As a long time Brisbane resident I went along to the A League Grand Final the other night, where the Brisbane Roar played the Central Coast Mariners.
It was a cracking game (Brisbane on penalties despite being 2-0 down with four minutes of extra time remaining) and there were a couple of players that caught the eye.
The Brisbane captain Matt McKay was excellent and reminded me a lot of Mark Kinsella type, and also the right back Ivan Franjic and the left midfielder Thomas Broich both impressed me greatly for Brisbane.
From a standard of football point of view, having watched some CAFC games on Fox Sports I cannot believe that some of these players would not be an improvement on what we have (McKay in particular is in the full Australia squad).
The A League standard can be a bit ropey, but to be fair the English players that have come here don’t run rings around anybody (Robbie Fowler, Francis Jeffers, Michael Bridges, Paul Iffil etc), so I reckon the standard would at least be the equivalent of Division 1.
Do any other Aussie based Addicks have a view on both the standard of the A League or how those players I have mentioned would fare in a CAFC shirt?
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Matt McKay is a top player, I would be amazed if he did not move in the close-season. He would be class in League One and could probably play for a leading CCC side or in a decent European league, I rate him far higher than Jason Culina who was a regular for PSV.
Franjic is also a decent player and could play in L1 but Broich, who did well in the Bundesliga, would not be cut out for the physical side of L1 football.
I think most A-League teams veer between L2 and L1 in quality, certainly no higher than top L1.
In fact a young player called Tommy Oar went to Utrecht last year from Brisbane, and has been playing for them in the Europa Cup this season, and he is going to be a very good player.
Agree with Ormiston about McKay, if we were looking for a real leader to act as a bit of a focal point for our 'revival' then he would be a decent start.
From watching a bit of the A League I reckon there would be some good bargains to be had, but would agree that the best sides would struggle at Championship level.
Normally a non-EU player needs to have played in something like 70% of his countries internationals over the last two years to get a work permit.
Very few A-League players are regulars with the Socceroos because the regulars are all OS-based, mainly in Europe but also some in Japan/Korea/China.
Broich is pure class, the best player in the A league IMO. An elegant skillful attacking midfielder who can open up defences and score goals. He played 60 odd games for B Monchengladbach and I don't think would have any problem at all adapting to the English leagues, still only 30 as well. Not a fan of the A league at all, but the Roar have been terrific all season, 28 games unbeaten and watching that final on Sunday actually renewed my appetite for the beatiful game which has been seriously waning lately.
Thanks for posting Kenny, I was thinking about it myself but know that most on here would never believe anything good about the A League.
It pains me to say it but there is currently no comparison between Brisbane Roar and CAFC, they (BR) are a good side and would comfortably see off the current bunch of charlatans we have in the red shirts.
The standard that CAFC have currently fallen to is simply heartbreaking, but that is a debate for another thread!
Not a big fan of the A League either, but I enjoyed the game and occason on Sunday, and will go bcak next season without a doubt.
Im Victory of course... and can enjoy them sooooooooo much more now that scum bag muscat has retired...
CAFC would give Roar a 2 goal start and still win nine games out of ten.
Broich wouldn't last five minutes........Hartlepool away midweek in winter is different to Melbourne away on a sunny Sunday in November.
A-League generally is very poor, but there is the odd team that shines every now and again............Brisbane is one of them
Regarding the standard of the A-League then whilst you are of course entitled to your opinion, all I would say is that players of far greater than conference standard have come out here from England, and not looked head and shoulders above anybody else.
Matt McKay I think could easily play in the championship, and Broich has played in the Bundesliga so again we have to beg to difer on that one.
Regarding the Hartlepool away comparison, all I would say is that he could hardly be a lot worse than the lot that lost so dismally away at Hartlepool a few weeks ago - could he?
You obviously haven't seen much of CAFC lately! As for Broich, he's from Germany not sunny South America and if you didn't notice there was a near monsoon at the start of the second half. Not only did he continue to play well through the driving rain, but carried on through 30 minutes extra time as well. I would say the humidity here in Brisbane is far more demanding of fitness levels than the generally cold dry weather of a UK winter. A player of his quality would have no problem at Hartlepool in winter, certainly no more so than Racon, Mcoxo or any of our underperformers. Charlton cannot string more than a few passes together without giving the ball away, the Roar are playing some fabulous football.
I would agree that the general standard is low, but Brisbane Roar are the exception.
100% record.. crikey.. dont think that for a second...
You are talking out of your arsehole.
Plenty of English pros come out here and none have dominated so far, even Paul Ifill has struggled to make a sustained impact and Fowler looks crap most of the time. Even a class act like Andy Todd has struggled. Francis Jeffers scored 1 goal in about 8 games when he played here.
About four years ago the New Zealand team packed their side with English pros - some of them in their mid-20's - and they finished bottom.
As for Charlie Miller, he lasted about a season with Brisbane before they booted him out!
The better teams in the A-League are about mid-table in L1, they are certainly a lot better than the Conference.
At the moment Charlton would not have a 100% record in the Blue Square, never mind anywhere else.
i thought the standard wasn't too bad.