Melbourne Heart v Central Coast Mariners, bubbledome 28/10/2012

Won't be time-stamping my blog today - unless I get a request to do so.

This game is like a blank slate to me. Heart is the best and worst team in the comp and if last week's game is any guide the Mariners are the unluckiest. Who knows?

Pre game warm up and CCM doing this bizarre Morris dance/ring-a-roses routine.

Andy Maher, sokka commentator, in the broadcast room pre game

Vince Grella is officially introduced to the (very sparse it must be said) Heart crowd. The Ayr United supporter says "Wait. They will come." Not holding my breath.

Teams come out at 3.02. How big is Clint Bolton!

Waiting for Foxtel. 3.06 underway.

Early on Heart trying to play out from the back.

Heart player stops to see if he's onside and loses momentum after some good lead up work by Fred/Williams.

Good counter by CCM.

Good brisk opening without either team looking dominant.

Nice work by Heart ends with cross well gathered by Ryan.

Heart playing well. Good work on the flanks by both Behich and Williams.

Mistakes affecting the fluidity of play.

Garcia through on goal. Shoots wide. Ball gathered and crossed back in.

Heart playing very well but final ball is often poor.

Good cross by Williams well kept by Ryan.

CCM have a period of possession and pressure.

Bolton gives himself more work than he needed to do from a Bojic free kick. But gathers in the end.

Garcia having a bit of a moan when he doesn't receive the pass. Not a good look.

CCM free kick from left. Garcia heads clear. Return shot Driven high and over.

A lot of yawning in the media box. The Ayr united supporter thinks its a bit like a training game.

Macallister comes off and goes straight to the rooms. Tadic warming up. On in the 37th minute.

Yellow to mcbreen 39th minute.

Another good cross by Williams.

Colosimo booked 41st.

Great save by Bolton in 42nd minute from a point blank Sterjovski shot. Looked a certain goal to be honest.

Well plucked cross from CCM.

Half time. Lets hope they put something in the drinks to lively up the players.

Underway. Dugandzic on for Fred with a tight hamstring. Macallister had a rib injury.

More of the same. And then. Goal. Great free kick Bojic from ccm. 51st minute. Heart 0. CCM 1.

Colosimo gives possession away too easily.

Good work from Heart up right. Poor switch to left sees the ball out.

And again.

Heart pressure still not producing the final ball.

Ccm ibini on for sterjovski. 65th minute.

Tadic. How did he miss? Even Vinnie bangs the glass in frustration.

Vinnie Grella in the coach's box next to the media box.

Vrankovic on for Thompson. 69th minute.

The Ayr united supporter thinks the game has lifted. Yet snother chance squandered.

Crowd 6357.Is that the worst A League crowd of the season so far.

Another chance to Heart. Fair to say heart now coming in waves.

CCM Hearfield on for Rogic.

Heart doing most of the attacking but CCM making the odd good break.

Starting to feel like Heart won't score.

Behich and Garcia have both worked hard and are starting to show the effects. No subs available unfortunately.

Heart still showing brilliance capped by flat endings.

3 minutes add on time.

CCM  Anderson on for Hutchinson.

Full time. CCM win a lacklustre game. They didn't deserve it. Though Heart deserved nothing either. Perhaps both teams should have points deducted for that display. Heart showed some fire in patches but nowhere near enough.

Footscray CC v Carlton CC 4ths

Here we go. Live cricket blogging. Let's see how this goes.

12.15. We're at Tony Dodemaide Oval at the back of Victoria University's Footscray campus.

Vic Uni's new building in the background.

We're next to the larger Merv Hughes oval where the 2s are already underway.

Carlton are bowling.

A young 4ths team ready to go.

Quiet start.

0 for 17 into the 8th over. Both bowlers brown and money starting to trouble the bats. A couple of confident appeals.

Drinks. Footscray 0 for 41 off 20 overs. Tight bowling not giving much away but Footscray will be happy with their position.

Wicket. Stumping off Percy. 1 for 65 or so.

Minor collapse. Footscray 4 for 85 at lunch.

Another wicket soon after lunch. Footscray have slipped from a dominant position and now the game is somewhat in balance. The spinners have had an impact.

Spinners stayed on probably about 4 overs too long and Footscray seized back the initiative. Ultimately the Footscray side were all out for 173, giving the Carlton openers a nervous 2 overs to face before stumps, which they reached without loss.

Carlton needs to score a further 170 runs next Saturday to win the game.

1st Innings - Footscray Edgewater

	R
J O'Grady  c D Syson b S Blewitt	51
A Eyiam-Rutty  st M Cottier b A Percy	21
D Vipond b S Blewitt	5
NH Donazzon b M Paradisis	0
+A Korsak lbw b L Money	16
L Kingc M Cottier b A Percy	6
*S King lbw b A Percy	34
T McSweeney b S Blewitt	2
J Kochlbw b M Hinchliffe	13
P Niklas run out (L Money)	5
H Ali not out	2
Extras (nb 5, w 4, b 6, lb 3)	18
Total	173
Overs	75.2

FOW: 65 (A Eyiam-Rutty) 81 (J O'Grady) 84 (D Vipond) 85 (NH Donazzon) 94 (L King) 146 (S King) 151 (T McSweeney) 153 (A Korsak) 168 (J Koch) 173 (P Niklas) 

Bowling	O	M	W	R	Nb	Wd
J Brown	7.0	2	0	15	1	1
L Money	16.0	5	2	22	4	0
D Syson	11.0	2	0	29	0	0
S Blewitt	13.0	4	3	20	0	1
A Percy	15.0	4	2	29	0	0
M Paradisis	9.0	0	1	38	0	1
J Sexton	4.2	0	0	11	0	1

2058: A look back on 200 Years of 'Football'

Inspired by Stephen Alomes' tremendous work of speculative fiction Australian Football, The People's Game 1958-2058, Neos Osmos has dusted off its flux capacitor and done some time travel of its own. It found this intriguing document from the year 2058, a newspaper article looking back at 200 years of football in Australia after association football was victorious in the global code war of the first half of the century.

___________________________________

It didn’t really take as long as everyone thought it would. Once America fell in 2051, the rest of the world, including Australia, capitulated. New Zealand, the last to fall, held out until the winter of 2055 largely because no-one else cared whether they got on board or not. When the yanks eventually clicked that the global business of ‘soccer’* was little different from McDonalds’ it became easy for FIFA to storm the citadel – alas too late to save the American empire (as it might otherwise have) but just in time to install association football truly as the world game.

Ronald McDonald celebrating the marriage of soccer and American culture

In Australia, the AFL and NRA (the rugby codes reunited in the 2020s) saw the writing on the wall and gave up without so much as a whimper. Sure, they got a few concessions with the slightly bigger goals to encourage scoring (given the average height of human beings was now 2.6 metres as a result of the growth hormone pandemic of the 30s) and some changes to the offside law but in reality association football was the winner and all other codes fell immediately into rump status.

The old AFL and NRA clubs engaged in an ugly battle for the 12 new FFA franchises released in 2054, producing some unholy takeovers, mergers and bastard offspring. Collingwood and Western Sydney Rugby club merged to form the PAO Magpies (becoming a franchise of the global footballtainment consortium PAO Enterprises), initially playing in the A2 League but being promoted to the A League in its first year – largely through the massive backing of Dimitri McGuire. Essendon FC became a sub-franchise of the Man-Milan United super club. The Parramatta Eels became the Parramatta Leeds United.

Taken by surprise by the turn of events, the FFA had a massive war chest on hand but no war to fund. It resorted to the great Australian tradition of putting on a big party, to celebrate its ascension to the status of the one true Aussie football code.

Melbourne Victory Demons v Geelong Celtic
at the Melbourne Football Ground in 2008

Rather than celebrate this domination and the history of conflict behind it – which to some might smack of arrogance and hubris – the FFA decided to reflect upon the past 200 years of football in Australia. The historians consulted their records that clearly indicated that ‘football’ had been played in Australia in an organised form since 1858. Indeed two of the current A League clubs: Melbourne Victory Demons and Geelong Celtic (still playing in its traditional green and white hoops) had fought out the very first game of football in Australia, a drab 0-0 draw.

Some curmudgeons have argued that this first game was played under a very different set of rules from the present ones and it really isn’t appropriate to see a continuous 200-year history of football in Australia. This argument is easy to refute because it fails to acknowledge that the nascent spirit of football, our 'national game', our 'indigenous game', the first stirring of ‘the one game of our own world’ was made manifest by that contest between these grand old teams who now, at last after all these years, play the game as it should be played.

The doubters are also disproved by the evidence of Aboriginal football in Blandowski’s painting [below] from 1857 that clearly shows Aboriginal men playing a form of keepy-uppy in which ball juggling with the feet is the predominant aspect. The presence of nets being held aloft in the background also suggests the players were warming up for a game while the groundsmen set up the field of play.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200709/r185399_689753.jpg

This year we celebrate a great anniversary of the game we all watch, play and love. Its hour come round at last; it’s a game for all of us. Anyone who tells you otherwise is simply unAustralian.

* An archaic usage of the term football.

"The Ball is Almost Round" The Re-introduction of Soccer into Mildura, 1911

Soccer was reintroduced in Mildura at the end of the 1911 football season after a 15 year absence. (Games against Renmark in South Australia were played in Mildura as early as 1895.) Competitive local games were organised in the 1912 season and so 2012 represents something of an anniversary for soccer in the town.

The following report from the local paper (the Cultivator) is enthusiastic and accidentally hilarious. It gets some things right but, typically, gets some things terribly wrong. It points out the curious use of straight boundary lines. And the reported spectator confusion over the offside law will not have been alleviated by this account. Moreover, the ball is "almost round"!

Interesting also are the comments in relation to the referee and the lessons that the Victorian game could learn from his role and performance. The footballers themselves show a level of mutual understanding that could also prove exemplary to players of Australian rules in the reporter's opinion.

There are a couple of places where the text in indecipherable. Asterisks have been used to indicate these points.

British Association Football. MILDURA (3 GOALS) BEATS MERBEIN (2 GOALS) 

The Mildura Cultivator 27 September 1911 p 8

"Soccer" is a very different game from Australian Football. In the first place, there are eleven players on each side instead of eighteen and the field of play is very much smaller and quite a different shape from the the familiar oval. The dimensions may be of a maximum length of 130 yards, with a maximum breadth of 100 yards; or they may be as small as 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. The field of play is marked by straight boundary lines, those at the ends being called "goal lines" and those at the sides "touch lines". The latter are drawn at right angles with the goal lines and a flag *********** feet high is placed at each corner. The goals are upright posts fixed in the goal lines equidistant from the corner flag-staffs, eight yards apart, with a bar across them eight feet from the ground. Only goals count in the score; these are obtained when the ball has passed between the posts under the bar not being thrown, knocked on nor carried by any player of the attacking side. The ball is almost round. Only two men on the field are allowed to take the ball in their hands, these being the respective goal keepers. No other player can mark a ball; when it is kicked into the air it is received either on the head, neck, knee or foot. It is then edged or dribbled along until a favorable opportunity offers to kick or to touch it to another player who is in a more favorable position for kicking a goal. 

In last Saturday's game - which did not draw nearly so large a crowd as the fixture deserved - the players were as follows :- Mildura - Ginn, Cohen, Meredith, Keil, Gordon, Mallock, Hart, M'Cowan (Capt.) Alcx. Lockhead, Dawes and Wiltshire. Merbein (inclusive of Old Mildura) - Hilton, Home, Bashecker (2), Black, Loram, Hardy, Stevens. Davenport (Capt.), Leach and Nutall. The game was commenced with a place-kick from the centre *** towards the goal defended by Home - who proved to be a capable custodian. Corner shots were ineffectively tried on more than one occasion by the Merbein players, but eventually a goal was obtained. This was followed promptly by a goal obtained by Mildura, so the terms were level after leaving the field after the half-time adjournment. Resuming - kicking to opposite ends - Mildura very promptly got a second goal. It was only a temporary advantage, however, for Merbein pressed home a concerted attack, and, though Wiltshire defended well, were at last able to get a "daisy cropper" through. There was, very little to choose between the two teams and all worked tremendously hard to get the conquering goal. As it happened, it came at almost the last moment and in a very exciting manner. All the spectators saw of it was a warm tussle forward, then the custodian and an opponent intermixed, rolling together on the ground, with the ball on the goal line. It was a debatable point whether the ball had really passed between the goal posts, but the decision of the referee, prompt and decisive, was that a fair goal had been scored. So Mildura came through winners by three goals to two. 

By the way, Referee Clark had very little to do in comparison with what a Victorian Umpire has. Fully dressed even to his glasses, he stood quietly in the centre of the playing ground with very little else to do but observe. On very few occasions was his whistle called into requisition, practically the only interference with the progress of the game being when the ball, through crossing the goal line or touch line, was temporarily out of play. In the one case the ball was kicked off ; in the other it was thrown in by a player. Linesmen (in this case Messers Keil and Urquhart) Signalled when the ball passed over the touch line and it was thrown in by a player from the opposite side to that which played it over. The player may throw the ball in any direction, but he must not himself touch it again until it is played by another man. Moreover, no player of his own side can handle the ball unless there are at the moment of throwing-in at least three of his opponents nearer their goal line. That was a point which puzzled spectators a good deal, but seemed to be thoroughly understood by the players, there being very few cases of "off side " play.

Though not understanding the details spectators readily admitted that "soccer" is a hard game and a fast game and a scientific game. If, as it is proposed, it is taken up seriously in the next football season, it should soon acquire a wide popularity. Of the respective merits of last Saturday's players our reporter is not competent to judge. All were triers, most were speedy and all seemed to know what they were about. Selfishness, if present, was not noticed, for all seemed to be heartily in accord. There appeared, indeed, to be a mutual understanding as close as if the players had been associated for the whole season, instead of being brought together just at the end. In these particulars at least the players of the Victorian game might well take a lesson from the exponents of "soccer". As already stated, the attendance was not large, so the hospital will not benefit to any appreciable extent.

Melbourne Heart FC v Wellington Phoenix FC, 3pm Bubbledome 14/10/12

I'll be live-blogging this game from the media box at the Bubbledome on Sunday. I'll have to miss the VPL Grand Final immediately following.

Preview 

After a fairly downbeat season preview I was pleasantly surprised by the (err) heart shown by Heart in the Derby. They really should have smashed Victory. Poor finishing meant Heart's dominance was not reflected in the 2-1 scoreline. All of a sudden their squad looks good, given the strong performances of the guys expected to deliver (Colosimo, Fred and co) and the back-up from the others. Williams stood out, as did Macallister. Gerhardt looked a good pick-up in defence. If he can avoid an early yellow he may have an even stronger game. 

Wellington, despite ADP's presence, won convincingly against a poorly organised Sydney. It is hard to draw a line through Wellington's performance and I suspect they will struggle away from home against a fired-up heart. Nonetheless I'm tempted to take some of the $6.00 offered on a phoneix win at time of writing.

Heart Squad

1. Clint Bolton (GK), 
2. Michael Marrone, 
4. SimonColosimo, r
5. Fred (c), y  
6. Patrick Gerhardt, 
8. Matthew Thompson,
9. Dylan Macallister, 
10. Josip Tadic, 
11. Richard Garcia,
16. Aziz Behich, 
17. Jason Hoffman, s 
18. David Vrankovic, s 
20. Andrew Redmayne (GK), s 
22. Nick Kalmar, s  
23. Mate Dugandzic

Wellington Squad

2. Manny Muscat,
5. Michael Boxall, y  
6. Alex Smith, 
8. Paul Ifill, 
10. Stein Huysegems, 
12. Tyler Boyd, s 
16. Louis Fenton, 
17. Vince Lia, 
22. Andrew Durante (C), 
28. Ricardo Clarke, s  
29. Luke Rowe, 
30. Scott Basalaj (GK), s  
31. Tom Biss,
32. James Downey, s
39. Jacob Spoonley (GK) 

Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones

Assistant Ref 1: Luke Brennan

Assistant Ref 2: Johnathan Barriero

4th Official: Alex Azcurra

Arrived at 2.30. Teams warming up. David Williams out with gastro. Tadic to start and Kalmar comes into the squad.

Julius Ross looking splendid in his suit. He's come a long way from the back of the grandstand at KGV.

Not much of a crowd in the eastern stand at 2.45. The home end is building though.A good crowd of 11K in the end.

Tut tut. They're late. I hope this is not the Tasmanian influence.

Apparently a good proportion of the home end love clint Bolton.

3.07. Underway. Heart running to the north end.

3.08. Long ball. Free kick to Heart just outside area. Garcia kicks over and wide.

3.10. Wellington goes just wide on the counter.

3.12. Good run from Marrone from right back. Final ball could have been better.

Game yet to establish any sense of pattern.

3.17. Dugandzic good run down the right. Dangerous cross after propping. Cleared.

3.20. Wellington threaten in the box. Put behind for corner. Cleared. Ball comes back and Bolton feels the love once more.

Period of Heart pressure but still awaiting the killer ball.

3.25. Good work down left by Fred. Feeds Garcia who shoots accurately but weakly. Spoonley key gathers safely.

3.27. Fabulous goal to heart. Great run by behich out of defence takes it to penalty area crosses to Fred who lays it back to Thompson who slots it beautifully. Wow. Heart 1-0.

3.31. Heart dominant now. Thompson fires over.

3.33. Rare Wellington counter defused by Thompson.

3.34. Breather for the players after a crude tackle by Wellington. No card.

3.36. Macallister's blushes saved by offside call. But he really should have buried Fred's flick on.

3.37. Muscat blazes over after good Wellington build up. But heart defence looked shaky for the first time.

3.40. Wellington free kick saved well after fumble. Heart counter. Cleared ball punted back in to box by Thompson to no advantage.

3.43. Garcia heads over well flighted Heart free kick from left.

3.45. Ifill blazes over after Fred coughs up the ball in midfield. Wellington starting to show moments of creativity.

3.46. Fred one on one. Walks the ball into Spoonley's grateful arms.

3.48. Wellington free kick 30 out in front. Cleared.

3.49. Fred times his run well, chips the keeper but also the crossbar.

Heart finding it relatively easily to progress in midfield.

3.50. Tadic shot tipped over by keeper. Two corners in succession see Heart create opportunity without conversion.

3.52. Yellow to Fred.

3.54. Another good flowing attack down right for Heart. Dugandzic with a dangerous cross. Put behind for corner.

3.55. Half time. 1-0.

An entertaining half which Heart dominated. They should be more than a goal to the good and may come to regret not converting their chances.

4.11. Second half underway.

4.12. Colosimo sent off for handball on the line. Ifill converts penalty. 1-1.

Well there's a game changer. Scores level and Wellington with the one man advantage.

Wellington starting to dominate. They'd have to be favourites now.

4.21. Wellington corner left. Headed clear.

4.23. Another Wellington corner. Cleared. A goal seems imminent given their dominance.

4.25. Wellington corner right. Foul on defender. Heart gives ball away again.

4.27. Heart attack well down left.

4.27. Ifill one on one. Copies Fred's first half effort chipping keeper and bar.

4.28. Heart free kick on right. Wellington counter.

4.29. Wellington corner right. Bolton tips over for another corner left.

4.32. Marrone blazes over selfishly after good lead up work by Heart.

4.33. Macallister booked for dissent after poor free kick decision.

4.34 Wellington free kick on right. Saved comfortably by Bolton after some to and fro.

4.36. Smith booked. Fred breaks through with no-one wanting his final ball.

Heart putting together some good stuff but the final ball is just not there. Good to see Heart still chasing game but it may well cost them.

4.43. Great work by Fred. Shot blocked. Macallister tries to bury rebound beats keeper but cleared off line.

Heart with the better attack and chances. But that final ball . . .

Fred is working hard in midfield and has produced some glorious play.

4.49. Muscat yellow. Heart fk 30 out in front. Dugandzic blazes over.

Game seems to have lost some of its edge. Though a goal seems possible.

Crowd 10907.

4.59. All over. 1-1.

Roy Hay reckons the correct result but I think Heart will feel stiff. Considering they played a man short they will feel the sting of their wastefulness. Wellington can't point to the same measure of profligacy.

Tasmania gave China a good work-out in 1953 at North Hobart

Written by Walter Pless | Monday, 01 October 2012 10:50

The front cover of the match program, which sold for one shilling As far as I know, local football identity George Arnott is the only surviving member of the Tasmanian team that played China at North Hobart on Wednesday, 26 August, 1953. I knew Alistair Rattray, the left-half, and goalkeeper Harry Wise, who have both passed away, but I don’t know about any others in that Tassie side. George Arnott (right) with his son, Ian, at a junior tournament at the Showgrounds on 2 September 2012 The Chinese were touring Australia and Tasmania was part of that tour. China had beaten Australia 4-1 and 7-1 and drawn 3-3 and were due to play Victoria just before the Tasmanian leg of the tour. China beat Tasmania 6-4 and Arnott, who was 18 years old at the time, netted two goals, the others coming from Alexander and Mooney. Match program   The attendance at North Hobart was just over 2,000 and the Governor of Tasmania was present. Rattray was Tasmania’s best player in what was a highly entertaining and skilful game. The Chinese opened the scoring, but Arnott equalised. To read more click here.

You took a Heart, took a Heart too young.*

Heart Season Preview 2012/13

Maybe I have been distracted, but this A-league pre-season seems to me the first one in which Melbourne has not been the centre of football media attention and social media discussion, even in the minds of Melbourne football supporters. In previous years Melbourne Victory has taken centre-stage; and the upstart Heart has provided additional colour over the past two years.

This pre-season the two Melbourne teams have remained in the background while ADP, the Ballack bollocks, the Ono-Oh-yes! campaign and the capture of Emile Heskey have drawn most of the attention. Even Victory’s Marquee signing of Marcos Flores, one of the A League’s best ever performers, has occurred under the radar.

Deliberately or not, Melbourne Heart has remained in the background of the media flurry surrounding the star imports and the winter football finals series. Two years ago they played a high profile pre-season game against Everton at Etihad, coming away with a creditable 0-2 loss. This year it has been plainer fare, with difficult-to-read matches against local or scratch sides, and Adelaide and Perth at Epping Stadium. The latter game, a 0-5 loss is perhaps best forgotten.

At a guess, the low profile may have something to do with coach John Aloisi’s determination to renew and tweak the reasonably successful club culture established by foundation coach, John van 't Schip which, while producing some good results and tremendous play, also gave us a number of disappointing performances. Last season’s high points of a 3-2 derby win and the inflicting of Sydney’s worst ever home defeat (0-4) were offset by occasional dumb luck and an end-of-season fadeout. Making the finals earlier this year should not be allowed to hide the fact that Heart has not yet finished a season in the top half of the table.

Heart lost or jettisoned 14 players in the off season. Many of those were important contributors who will be missed. Alongside a number of mid- to late-career players, three young guns have also left the club. It has been reported that the sale of Curtis Good (Newcastle United), Eli Babalj (Red Star Belgrade) and Brendan Hamill (Seongnam Ilhwa) “netted the club about $1.6 million.” It is to be hoped that the bank balance has not been put ahead of results on the field or club culture.

Some interesting (in the Yes, Prime Minister sense) replacement signings have been made. Socceroo Richard Garcia looks the best of these and he will be a good foil for Fred, still one of the best players in the league – if fit. The others are European journeymen, A-league players and a couple from the state leagues and it is hard to get a sense of just how well the new players will combine with the old. The assembled squad is a little sparse in its star quality so hopefully Aloisi’s first pre-season in charge of the club has instilled some team cohesion and solidity. The quality of Bolton and Colosimo will offer some stability at the back and A-League veteran Matt Thomspon should be able to provide leadership and penetration further up the park. And I desperately want David Williams to deliver on his massive potential. But for me it’s “wait and see”.

A worrying sign is CEO, Scott Munn’s recent concession reported in 442: “We track other codes as well and we know that second and third years in league, AFL and rugby – the Rebels - all their memberships declined significantly.” I hope that he is not already making excuses for a poor season on or off the field. Football is not AFL or Rugby. He is comparing start-up franchises in ‘greenfield’ states with a new franchise in an embedded and historically deep football culture. Moreover I hope that Heart has not been overawed by the short-term financial rewards available to a ‘provider club’ rather than focusing on the hard work and cost outlay involved in being a club aiming for local development and success.

Given this, it’s hard for me to be optimistic about Heart’s chances this season. There is no doubting the players’ commitment and Aloisi’s desire to produce a good team. I just worry about the overall quality. I can’t see Heart making the finals this season though I would love to be proved wrong.

Heart Ins:

Richard GARCIA                 MF                  Hull City

Dylan MACALLISTER        FW                  Gold Coast United

Josip TADIC                          FW                  Lechia Gdansk

David VRANKOVIC           DF                   Bonnyrigg White Eagles

Steven GRAY                        DF                   Oakleigh Cannons

Andrew REDMAYNE         GK                  Brisbane Roar

Patrick GERHARDT            DF/MF          FK Zeljeznicar

Gol Gol  MEBRATHU         MF                  Gold Coast United

Ben GARRUCIO                   MF                  AIS 

Heart Outs:

Brendan HAMILL                DF                   Seongnam IIhwa Chunma

Rutger WORM                     MF                  FC Emmen

Kristian SARKIES                MF                  Heidleberg United

MAYCON                             FW                  Pahang FC

Wayne SRHOJ                      MF                  Free agent

Alex TERRA                         FW                  Daejeon Citizen

Kamal IBRAHIM                  MF                  Heidleberg United

Curtis GOOD                        DF                   Newcastle United

Eli BABALJ                           FW                  Red Star Belgrade

Adrian ZAHRA                    MF                  Perth Glory

Kliment TASESKI                MF                  Moreland Zebras

Nikola ROGANOVIC         GK                  Green Gully

Craig GOODWIN                MF                  Newcastle Jets

Sebastian MATTEI               GK

Heart Squad

1          Clint Bolton              

2          Michael Marrone

4          Simon Colosimo

5          Fred

6          Patrick Gerhardt

8          Matt Thompson

9          Dylan Macallister

10        Josip Tadic

11        Richard Garcia

13        Jonatan Germano

14        Golgol Mebrahtu

15        David Williams

16        Aziz Behich

17        Jason Hoffman

18        David Vrankovic

19        Ben Garuccio

20        Andrew Redmayne

21        Steven Gray

22        Nick Kalmar

23        Mate Dugandzic

This preview was first published in the magnificent Goal! Weekly. 

*The title of this preview is a glib allusion to Australian Crawl's 'Downhearted'.