Blake Powell had one good game. And he’d already been released by Sydney? I wouldn’t really call him a success. Heck of a nice guy. Only one season for us? Never grabbed a starting spot. Not many winners or goals outside that one game. (8 in 23 becomes 4 in 22 for us outside that game. Including Sydney and CC he had an A league strike rate of a goal every 6 games.)
Burgess was back from Portugal and was a level above clearly, but also hasn’t got on with a bunch of managers!
Tratt did well considering his illness, but never had a settled career.
Fox again, a nice guy who never settled in the A league, though iirc a chunk of us were keen to get him back and give him a chance. Seems like injury plagued him a bit too. Went to SE Asia or somewhere?
Stensness came to us as a youth scholarship? Was already going places, and we were a whistle stop, it turned out.
Rees had had 61 games with Adelaide over two spells before coming to us, so again he’d already had quite a good crack at an A league career.
Of those guys there were guys not quite good enough, but battled and guys who were clearly good enough who’d dropped down a level, but we didn’t discover them.
Bit disappointed for Parkhouse and Ngoy as I thought they had plenty of tools at their disposal, but couldn’t make it
Sadly I’d say Manny is really the only true example of taking the chance from the league below. Had a trial game as an injury replacement, played bloody well, signed and was a senior player before long.
That list is probably enough to discourage looking for starters in lower level Aussie leagues, though maybe there are handy squad players there.
Burgess was back from Portugal and was a level above clearly, but also hasn’t got on with a bunch of managers!
Tratt did well considering his illness, but never had a settled career.
Fox again, a nice guy who never settled in the A league, though iirc a chunk of us were keen to get him back and give him a chance. Seems like injury plagued him a bit too. Went to SE Asia or somewhere?
Stensness came to us as a youth scholarship? Was already going places, and we were a whistle stop, it turned out.
Rees had had 61 games with Adelaide over two spells before coming to us, so again he’d already had quite a good crack at an A league career.
Of those guys there were guys not quite good enough, but battled and guys who were clearly good enough who’d dropped down a level, but we didn’t discover them.
Bit disappointed for Parkhouse and Ngoy as I thought they had plenty of tools at their disposal, but couldn’t make it
Sadly I’d say Manny is really the only true example of taking the chance from the league below. Had a trial game as an injury replacement, played bloody well, signed and was a senior player before long.
That list is probably enough to discourage looking for starters in lower level Aussie leagues, though maybe there are handy squad players there.