Strikers Almost Complete as Rochedale Await

Tuesday 2th Feb, 2010

As they prepare for Wednesday night’s Silver Boot assignment against their old rivals, the Rochedale Rovers, the Brisbane Strikers have just three squad places still up for grabs, with seventeen players having committed themselves to the club’s 2010 Hyundai QSL season.

And if ever a football club entered a championship defence with almost a completely new squad, that team would be the Brisbane Strikers. After a tumultuous off-season just four players who were permanent members of the squad that completed last season will go around again. Those four – Chay Hews, Chris Di Sipio, Gareth Musson and Myles Carseldine are most certainly quality players and will be expected to prove as much on the field of play.

But the nature of football clubs will ensure their roles will not be limited to what transpires between the white lines. They will also, no doubt, also have leading roles to play in assimilating and familiarising the new players to their new football club, its culture and modus operandi and its supporters and in helping those players coming into the senior team from last year’s youth team – Matija Simic, Reagan Alder and Brendan White – to make that transition.

Elsewhere in the squad there is a fascinating blend of elite youth with QAS and/or National Youth League experience (for instance Matt Thurtell, Jordan Farina and Michael Angus), players with experience with other clubs in the QSL (goalkeeper Seb Usai and midfielder Sean Burke), and quality players who have moved from the Brisbane Premier League to the QSL (Brad McDonald and Matt Christensen).

The signs are that Head Coach Stuart McLaren and his assistant David Large are already making significant headway in the task of turning this new, younger Brisbane Strikers squad into a formidable force. A slow-to-start performance in losing 3-4 to Peninsula Power was followed by a better, but still uncertain performance in the Silver Boot tournament in beating Capalaba on penalties, before last week’s 7-0 Silver Boot trouncing of the Ipswich Knights produced some passages of slick and sometimes scintillating football.

McLaren will be hoping his side can produce some of that latest form against Rochedale Rovers. While the Strikers currently head Group B in the tournament, and a draw might be enough to get them through to the semi-finals, McLaren said today his players are keen to win the match.

“We’ve spoken about it at training and the players have said, tongue in cheek, that they would rather beat Rochedale and take away any confusion”, McLaren said.

While McLaren said that, for his team, the Rochedale Rovers clash was “95 percent about preparation, with the other five percent being about progressing so that we have two more definite pre-arranged pre-season games”, he did not deny that given the result would have some significance.

“You always want to win games, that’s part and parcel of playing football, but most important is getting some things together and producing a good performance”, he said.

McLaren also said he expected the Rovers, who uncharacteristically sit bottom of Group B after losing on penalties to the Knights and going down 1-0 in regulation time to Capalaba, to give tomorrow night’s game against the Strikers their best shot.

“I think Coops (Rovers coach Kieran Cooper) will be out to play his strongest possible side and produce their strongest possible performance”, McLaren said. “They are getting close to their season kick-off and will be looking to dispel their own doubts, if they have any, about their ability and to dispel those of any other teams in their league”.

Brisbane Strikers squad (and possible positions) to date:

Goalkeepers: Seb Usai, Brendan White

Defenders: Ryan Mottin, Matija Simic, Myles Carseldine, Jason Shade, Brad McDonald

Midfielders: Chay Hews, Jordan Mason, Michael Angus, Matt Christensen, Sean Burke, Reagan Alder

Forwards: Gareth Musson, Chris Di Sipio, Jordan Farina, Matt Thurtell