Three More Walk, But McLaren Unbowed

Monday 23th Nov, 2009

The Brisbane Strikers will defend their Hyundai QSL title in 2010 with a new-look squad.

That is the undeniable truth that the club, its coaching staff and its supporters must come to grips with after head coach Stuart McLaren was dealt a three-pronged dose of bad news by skipper Matt Smith, striker Adam Webber and defender John Costello, who have all informed him they will leave Perry Park. Smith is exploring A-League opportunities while Webber and Costello have left to play in the Brisbane Premier League.

All three players had been offered terms to continue with the Strikers, but decided their interests were better served elsewhere as the club grapples with the fallout from an over-heated Brisbane player market triggered partly by the admittance of former QSL sides Redlands and Olympic FC into the BPL.

As McLaren’s squad of Queensland champions has awaited an announcement from Football Queensland on the final composition of next year’s QSL other Brisbane clubs, anxious to ensure they are competitive in next year’s BPL, have been circling with interest. While Smith is torn by a desire to step up to the next level, by late last week it became apparent that Webber and Costello had run out of patience with the situation and had decided to return to the BPL. The three have joined Craig Collins, Warren Moon, Steve Unsworth, Todd Gava, Scott MacNicol, Jeromy Harris, Jerrad Tyson and the retired Jamie Johnson on the list of players from McLaren’s 2009 squad who will not be going around for the Strikers again in 2010.

McLaren admitted today that the loss of the three players – particularly that of Webber, who had been with the club for eight years - had saddened him. But he said he was also absolutely determined that the Strikers would nevertheless mount a very strong defence of their QSL title.

“That has always been our number one goal ever since the 2009 season finished”, he said. “We were not the first team to win the QSL title, but perhaps we can be the first to defend it. I am confident we will have a team that can go well, but it will obviously be a lot of hard work and we will have to do it more with players who are looking to prove themselves than with players who already have”.

McLaren made it clear, however, that he was far less than thrilled by losing Webber and Costello to the BPL.

“We made them very good offers and I am disappointed that they haven’t stayed loyal”, he said. “It’s their choice, but I think the old adage of the players missing the club more than the club will miss the players will be true for them”.

McLaren said that in recent weeks he had spoken to his players to impress upon them that, while it was understandable they should be thinking about what is the best option for their playing careers in 2010, they also should also reflect that football “had probably given them more than they could ever give to the game” and that they should also consider what they could do to make a lasting contribution to it. In McLaren’s view, that meant showing some solidarity with what the QSL is trying to achieve for the game in Queensland, and sticking around to ensure that it stays strong.

“I think the players have been misguided in the notion that the BPL might be better than the QSL and perhaps they have been a bit overly selfish in terms of their ability to have an influence on the game overall”, McLaren said.

In the current fraught circumstances, McLaren admitted he could not be sure that more players would not leave his squad over the next few days.

“Your confidence does take a bit of a hit when something like this happens, because it means that their decision is not about the environment that this club can offer them”, he said. “There seems to be a perception about being better served in the BPL and I think there has been a bit of a domino effect in that, if one or two influential players have leaned one way, the rest have started to follow”.

But McLaren remains determined to try to stem the rot. Terms were offered to several other prominent members of his squad last week, and McLaren said the club was never short of quality players from outside the club expressing an interest in joining. Three such players who have impressed him in pre-season training to date have already been offered terms.

“We will be confident that we can put a very good squad together”, he said, while conceding it could take time to bind it into a cohesive whole. “It’s always nice to have continuity so, from a coaching point of view, it will almost be like starting from scratch. It will be different from last year when we had great depth in terms of the individual quality and experience of the players. Next year we will be less proven, although I have no doubt that the ability and quality will be there. But perhaps we might just be a bit of an unknown quantity for a while”.

McLaren is also adamant that the setbacks the club has endured over the last few weeks will not prevent it from competing in January’s Malabar United International Club Football Tournament in India. Teams participating in the tournament must nominate their squads by 1 December.

“All will be revealed over the next couple of days”, he said. “I’m hoping it (the chance to play in the tournament) might actually play a part in bringing players to the club. I’m confident we can put fifteen or sixteen players together for the tournament that we can be satisfied with, and we need to leave a spot or two open for Jonti Richter, who is on the long-term injured list, and for Michael Butters.

“Michael is trialling in Scotland at the moment, and I’d be disappointed for him if he is not successful over there, but I’d like to think that if he does come back to Brisbane he will want to play for us”.

Meanwhile, an announcement by Football Queensland on the final composition of the 2010 Hyundai QSL is expected by the end of the week.