Roar Forum and Aloisi Redemption
The major event this week from a Brisbane event was a fan forum held on Wednesday night, however unlike previous forums held in September this one lacked the anger of those events. There were however a few interesting Tidbits from the evening, which I’ll list in dot point.
– The club in contact with Brandon Borrello’s agent, they want him to sign but negotiations continue. He’s effectively on a first team deal for the remainder of the season Aloisi explained.
– While they’re currently operating at roughly 90% of the salary cap, there are no plans at present to make any January additions. Any addition will also have to fit within the clubs budget.
– In relation to off-field matters, interim CEO David Pourre confirmed that the clubs situation was far more stable than it was in previous months, going into detail about how things were extremely grim around the May- July period due to a lack of finances and guidance from the clubs ownership.
– Pourre went on to state that in line with their commitments, all wages and benefits will be fully back paid by the end of this month to both staff and players, while the stated aim of January to repay all creditors remains the target. Pourre also indicated the money owed was down from 7 figures to 6.
– The clubs memberships are roughly where they were last year when you exclude things like stadium members from the tally, which Pourre described as creating a ‘false economy’. The club now only counts it’s full season ticketed members, 3 game memberships and memberships in the ‘one goal’ clubhouse from local clubs in the tally.
– In a more league wide question, Pourre outlined the clubs stance on the recent Wellington Phoenix matter is one of silence but supportive. Pourre outlined the benefits of Wellington, before going on to re-iterate the club have their own issues to deal with.
– In response to some previously made commitments, the clubs annual fan day –typically held the week before the season- will now be held before Christmas, with December 6 a likely date. They’re also continuing to work with the venue for the end of season awards night to work out how many people they can invite to that event.
Focusing back to on field matters, in a week when the football community reminisced about the night Australian Football ended a 32 year hoodoo, the current generation were trying to secure a passage to the next round of 2018 Qualification. From a Brisbane perspective Matt McKay was the sole representative in the squad, with the Roar captain an unused substitute in the first game against Kyrgyzstan before playing a full 90 minutes away to Bangladesh on Tuesday night.
At the u/23 level, Brisbane striker Jamie Maclaren continued his recent goal scoring form with a goal in a 1-1 draw away to Iran over the weekend. In the other game of the tour, Australia suffered a 3-1 loss to Qatar. Maclaren was joined by Corey Brown in the squad.
Sunday’s win over Perth was a hard fought one with Glory holding out for ¾ of the game before Henrique scored just minutes into his return from a serious knee injury in what was a fantastic moment for all involved.
Despite taking 75’ minutes to make the breakthrough the home side were dominant throughout the game, with the visitors struggling to create goalscoring opportunities in their limited spells of possession.
Finally, congratulations are in store for Nick D’Agostino and Javier Hervas who became the 114th and 115th players to represent Brisbane Roar. Hervas in particular made a strong impression on his debut, with his work rate and quality showing in his 20 minute cameo off the bench.
This week sees the first clash against Melbourne City for the season, and a first chance for John Aloisi to get one over his old side. He’s not making that the focus of the week, but naturally he’d like to get the points against them.
The game will see the return to Brisbane for the first time of 3 time champion Ivan Franjic, who left Brisbane after the 2014 World Cup and the right full-back should receive a warm reception from his former home fans.
On the field though a big part of this game will come down to the returning Socceroos midfielders for either side, with Aaron Mooy for City and Matt McKay for the Roar both integral parts of their respective sides.
Based on last week however it would appear that the home side would have the advantage in this encounter with City struggling against Western Sydney without Mooy, while Brisbane continued along with Hervas announcing himself to the league just seconds after coming onto the field.
City however are a different proposition with Mooy in the line-up, with service to Bruno Fornaroli more regular with the Socceroo in the line-up, all of which means this figures to be the biggest test at home so far this season for Brisbane.
After recording a second successive win to start the new National Youth League Brisbane have their first of two byes’ in the shortened season this weekend. The week off comes on a back of an impressive 3-1 win over Melbourne Victory last Saturday, a game where some of the younger members of the Roar squad showed their potential. First half goals from Dane Ingham and Jesse Daley, along with a second half penalty to Harrison Sawyer were enough to see off the visitors who got a goal back in the second half via a free-kick from Joey Katebian.
In the W-League it was a second straight defeat for the ladies, with a double on debut from Vanessa Di Bernardo enough to see off the home side a Suncorp Stadium, with a calamitous error from goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer leading to the first before a gorgeous lob from 30 yards sealed the win late on. Next up for the Roar ladies is a trip to unbeaten league leaders Melbourne City, who’ve started the year with 5 wins from 5.
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