2009/10 A-League Season Preview _ Part 1

Ok, here is my season preview for what it is worth.

In this first part of three, I take a look at what I tip will be the bottom four teams.

10th – Central Coast Mariners
It seems every year pundits across Australia write Central Coast off and most years they keep proving them wrong. This year though I see nothing to indicate they will be successful.

------------------Vukovic-----------------------
-Clark-------Doig------Bojic-----Heffernan-
---------------Huke----Wilkinson-------------
-----Travis-----Hutchinson-----Elrich-------
--------------------Simon----------------------

I found it hard to put a starting eleven together for the Mariners not because they don’t have some good players but because I know McKinna won’t play the formation I would like to see. To be honest I think McKinna has run his race at the Mariners and this will be his last season in charge.

So assuming McKinna will stick to what he knows best, I have gone with a 4-2-3-1. Once again the side relies on its ability to get the ball long to Simon and have Elrich and new boy Travis swooping in. Huke, Wilkinson & Hutchinson just won’t have the quality to dominate opposition midfields so expect a lot of long balls over the top again. The problem of course, is that the nine other teams in the league know this and are waiting to pounce.

It will be interesting to see if McGlinchey will push Hutchinson out of his starting role. In addition the Mariners are making noises of signing 1-2 additional strikers before the 31/08/2009 deadline. If that happens a lot of people may have to re-assess the team.

The one thing that the second half of last season demonstrated was how important Jedinak was the McKinna’s game plan. He is gambling a lot on Huke to fill the space left by his departure but I just don’t see it being enough. They will finish bottom.

Watch out for : Long ball after long ball up to Simon…yawn!


9th – Nth Queensland Fury
The first of the new sides but even with God on their side the Fury are in for a long season. They appear to lack the quality though the middle of the park to trouble some of the better teams in the League and I am not convinced about their defence.

-------------------- Henderson-------------------
-Middleby---Wilson---Tambouras---Tadrosse-
----------------------Griffith --------------------
-------Amaya-------Agius--------Spagnuolo---
--------------Williams----Fowler----------------

The Fury are very top heavy in Wingers/Strikers and it’s difficult to find a balanced formation for them. I think they are likely to play youngster Griffiths as a holding midfielder and use Agius in the central attacking role. Williams would prefer to play up forward with Fowler and a good performance against Roar in the preseason will most likely see him at least start there.

On paper they don’t look a bad attacking side, but their depth is shockingly bad in midfield and they are relying a lot on Fowler being fit up forward. If he is not, then they may see Ferguson forced to use a 4-3-3 with Spagnuolo and Willams being used as true wingers (In fact the side looks better balanced without Fowler there but the quality takes a hit).

There defence seems to lack quality on paper and I am expecting them to be the whipping boys early in the season. Key defender Wilson will start the season injured which will further hurt their ability to contain sides. And there is a question over whether Henderson will actually sign a contract.

Of the course the weather is the big unknown and teams travelling up north in summer to take on Fury may be in for a nasty shock when they get up there. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them difficult to beat at home as teams struggle to adapt to the stifling heat and humidity. Fury will have a distinct advantage at home from December onwards.

Watch out for : With fury having two very quick wingers in Williams and Spagnulo I am expecting lots of crosses into Fowler, if he remains fit he will pick up a stack of goals.


8th – Wellington Phoenix
Maybe because they are located in another country or perhaps because they deliberately take a low key approach but the Phoenix seem to have flown under the radar this preseason.

----------------------Paston----------------------
--Mulligan----McKain--Durante---Lochhead--
----------------------Brown----------------------
------Bertos-------------------------Daniel------
----------------------Diego-----------------------
---------------Ifill----------Greenacre-----------

The loss of Smeltz will have a huge impact and he will be difficult to replace but its good to see the Phoenix have recruited what appears to reasonable strikers. On paper the Phoenix team actually looks nearly as good as last year. Diego is a good pickup and if he can stay healthy will provide some excellent distribution to the new strikers.

If there is a question around Phoenix, its their ability to dominate other midfields. Daniel, Bertos, Ferrante, Lia do not exactly strike fear into the hearts of the opposition.

I think it is going to take time however for this team to gel and although I think they have the squad to make the finals if everything goes to plan. I am tipping them to fall short.

Watch Out For : With the midfield that he has to play with I am expecting Herbert having to switch and swap a lot early in the season.


7th – Newcastle Jets
Van Egmond out, Branko in. Its almost like for like. To be honest I like watching the Jets play. Over the last four years, out of all the A-League teams, they have maintained a program of keeping the ball on the deck have attempted to play attractive passing football.

---------------------Kennedy---------------------
--Elrich----Milicevic--T-Stanley---D’Apuzzo'--
----------Kantarovski---Thompson-------------
--------------------Vignaroli---------------------
---De Groot---------------------------Patafta---
--------------------Petrovski---------------------

Culina likes to play attacking football and it is likely we will at least see the Jets start the season playing a 4-3-3. Vignaroli is prefect for the creative role at AM and Patafta may finally be given a chance to fully prove himself in a starting role.

To be honest though Milicevic is the key to how well Newcastle do. He can have a huge influence as we saw throughout the ACL matches and if he can get his head right and contain that mouth of his he just might drag Newcastle higher up the ladder than expected.

But I feel there is too much riding on Ljubo and the defence without him just isn’t up to scratch. I am not a huge wrap for Topor-Stanley, who makes far too many mistakes for my liking and is often found wanting for speed.

Watch out for : Ljubo won’t be able to contain himself and at some point in the year will abuse the club, owner, manager. Entertaining it might be but it is a train wreck waiting to happen.


In the next article I will take a look at 4th to 6th

6 Days to Season V
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Half Time Heros Fanzine

Eamon Flanagan (The Nearpost blog) and Con Stamocostas (A Football Story blog) are pulling together a monthly fanzine called “Half Time Heros”.

Some of Australia’s most committed Football writers have joined, including Tony Tannous (The Round Ball Analyst & The Roar), Mike Salter (The Football Tragic), Fiona Crawford (A Girl Called Fred) and Bill Skinner (A Spawning Salmon/A Pissant Town) plus many, many more (including myself looking a look at the Young Socceroos and other youth issues).

The fanzine will take a serious and sometimes not so serious look at Australian Football. The first issue will feature stories and interviews with the Socceroos. Covering every A-League club; including the two new teams the Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury. The W-League and Youth League will also be featured.

The first bumper issue features over 20 pages. Sports Minister, the honourable Kate Ellis writes the opening piece. Terry Henry tackles the hardmen, we look at all the media stars in season 5, double FA we're watching you, and more opinions than you could ever hope for; a star team of writers and all for free. Football heaven!

So sign up for Half-Time Heroes here and watch out for you copy next Wednesday.

7 Days to Season V
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Rising Stars Of The A-League

Its great to see the National Australia Bank getting involved in supporting the identification of the next generation of Socceroos. The fact that the FFA now have attracted corporate sponsorship for its A-League Youth award is yet another indication of the growth of the game within this country.

Of course the NAB have been long time supporters of young sporting talent in this country with their long standing sponsorship deal with the AFL for their Rising Start award. The $10,000 investment portfolio on offer isn’t huge but it is a start and for these players starting out on hopefully long and successful careers it is an excellent sweetener.

I am a little disappointed though that they have decided to leave the age at Under 21 for this award, I would prefer that it drop down to Under 20 to really reward those players who are climbing through the youth ranks into senior level.

So who are the early favourites to take the award this year? Here are my top 5 chances to take out the award.

5. Mitch Nicols – Brisbane Roar
Nichols is one of those players that looks a million dollars one week, ten cents the next. He came along in leaps and bounds last year however and should cement his position in the Mariners starting line up this year, though the presence of Charlie Miller will likely push him out of his preferred position.

He gets himself into scoring position on a regular basis and the Roar tactics allow his sometimes lack of precision passing to become less important. To win the award though he will need to play and score regularly.


4. Luke DeVere – Brisbane Roar
DeVere has been a revelation at Roar, his solidness in defence belies his years and it certainly hasn’t hurt him having Craig Moore as a mentor. He had fourteen appearances last season but I am expecting him to be the first choice starter this year.

This will be a big year for DeVere and if he can improve even more on last year he is sure to attract the attention of overseas clubs. With the Roar shaping up as a very tough defensive team DeVere will have the chance to shine.


3. Tahj Minniecon – Gold Coast
With Minniecon’s switch to the Gold Coast he has a new manager to impress and a team full of experience to beat out for a starting role but his pre-season has been impressive and his runs down the right hand side a standout for the Gold Coast. Miron is a big fan and a starting spot seems likely.

The improvement in his game under Farina was exceptional and this year may just be the year he finally puts it all together and becomes one of the most lethal young wingers we have. The potential is there, Miron just has to bring it out.


2. David Williams – Nth Queensland Fury
It is a huge coup for Nth Queensland to pick up Williams on loan from FC Brondby where he is currently out of favour. A quick striker who can be dazzling when playing well Williams will be hoping to secure a starting spot in the Fury line up.

He is super quick and has a excellent nose for goals. The big question mark will be whether the Fury midfield can provide him with the service he needs but if he gets going, watch out, he might just outshine Fowler.


1. Kofi Danning – Sydney FC
This kid is special and I am fully expecting this to be his last year in the A-League. A class midfielder who is comfortable with the ball at his feet and an eye for goal. He has the special ability to be in the right place at the right time and seems to be always on the scoresheet.

If he can win a first team starting spot, he is going to star this year. I suspect he will get the nod as the left midfielder for Sydney and there are going to be a few opposition right backs who end up with nightmares after chasing him around all day.

And there is the outstanding question of whether he will be allowed to play for Australia at the Youth World cup. If he isn’t that will be a few weeks more he will be on show in the A-League.

9 Days to Season V
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Bubbledome Coming Along Nicely

Ask any Victory supporter what they are most looking forward to when Victory kick off their ACL campaign next March and the answer you are most likely to receive is, “sitting in the new home of football in victory, the Bubbledome”.

Construction of the new stadium has been ongoing now for several months and age newspaper today published a stunning photo (see below) of the progress.


Of course the stadium won’t be officially named the Bubbledome. I am sure the powers that be will sell the naming rights to some corporation but it is fast becoming the name used most by the fans to describe the stadium. And of course it can be easy to see why with its distinctive roof structure.

It goes without saying the anticipation of the new stadium is extremely high amongst Victory supporters, including myself. The Bubbledome will provide a true home to Victory and the atmosphere it will provide cannot be understated. Melbourne fans have always prided themselves on providing their team support unmatched in the A-league and with the smaller size (approx. capacity of 31,000), the Bubbledome is expected to literally buzz on match days.

With the Dome and Olympic park before it, Victory supporters have never had a prefect stadium where they are close to the action. The new stadium will change all that, with its purpose built rectangle surface and compact stands, all fans will be closer to the action and with Victory fast approaching 20,000 members this year, competition for the prime seats is also going to be fierce. It will be interesting to see just how many non-reserved seats are available to the public when the 2010/11 season rolls around.

One of the disappointing factors of the new stadium is that 31,000 will most likely be inadequate for the matches against Victory biggest rivals, Sydney FC and Adelaide United, and these games will have to be moved to Etihad Stadium. Of course this is not very popular amongst the most die hard of Victory members as these are exactly the type of games where a sell within the new stadium would enhance the experience.

The stadium is expected to also be used by the second Melbourne team when they enter the competition in the 2010/11 season so Melbourne football fans can expect to see football every week at this wonderful new venue.

At this time the Stadium is expected to be completed by Feb/March next year. So hopefully Victory can christen the turf with a home game to kick off the ACL campaign.

12 Days to Season V

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Looking for Egmond's Accountability

You have to love the world we live in today. Everyone is to blame but ourselves! So it comes as no surprise that some media commentators are quick to lay the van Egmond fiasco at the FFA’s doorstep rather than the individual responsible.

In his latest blog, Jesse Fink points the finger at FFA and a lack of due diligence on their behalf as the root cause for the problems that Gary van Egmond now finds himself in. But where is the accountability for the individual that misled the FFA and his club throughout this process. Gary van Egmond should bear the majority of fault for this mess not the FFA.

The article itself touches on van Egmond’s role within the process without ever associating wrongdoing to him personally. Fink writes, “According to our information, the FFA then offered to contact Constantine to inform him of their planned offer to employ the coach. Van Egmond persuaded them to hold off, suggesting that he should tell Constantine himself”. So the FFA was under the impression that van Egmond would inform his employers that he had applied for a role at the AIS and FFA, was it reasonable of the FFA to then go behind Van Egmond’s back and inform the club, I wouldn’t have thought so.

The other concern in this process is the contract that Van Egmond had with Newcastle Jets. As Fink writes “Van Egmond allegedly assured the FFA during the interview process that he had been “unencumbered” contractually.” Jesse goes on to suggest that they should have requested a copy of the contract. Really? Is it really a reasonable request for a potential employer to request a copy of the current contract that a potential employee has with their existing employer? Again I would have thought not.

It seems to me that Gary Van Egmond here needs to bear the brunt of the blame. It was he who misled the FFA in regards to his ability to exit his contract. And it was he who failed to inform his existing employer that he was seeking employment elsewhere. His reputation is now in tatters and I wonder if a senior club in the A-league would even consider him for a youth role at the moment.

Fink’s colleague and fellow blogger Phil Micallef seems to be of the same mind as myself as his latest article places the blame squarely on Gary van Egmond’s shoulders. It’s interesting to note that Philip, who spoke to Egmond before this all blew up in his face, quotes Egmond as being “almost cocky” about leaving the Jets in the lurch.

It’s good to see that FFA did the correct thing and withdrew their offer of employment once it was confirmed that indeed van Egmond had misled them. There is no doubt that the FFA could have handled its communication with Con Constantine better after the offer of employment had been made and accepted but I cannot accept them as the “villain”, as Fink puts it, in this situation.

15 days to Season V
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Club vs Country, A-League Style

Miron was never going to win the battle to hold onto Tahj Minniecon for Gold Coast's preseason. The FFA have made it clear in the past it will not tolerate clubs attempts to withhold players from international commitments and again they have ensured that Minniecon is in the squad for the South American camp in Argentina.

Overall I agree with the FFA stance that country commitments should hold sway over club duties but there is a serious concern here that the FFA is taking advantage of the agreements to release players they have inserted into the clubs licences.

Should a lead up preparation game really hold sway over club commitments for young players that are vying for first team positions. And if this is a serious camp, that will be critical to the preparation and selection of the Under 20 squad for the Youth World Camp, there seems to be a few names missing from the squad. No Dean Bouzanis, James Holland, Oliver Bozanic, Ryan Grant, Tommy Oar & Robert Stambolziev. Of these the biggest surprises are Ryan Grant and Tommy Oar, surely they are still in the mix for selection, especially considering some of the names that have made the list.

Then there are the big three, why have Bouzanis, Holland and Bozanic been left out of the squad. If their clubs have denied them permission to join the camp (as is their right as this does not occur over FIFA approved dates), you can hardly blame the A-league clubs for feeling hard done by. If they also want to keep a player/s who will be critical to their first team plans for the year they are left with little choice but to go cap in hand to the FFA but it appears no-one is listening there.

It would be ironic indeed if Minniecon, Danning, DeVere, Hoffman, Jurman & Nichols lose their A-league starting spots as their managers feel that they haven’t been involved enough in pre-season and opt for another player who has taken their place while away in camp. Minniecon and Danning are both in the middle of battles with more experienced players for starting berths at their respective teams.

On the weekend Danning once again showed why he is a name to watch this year but with him absent for the last few weeks in the lead up to the opening match, Lavicka may look elsewhere for that starting spot and use him off the bench. I don’t think warming the pine will help his or Minniecon's development much and the FFA should be asking themselves whether the players long term development wouldn’t be better served with their clubs.

18 Days to Season V
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Can Hearts Succeed

So Melbourne will have a second team in the 2010-11 season. A local derby will have many Victory fans excited but can a second team survive in the long term? I think so but it will be a bumpy ride.

Since the Peter Sidwell backed bid was officially confirmed as the 11th A-league licence there has been a lot of discussion in football circles around where their members will come from. Obviously Sidwell and the other backers of the new team would have conducted significant market research in terms of how viable a second team in Melbourne will be before they committed there funds to the venture. However on the surface it is hard to imagine that there is a significant supporter base of non-aligned Victory fans to capture.

Melbourne is not like Sydney, there is no great divide between West and East, North and South. And as there is already a successful team that plays out of a centrally located stadium that can be easily reached by the majority of the population there is no signficant portion of the popultion that cannot easily make the trip each week. This is beside the point though as the new team have indicated they also will play out of the new stadium currently being built in Richmond. So like Victory, Hearts (for want of a official name) will not target a specific geographical area of Melbourne or Victoria and will instead attempt to engage the community across all of the state.

There is no doubt that there is still a significant number of football followers in Victoria that haven’t jumped on board the Melbourne Victory bandwagon over the last five years. But if they haven’t been moved to support Victory what will this new team bring to the table that will convince them to buy a membership now.

There will be an element of existing supporters that will see this new club as an opportunity to support something new and I have no doubt that they will initially receive some crossover support from Victory fans who just want to go see a match each weekend. However any way you look at it Hearts are shaping up as the poorer cousin to Victory and will have a hard time attracting the degree of support that Victory enjoys.

With 5 years head start though Victory have built a strong following right across Melbourne and Victoria and they are not going to give up their existing members without a fight. You can be certain that Victory will do everything within their power to maintain and grow there membership base. We have already seen signs of this with the introduction of loyalty initiatives this year and it is not coincidence that a large portion of Victory members will reach the first reward level within the next two years, just as the new team will be looking to lure them away.

With the 2010 World Cup taking place during the lead up to Hearts entry to the A-league they should get a significant amount of initial support. The challenge for hearts will be to keep these bandwagoners and turn them into long term members. And of course in the longer term with good management there is no reason that hearts cannot compete with Victory for the affections of the kids coming through. Some success on field and a couple of highly marketable players will also help attract kids. The question is how long can hearts survive as they wait for these young fans to become revenue producing members. I wish them the best of luck as I suspect they will need it.

23 Days to Season V
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Fulham Defeat Great For All

Gold Coast’s win over Fulham on Wednesday night has caused quite a stir. With news of the surprising win even making news in the UK. It certainly has given the Gold Coast a huge boast in confidence going into the start of the new A-League season but how important is it to the A-league in general.

Putting aside the fact that Fulham were extremely underdone for this match and Gold Coast meets them at the end of a extensive preseason, and yes the Fulham side was full of reserves and youngsters in the second half when GC scored their winning goals. But remember this is the club that finish 7th in the EPL last season meeting a side that has not played an official match as yet, they would not have been pleased to walk away with the loss.

The result can only have benefits for the A-League across world and especially within Europe. With Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Celtic all playing matches here this pre-season it will no doubt draw football fans who would not normally go along to watch a A-League game. Perth and Brisbane especially could get a large boost in membership from some solid performances against their English and Scottish opponents respectively. Who knows in a couple of years we may even see A-league clubs talking on the giants of European football. A Melbourne Victory vs Barcelona or a Sydney vs Chelsea, maybe even a Gold Coast vs Real Madrid.

I found Michael Cockerill’s article today to be a very interesting read. To be honest I think the FFA approach here is spot on. Allowing the A-League clubs to organise their own preseason matches has opened up the door to media and public exposure that the league was never going to achieve via their dinky preseason club.

I hope though the FFA never support EPL matches here in Australia. Such matches would not be conductive to the growth of the game here in Australia and would be a backward step. These preseason matchups are the way to grow the game and hopefully a couple more good results will encourage better teams out here for their pre-seasons.

I will be heading along to the Melbourne Victory and Fulham match on Saturday night and have two English friends coming who have never seen the Victory play live. I am not desperate for a win (though it would be nice), what I really want is a great spectacle. There is no doubt that Fulham will come out with a little more vigour after been stung on Wednesday, hopefully the Victory can match and also put on a display. Whatever the result though its great for the game here and I look forward to more and evn better clubs in the following years.

27 Days to Season V

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Youth Marquee Farce

When the FFA introduced the Youth Marquee allowance before the start of last season I thought it was a great initiative to help keep some of our youngest stars here in Australia for a year or two longer but now it has just turned into a farce and is effectively just a defacto $150,000 increase to the Salary cap.

The fact that the $150k allowance can be split across three players within the squad just means that clubs are going to use the allowance to pay for their three youngest squad members (which by the FFA regulations they must have) and effectively add the $150K saved to the rest of the cap.

This defeats the whole purpose of the Youth Marquee allowance. Originally when introduced, it was intended that the $150K could be used to encourage clubs to offer a bit more to those players who were on the verge of leaving overseas due to overseas league being willing to pay a lot more for their services than what a A-League club could afford under our cap. It was hoped that by providing an allowance outside the cap, it would allow clubs to offer higher than normal wages to a few select players that would normally have left. The idea was this could also be used to encourage younger players back from Europe when their careers may be stagnating a bit and the extra cash on offer might be enough to see them home. The classic example of this was Melbourne Victory enticing back Nick Ward. It is doubtful that Melbourne would have been able to afford him without the benefit of salary being excluded from the cap.

The fact that some clubs didn’t have players that were worthy of a $150K contract has seen a push from the clubs and PFA to spread this allowance across multiple players. This is stupid as now clubs have no motivation to chase the better youth players. So instead of clubs targeting the likes of Oliver Bozanic, Ryan McGowan, James Wesolowski & David Williams for a return to Australia they will just assign the money to their three under 21 players and free up the $150K to be spent on obtaining a slightly better foreign player. Don’t believe me, lets take Melbourne Victory for example again. With Nick Ward no longer eligible for the concession they sought and have been granted permission to assign their youth marquee allowance to Elasi, Theodore and Langerak, thus freeing up the $150K needed to sign Hernandez/Sukha. Now I am in no way complaining about these signings (as a Victory supporter I am rapt to have both) but it makes a joke out of the Youth Marquee salary exclusion.

Why didn’t the FFA dump the allowance and just bump the salary cap up by $150K, after all the result is exactly the same. I would much rather see an extra player slot allocated outside the salary cap than maintain this charade. This would allow the more adventurous clubs to add to the quality of talent coming into the league. It would also assist Australian clubs in the Champions League.

34 Days to Season V

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A Window To Asia

With just over a month until the start of the new season I thought it about time I resume this blog. I lot has happened in the last couple of months but there are few items I want to mention specifically.

Firstly, congratulations to the Socceroos on qualification to their second world cup in a row (only our third in total). I have been astounded by the criticism of the coach, Pim Verbeek, in the lead up to the last couple of matches. Although I also have been critical of the conservative approach he employs the proof is in the pudding and I would suggest it will be a long while before another Australian coach exceeds his qualification record of 14 games, 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

Secondly I think overall Newcastle and Central Coasts performance in the Asian Champions League was unfortunately about what was to be expected. Central Coast never looked like they deserved to be there and it was no surprise they failed to win a match. Although Newcastle exceeded my initial expectations of them by making the final 16 round, the way they capitulated to Pohang demonstrated that they probably didn’t deserve to get that far. I think Gary Van Egmond is a huge loss to Newcastle and I fear both they and Central Coast will struggle to make the final 6 this year.

The final item I wanted to talk about is the moment in A-League history that occurred today. What moment am I talking about? Today Melbourne Victory’s recent signing, Thailand international Surat Sukha, officially joined the reining champions. It is significant because I believe he is the first ASEAN player to be signed into the A-League. It is my personal belief that several of the ASEAN countries can and will provide a market for the A-League. Not just in terms of players but supporters, TV rights and sponsors as well.

The population of this area is staggering, Indonesia (220 Million), Philippines (92 Million), Vietnam (88 Million), Thailand (63 Million), Malaysia (28 Million). With this sort of marketing opportunity on our doorstep is seems daft that Australian teams haven’t attempted to tap into this market before. Take Thailand for example. Their capital, Bangkok, alone has a population of over 8 million people and is a football mad country (though admittedly the majority seem more interested in the EPL than their local league). With a time difference of only 3 hours behind Melbourne, it would seem a logical TV market to tap into.

Surat Sukha may just be the thin edge of the wedge into this exciting country and if successful you can bet your life on the fact that others will soon follow. Of course Melbourne have been influenced in their decision to sign Sukha due to the 3+1 rule in the Asian Champions League. For those unaware of the rule, all teams may have only three foreign players in their ACL squad though you are allowed to have a fourth if they are from an AFC Country.

This rule is similar to the one that the J-league introduced this year and as I have commented on before should be implemented here in Australia as well. To allow five foreign based players to be signed by each team in the A-league and not mandate that at least one of them is to be from an AFC country just seems crazy. Other countries in the AFC are following the J-league lead with Saudi Arabia and Qatar both planning to also implement the 3+1 rule next season and I will be very surprised if they are the last.

It seems though at least a few of the A-league teams are now looking to Asia. In addition to Sukha at Victory, Adelaide have picked up Shin In Sup (Korea) and Sydney have signed Byun Sung-Hwan (Korea). And Newcastle of course still have Song Jin-Hyung (Korea) on their books. So our out of the 10 teams, 4 have recruited in Asia. Not great but at least it is a start. The FFA need to implement a 4+1 rule for next season.

36 Days to Season V

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