Ahmad - great job mate - hope you and your lad had a brilliant night.
Just back from the game, dinner and a wander round the octagon.
My thoughts on the game for those of you who couldn't get down here to see it; just one man's opinion:
Rigter is a no-brainer-sign-asap-and-pray-he-says-yes. Looked Ifill standard and a bit younger. Slightly different strengths - quicker and less mazy I thought. Good control, pretty strong competing and holding the ball and good workrate.
Took his goal well - had a bit to do to get onto the ball, control tidily with defender looking to catch him and needed a decent finish.
Coming back helping out midfield he played some brilliant balls into good areas that the others didn't expect at all and consequently did not run on for - he looked genuinely surprised a few times that no-one moved.
Only issue was it was a pretty short cameo, because after maybe ten minutes when he was pretty involved the Nix then proceeded to fail to get it over half way and generally played in guys in Brisbane colours. I exagerate a little, but you get the drift.
None of the other trialists looked in the same league. Mehmet was made to look very ordinary by comparison.
Sanchez looked ok, did a couple of tidy things, but mixed, and not going to light up the A-league based on what I saw tonight. A bit more creative than our current mids, but not really enough quality imho. The others either didn't get a lot of time or opportunity or were adequate. Gympie looked quick and useful, but not quite a consummate defender, nor top notch on the ball under pressure, but not bad. Thought he was a small notch above or round about Hearfield's play at full-back - that's comparing him to the hearfield that we ended up with, who was pretty useful. Looked like he pulled something before he went off.
Was dissapointed to see Ricki start all of Lia, Brown and Manny in midfield (Ifill, Leo wide) with just Mehmed up front, 4-5-1. I guess it blunted Brisbanes flow and we sure went to pieces when Brown went off to go 4-4-2, but dissapointing; made it hard for us to create a lot in the front third.
Back four nearly got cut up for golas a couple of times in the first half, and it was embarrasing in the second. Some real communication and organisation probs between the CBs and FBs that may be reasonably easy to fix? When we got totally messed over Dura and others seemed to be pushing well forward chasing the game. A couple of bad turnovers and the back three and sometimes two behind were very exposed and didn't tighten up centrally enough nor have manny hovering to help. Brisbane just threaded balls through the centre for their pacey guys to run onto, with support, and we weren't reacting or quick enough to track having lost possession. Least that's what I thought was happening. The guys were pressing for some sort of a respectable scoreline and got caught out pushing forward, by a good side, but it looked pretty bloody embarrassing.
Wasn't all bad. Brisbane were very good, and we did help them with most of the goals. The top 'Nix starting side - without a bunch of triallist coming and going - might have done significantly better and Brisbane played a pretty settled looking side compared to our mix and match lot.
COYN 
Were you at the Longroom yesterday? I was intending on contacting you yesterday to find out where you were at but was too busy running around with pre-match stuff.
