Yeah I'm not sure of the love for Rory either. He did ok for us against Mexico but that was then. He fits in well in Rickis system.
He's not been scoring for the reserves (or at any time in the last couple of years), he is very foul prone and while he can head a ball, how often this year, have we sent in aerial crosses compared to last year? I would say that he might have slotted a few that Brockie has missed but he is not known for running with the ball at feet, fleet footed on the ball or bringing others into the game except when its an aerial push on. We have a few strikers on our books, Rory has said he is not coming back and his salary demands would be in excess of what we could pay.
I think also, he still fancies himself in the UK and to move to the HAL would admit that his career is pretty much over (and from the outside, it is if you are cut from St Johnstone reserves, but I admire his will to stick on). He would be a great interview and PR for the Phoenix as we saw with the AWs but Ernie is giving very good press (and everyone thought he was a grumpy Scotsman)
The flip side to that (to show I am not all doom, gloom and negative) is that like Krishna, he is a low risk for 4 months. Again, still not going to happen.
There is no reserve league in the SPL. Rather an U20s that in which a couple of senior players are allowed. Fallon has made one appearance for this team for an assist. Apart from that he really hasn't played much.
I do agree with everything else you say though, although I think people give him less credit for his footwork than he deserves. Don't get me wrong I don't think he's a spectacular ball player but he's not a complete donkey.
We're not going to sign him tho, and he probably wouldn't be interested anyway.