R25 vs Adelaide Sunday 30th 3pm

Your memory is also struggling to remember what was actually said by this wise man at lunch. I didn't mention youth. I was talking about the depth of a squad beyond the starting XI.

Luckily for Brisbane, Broich has only missed one, maybe two, games. Would we be talking about how rubbish our squad is if Riera played every game.

Brisbane also have Mckay as their Australia marquee. $300K outside the cap sure can help towards buying a bit more depth. Regardless of the owners unwillingness to spend marquee money on a player, when was the last time we were able to attract an quality Aussie player that is in, or near to, the Socceroos? Think you'd have to look back to Durante. I'd imagine it took a fair amount of Terry money for Dura to leave the then title winning Jets.

^ McKain.

Thats true Ryan, but 2nd Bests point still remains. What kind of player does $300k buy you? I would say a bloody decent one. We are down on that front already by not using it and then squeezing everyone in. Effectively, every other club only has to fit 22 players into the 2.4m (?) cap. We have to fit in 23 and that 23rd will be a massive step down on other teams 23rd player outside the cap.

K Jordan would have been a dead cert, but he was overlooked. Ivan ditto but wasn't offered enough. Hogg might have succeeded, but he too felt let down by the Nix's terms. Riera performed in front of Ernie's own eyes and got an immediate trial. Has Ernie ever seen Bale? Irving? Burfoot? Seen them actually playing?

Other clubs do have the NYL side to draw on though, and we don't. Doesn't that kind of mean we would tend to have to take up more of our squad with kids, whereas other clubs can get away with not having to do that? 

IIRC the salary cap is around $2.5m. There is an option of using a youth marquee which will add up to $150k to the cap (I think Sydney are the only ones using this) and then you are allowed two marquee players. Hypothetically a club using the youth marquee to its full extent and has 2 marquees could have a full squad (23 players, 21 under the cap) with an average salary of just over $126k under the cap. While a full squad with no youth marquee and no marquee players, the average salary is just under $107k. 

Obviously it won't be evenly spread across the whole squad so a team using all available marquee spots and lets say pay 4 youngsters $50k could spend $430k on another player, at the same time a club with no marquees pay 4 youngsters $50k and another player $335k. So now the team with two marquees also has a player on $430k and the other club has one player on $335k. The quality in the squad jumps up considerably.

Fuck this stupid game

On Sunday the commentators mentioned that we have the lowest average possession in the competition.

It came from Dewhurst so who knows about accuracy but interesting how perception of our play differs from reality (much like a lot of perceptions of our players I would say)

I think Rieria was clearly a loss but he seems to get better the less he plays - I mean 2B mentions him in the same breath as Broich above!

I'm with Mr 2nd Best.  Hard to compare such different players....but:  Riera was easily as good in his role as Broich has been in this season.  Riera just does the thankless, the unattractive, off the ball, all game long.   I thought he was fucking amazing, especially considering how quickly he progressed.

Just before he got injured I thought he was on course to be our player of the season. 

To be fair I think he still is.

I was on record thinking this was a massive waste of an import slot and I think once I actually sat down and took off my prejudice, I realised that he was the player we have been missing. Yes we lucked into him but he has been the best DM hands down. I don't think anyone could name a DM that has played as well as him.

While it does have the appearance that he has gotten better the less he has played JD, its more of a case that people will be inclined to forget the performances that were not so good that he had early on adjusting. I think there was a run there of about 4 or 5 games where he was the best player on the park hands down every week. Then he gets injured. That may sounds like re-writing history but there has been no one else that will have performed as consistently well. Stein hit a purple patch, Carlos has one, Kenny was good for about 4 games...

One thing I think that we can possibly agree on is the some of our players need to be better than just 4 or 5 performances. Needs to be closer to at least 15. You get 5-6 guys that are outstanding across 15 games it would invariably even out to 3 stand out performances every game plus the other guys performing. Thats better than just one guy hitting it off.

Is Ernie telfon in all this? Well you can't blame injuries on him (unless the trainer is negligent). You could not have picked Shermy or Ifill, Fenton busting his shoulder (did he come back too soon you could ask). You could not have picked Brockies crap form. That being said, he also needs to show he has strings in his bow and while he will have taken the year to find out what he has and what he needs, he wont get this light run next year because he has a settled squad and a long preseason of which pretty much all of them are his signings/resignings. For that, he carries the can completely.

A famous England International once said, "Its a funny old game". Also, supposedly the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

All those guys can still play (maybe Im unsure about Brockie). At times this season we have been very very good and it those players who have been key guys involved. When Riera was firing, we all thought Lia was a new man. The point Im trying to make is that its a team we need to build not a collection of individuals, and you cant just diss all those guys. If lucky we will get two new quality players and a few returning from injury. That could be enough to make all the difference.

One of the big positives about Lia is that he has a good engine. He will run all day long, whether he be creating something or interrupting opposition build ups. He's like an energiser bunny.

That's a fair point you make too.

We do need to suss out still where some of our players fit in this side I think. I don't think Ernie has figured Hicks, Ridenton and to a certain degree, Cunningham out. I don't think he needs to worry about Stein too much because I think he will be gone. Brockie is another and the best use of Carlos..

I think another thing hampering the squad development is that our central defensive pairing is too slow. We can't play a high line because we get ripped apart on the counter, but playing the deep backline makes it a lot harder to play a short passing game because your players are inevitably spread out. I doubt we'll be replacing Dura or Siggy this season though, and although Boxall is definitely quicker he looked shaky playing centrally when Siggy was suspended.

I have to disagree with this, if you watch him the whole game - this will be mind numbingly boring - he doesn't run all game! he keeps moving fer sure, but a lot of the time he just wanders around - his "engine" is no better than say Boyd's, or Ridenton's.

This is the point I was making about Fenton and Riera coming back into the squad.  Immediately you have Boxall and Muscat or Caira on the bench and the side that went on the run mid season.

Plus no-one seems to have noticed or given any credence to my reference to Ernie's comment to Veitch on Sunday.  He will sign two more senior players.  However it works financially - with a number of you disputing my speculation on where the funds might come from - Ernie is saying two senior players is what he intends to recruit.  That gives you (more of) the depth we missed this year.  AND in the same interview Ernie was very candid about it being difficult (still) to recruit players to Wellington and that you have to offer a premium.  He then made a point that he expected that to change as the club built into a potential champion winning club.  

Too much (albeit understandable) angst on here I think.    Sure it won't be easy to pick up another quality midfielder that can cover Riera's DM slot if need be.  And one other senior player.  Or whatever mix Ernie goes for.  But I'll at least give Ernie a shot at it.  Sure Ernie is very positive about the ambition of the club and what he thinks is achievable.  But it is better than listening to you lot moaning about Welnix under funding the club all day ;) .  Ernie recognises the issues but does not seem to see them as insuperable.  He's still aiming the club at being better than top four and then starting to attract players more easily (his words).  And in the meantime he expects to pay over the odds and get two more senior players. I'll trust that he can do it.

Fenton and Riera back, Ifill replacement signed and another senior player and we don't look too bad at all.  In fact with a little luck with injuries we will look better than the side that went on the winning run mid-season and have the improved depth we all want.

Player unavailbility.....

needs more pivot