Korean defence but was also largely invisible. Meanwhile, Lee for Cho seemed to rebalance their midfield and tilt possessions in their favour instantly. Suddenly, Souttar wasn’t given free rein to nod every South Korean attack away.
Sitting back is one thing but giving them the ball is another. In the second half we seemed to lose composure in defence with nice little combination plays out of defence disappearing and succumbing to hoofing the ball back to the opposition defenders.
Personally, I don’t think this is the best South Korean team we have seen, with their defence in particular looking lumbering, uncoordinated and vulnerable to creative attacks. Obviously, Arnold had to adopt tactics to negate Hwang and Son but sitting back and not playing out of defence when we won the ball caused far too little pressure on the South Korea’s weaknesses.
Notwithstanding Miller’s shortcoming on the night let’s not overlook Son’s free kick goal was very, very special. (Even he looked surprised!)

I didn’t hold much hope for Taggart to have a positive impact at PG due to being injury-prone. However, with an extended run of matches the team dynamic around him as improved a lot. I never pegged Taggart as being much of an athlete but it is apparent that when he retains fitness and confidence in his body that he has enough leg speed to trouble most defenders. His more adventurous one-touch efforts and improved heading make him a menace close to goals, where he has always excelled. Colakovski has his merits but PG need a partner for Taggart who provides better delivery deep in the final third than he is getting from him, Ivanovic, Bennie, Kamau and co. They could do worse than partnering Taggart with Colli as a deep-lying forward to produce the final pass. Colli seems to struggle with pacing himself to produce 90 minutes of good football in the midfield where he has a lot of defensive duties. He has increasingly spent his time chasing opponents and not enough on the ball, where he could be providing better quality delivery to Taggart.

Not a Burgess fan here. He always seemed to be one of those players who play with an air of an inflated opinion of their importance. Moreover, his talents were largely built on athleticism getting him to lots of possessions but he played with the touch of an elephant.
So I watched the weekend game with my usual skepticism about his merits. However, that was a seriously good performance. His touch was better than anything I believe I have seen from him before, he kept on popping up in good positions without running himself into the ground and he scored goals. His teammates didn’t exactly embrace him but his body language did seem a bit more team-oriented. I still think there are better prospects around for the national team but all credit to him for his latest manifestation. It felt significant for Sydney’s hopes of mounting a premiership challenge.

He is now on the wrong side of 30 and this hasn’t been his best season but Josh Risdon is substantially better than Atkinson, Karacic and Degenek. Against France in 2018 he controlled Mbappe while in 2022 Mbappe did as he liked against our national team. If Arnold had taken him to Qatar the Right Back position would have been rock solid with an intelligent attacking edge instead of being bereft of ideas going forward and an accident waiting to happen going back. His performance in the 2022 Grand Final for Western United showed his character and it is hard to believe he wouldn’t have fit into the mentality that Arnold used to drive the team forward in the World Cup.

Sydney FC were Champions in 2017, 2019 & 2020. I don’t remember it making the league stronger!

“J-League clubs to increase their earnings by 50-100%.“ Crikey, if that expected outcome could be replicated here how could one say “no”?

On the contrary, Glory missed a penalty and battered Melbourne City in the last 10 minutes. A draw would have been a more appropriate result but football, like life, isn’t meant to be fair! Leckie’s return is making a difference to Melbourne City. If Perth Glory can replicate that showing consistently in coming weeks the points will start to accumulate.

He’s a terrific character and displays skills that more Australian kids should try to develop but it seems to me Fornaroli’s career has always shown that he fails at the next level. His level is the A League, Popovic prepares a game plan that suits him but Arnold won’t. At 36, I can’t see the point in using him. His supporters seem to be tacitly saying, “well done mate” by playing him but that’s not we need with the national side.

What is the likelihood of resurrecting the A League Youth by each team participating in the NST to make a 20 team competition, including Wellington Phoenix? That keeps more WA(Perth Glory), QLD(Brisbane Roar) and SA(Adelaide United) kids involved and furthermore gives them many more matches than the previous Y League in a meaningful competition.
I haven’t really thought about this deeply but on face value, with pro/rel the highest ranked NST team (ie non A League) at the end of home and away should be promoted. One the other hand, I f, for example, Perth Glory or Wellington Phoenix was relegated to the NST they would do so and be supported appropriately to travel while the team that was promoted would take their A League spot and provide a Youth team to the NST.
I actually think the lack of another WA or NZ team in the NST is likely to strengthen their relative depth as NST clubs eat into the talent pool and sponsorship dollars of current NSW and Vic based A League clubs so the likelihood of Glory or Phoenix being relegated is reduced. Nevertheless, there should be a commitment to maintain their presence in the NST should it happen.

I see that he concluded, “Their first pick in this year’s draft is 34.” It will be a miracle if that pick lifts them up the ladder, never mind wins them a premiership.
For argument’s sake, for this trade period if they were trying to replicate the deal Collingwood did to get Bobby Hill they would have to give a future second-round pick and pick 43.
The Dockers have banked on their current list being good enough and starting the next rebuild n 2025!

Respect, but with the exception of Hill it was disappointing to see Collingwood revert to boring football to win the prize.
Personally, I don’t think the Collingwood coaches can claim to be tactical geniuses, as implied by this analysis. Hill simply turned up and played the game Brisbane were anticipating from Cameron and Brisbane were dumb enough to think Hill’s first few touches were a flash in the pan.

Thanks for the terrific write up though, for me, I think you have over-egged some of the GWS players capabilities. They have their out and out stars but not as many as may be surmised from your write up. I think it is all about the method for GWS rather than a galaxy of stars. Even with Nick Daicos I expect Collingwood to play the counter attacking strategy that they deployed against Melbourne rather than put all their faith in their midfielders like Port.

I think we, as in the fans and administration of each team and probably most owners, absolutely do want the highest qualifying team to host the Grand Final. Whether the attendance at the ground is 10000 or 100000 I don’t care. This is the A League designed for fans and teams, who get the unforgettable experience of hosting and more often than not winning the Grand Final. The broadcast experience, which is the drama on the pitch, will be essentially the same.
It is a different process but we have just had the WWC in Australia. If the biggest possible Grand Final crowd is always best the men’s and women’s WC would probably never get out of Europe.

One minute they’re a supreme athlete, able to twist and contort themselves out of immense pressure with the verve of a ballet dancer, the next we’re expected to believe they are as powerless to stop their momentum as a wrecking ball. (Damn, now I won’t be able to stop thinking about Miley Cyrus.)

The average time for a footballer to have the ball before being tackled is not much than a second, for strikers it is less than a second, so free kicks do help a lot in resetting the team and stalling the relentless pressure.
I digress, but, in fact, you could argue that the team that is pressing doesn’t want to give an unnecessary free kick to their opponents and ease the pressure. They want to tackle cleanly and win the ball or intercept an errant pass.
It was noticeable in the match versus Sweden that the Australian tackling efficiency seen earlier in the WWC declined significantly and it was Sweden predominately winning clean tackles and gaining possession. It seemed uncanny to me the number of times Swedish players tackled and won the ball while Australian players tackled and the Swedish player retained possession.