Doesn't matter how many chances you create when your striker is Tommy Juric, Robbie Kruse is starting and a mediocre 18 year old is the next great hope.
Its an average Aussie squad that will be average for quite awhile unless they do what we did and pull a Winston Reid out of their ass. A full strength NZ squad could absolutely push them a long way, depending on how good Schmidt turns out to be - our best XI really isn't that much less talented.
I don't think that anyone here is arguing that this isn't an average Australian side, but even so, they threatened Peru a lot, and I mean a lot, more than we ever did, across two games.
And yes, we do have talented players in our first XI - our two best players are pretty solid international players. But the gap between them and our next couple of best players is pretty big, and then the gap between those and the rest is, basically, huge. Aussie have much better depth in that respect, and that helps create a reasonably cohesive, but a pretty unspectacular unit. Which, by the way, achieved about as much as could reasonably be expected in this tournament - no-one really hammered them or had an easy time with them, but they just lacked enough quality, especially up front, to really challenge good sides.
The Australian midfield of Jedinak, Mooy and Rogic is actually pretty damn good - this is why they would beat NZ, we have no one that comes close to being able to compete with them in the middle of the park. It's also very well balanced in terms of player roles and tecnique. Rogic will be playing in a top league within a season or two, better than Mooy IMO.