PS v Miralympic | Sun 25 Aug | 2:30PM | Farrington Field, Miramar

Not McCowatt?

From what I've seen this preseason McCowatt certainly making a case. 

But you don't sign Ball/Visa/Piscopo/Davila without at least seeing if they can capitalise on their pedigree.

The fact that we're in a position to leave a player like McCowatt out of the starting XI is good, based on his performances so far. Still think it will take him a while to step up to A-League level, so probably better this way.

To be fair, the only reason people are leaving McCowatt out of the starting line-up is because the assumption is that Piscopo, Davila, and Ball are more advanced/have more to bring to the table at this point in time. But we haven't seen enough of any of them right now to truly know that.

Competition for places has got to be good. Especially if there is pressure on the imports to perform.

Last years import Sheridan sat on the bench most of last season because local players form demanded inclusion in the first team. Can McCowatt step up ?. I'm sure he will get his opportunities. 

Sorry think your expecting way to much thinking all imports should come off.Even the best teams dont get all their transfer rights just think its expecting way to much to think we can manage it.We havnt  managed it  in the past so dont see why this season we should.

I felt we managed it last season, Sheridan aside (but also don't think it was a failure on his part not to start over the other 2). Even then I think he was a good enough player to start if we had any other striker pairing.

If you're not expecting imports to be first XI players then I think you're aiming far too low. 

Expecting imports to be first XI players and an import actually ending up as a first XI player over the course of the season are two completely different things. 

I'd say, on average, that across the A-League teams usually get this right 3 out of 5 times. Which is to say imports are lottery and have a good chance of not being as succesful as expected.

I think there is more to import performance than what can be scouted by watch players on the park. Settling into wellington, cultural differences, family situations , the climate and shacky environment. Past experience shows that wives seem to have more impact on players performances than any past playing record. Kosta as an example and he's a local. Rudan last year !!. 

It appears that UK based players settle better. So I'd say there is more chance that Ball will be successful as opposed to Davila. 

It sounds like Talay is a good people manager though and it was encouraging to hear Talay talk about the importance of this on the pod.

I don't think it's really that cut and dry. Firstly, to A-league is obviously not a 'dream' destination for high-quality players. That means that your options with imports are limited to, I guess, either more average foreign players plying their trade in a variety of different competitions of variable standards, or better-known players that have some question marks behind them (often relating to injury concerns, but not necessarily). That in itself makes the scouting and projecting work reasonably tricky. And that's not to mention all the intangibles that come into play, such transferring to a whole new continent, potentially different cultural milieu, having to settle the family (or being away from the family), lifestyle expectations, and so on. 

Obviously all of those things come into play when scouting players, but ultimately you can't truly know until the player's arrived here. 

I accept that there's always going to be some unknowns, and some failures, but if you're getting 2 imports wrong for every 3 you're getting right then your process isn't rigorous enough. There's obviously limitations on budget and player interest as well. I appreciate it isn't easy, but we really can't afford to be paying big sums to players who won't contribute. We only got away with Burns as our 2nd highest paid player last year cos Krishna and Willo came out of pretty much nowhere.

Here are actual stats on 'failure' rates of imports over the last three seasons. I include a failure as failing to make the starting 11 for at least half of the regular season games (if they dont start at least 14 games = failure). I have not included any summer transfers:

Surprisingly the Nix the only team to not have a failed import for the last three seasons.

Why do we have only 4 visas last year in the table when we had 5? Sheridan certainly didn't start half of his games, so by that metric he'd definitely be a failure.

We also had 5 imports the season before, and while most of them were starters, it is debatable how much of a 'success' they really were (take Rossi for example).

Re: Cillian: As mentioned I didn't include summer transfers.The season before we had the 5th visa siging also as a summer transfer. My numbers are solid.

It's not debatable based the objective measure I used, which is simply that a visa player is a failure if they don't start at least half of the regular season games. 

Subjectively yeah there's a lot more than whether they start or not, but Nelfoos point was that a visa player has to be in the starting XI so this is what I was measuring.

Appreciate the detail, and yeah obviously a relatively complex topic with more ifs, buts and maybes than can be replicated there but think you've done a pretty good job.

Didn't expect us to have that low a %, but I stand by my point that we have to be hitting a low % consistently to compete - moreso than the bigger clubs given the quality of domestic player they draw on.

Other things come into it - an import can be reasonably poor, but better than our other options (Kaludjerovic is the first to spring to mind), for others injuries will play a role. There's more to being a good import than simply playing! I was just saying that being in the starting XI day 1 is bare minimum (injuries aside). Good chat though, and some interesting stats to see.

He said he didn't include summer transfers.

your second point stands though.  would definatly say we have a bigger rate of failure than 0% over alst 3 years

Yep, sorry. Can't read.

Rossi was a success in his first season here but his second was woeful. 

Last year I'd say Mandi, Taylor and Kurto would be successes and the other 2 weren't failures just on par.

Its always gonna be hard to get 80-100% success rate with imports and sometimes it can be the coach rather than the players for not performing to the expected standard so it is a very hard thing to judge when looking at all factors.

Sounds like some people would like a formula and the player with the highest formula rating gets selected.

1. Do they speak English?

2. Do they have a family to re-locate?

3. Have they played at a Prem level in their country/National honours...?

4. Are they a cod?

Then you have to hope they want to move to the bottom of the world.

Seems like investing in a production line of Academy players is a cheaper and more rewarding model.

Lastly, McCowatt is going to need a season to settle, so there should be visa players ahead of him and IMO, Waine is also ahead of him at this stage.

I don't think McCowatt needs a season to settle, in fact the fact he's relatively unknown at A-League level should be a bonus - it's next season once defence's have worked out how to deal with him that'll be tougher

I don't think Waine is at all ahead of him rn unless you mean where Callum was at Waines age now.

Imports? I remember the glory days of Toto and Jeff Sarpong. And I hear ugly rumours that there was a Brazilian and a Chinese fellow in our first season who were considered somewhat dodgy by some...

Based on the Nix experience so far, the criteria should be:

* Are they English and not a goal-keeper? Yes then tick.

* Are they not English and a goal-keeper? Yes then tick.

LOL - agreed above..

I'm a little ancy about the number of imports we buy that are instantly injured or bought that way, this may be a reason they are not getting gigs anywhere else 

- as some have said - should we put up with it at this stage of the clubs life? 

If we have paid money for you why are you not playing? (Piscopo, Davila).

As others have said - when are our combinations going to gel if they are not on the park in practice games?

Questions questions.

As for McCowatt, I'm a big fan.

I base my opinion on the U20 WC and the game at Dave Farrington Park on Sunday.

At the end of the day, it is what the coach thinks that counts and it may well be that McCowatt plays a different role than Waine and gets the nod. 

Happy with either player - really excited to have all the U23 talent in the squad.

I think they're very different types of players but I do think Waine's better. The kid is a huge confidence player, which you can see when you look at his track record. He didn't score at all in his first season and a half of Handy Prem despite starting most games. As soon as he got a goal halfway through last season he finished with 9 in about 10 games. Same with this preseason, doesn't score against Wairarapa or Strikers but when he gets a goal against Wests, in the game on Saturday he goes and scores 2 and causes on OG from his shot off a defender. McCowatt is definitely the more ready of the two right now, but in terms of raw talent and potential I think Waine's got the goods. If we give him time to settle in he'll be a phenom.

Yeah I agree with you on that it seems Waine has got the higher ceiling and hopefully he'll start fulfilling some of that potential this season. But atm McCowatt would be higher than him in the pecking order even tho it may seem they'll be using him as a 10.

Once again, Reece Crowther breaks all the rules.