Mariners Squad - 2020-2021

[Michael]

I know its only pre-season but today's 2-3 loss to Macarthur is pretty concerning. We played close to what is our full strength side with a number of youth players. Goals were scored by Smylie and Tongyik. Not overly encouraging and no exciting new triallists or potential signings to be seen. Looks like we will be losing another of our Youth players this week - just hope that the club has got him signed and it is a loan as he has never even been on a NYL development contract.

is this Khoury you speak about?

 

[pinklady]

is this Khoury you speak about?

No its not

 

[Tim]

No its not

Did Macarthur field a competitive squad, ie close to their top 11 based on current signings?

 

[Tevor]

Did Macarthur field a competitive squad, ie close to their top 11 based on current signings?

The Spaniards are not available yet so would not be their full strength team.

 

[shipwreck]

Macarthur have basically done a proof of concept that signing internationals is not only feasible, it's probably easier than ever with international players looking to escape the shit fight that is Europe at the moment and come to Australia, which on a world scale is doing extremely well thriugh COVID.

Why am I saying this? Because if I hear any bullshit from the club trying to use COVID as an excuse as to why we don't have any quality international players we can see through it and understand it just comes down to budget and it being put in the "too hard basket".

We need a striker desperately. We need a striker desperately, we need a striker desperately.

 

[style_cafe]

As I`ve said before, Macarthur are building a very strong roster.
Like West Sydney and Western United did in their first 2 years, they also have salary cap concessions which allow them to spend considerably more than the cap.
Add to that teams like Sydney, Adelaide etc that have marquees (also outside of the cap) then we are always going to be up against it.
Our focus has to be not getting the spoon again and I can`t see us doing that without a decent experienced centre back and a striker.
Once we have them locked in then we`ll have some hope...

 

[Elite]

Many years ago, before some here were born, there was a new national football competition begun called the A League.
There were 8 licences available. Six licences were awarded to bids from capital cities. One went to the biggest city in Australia with a great football heritage. The eighth licence was a problem. They were never going to award a second licence to either Sydney or Melbourne for fear of showing favouritism. They were never going to award it to one of the stronger NSL contestants because ethnic football was to be stamped out.
With a distinct lack of optimism the eighth licence was awarded to the "runt of the litter", a club built on a failed NPL venture and became the only truly regional club, the Central Coast Mariners.
In that first season no one gave the Club a chance. The rest is history.

I refuse to go into the start of a season without hope.
We are still alive!!!

FIRE UP.

Bloody love this. One of the best posts I've seen on here to date.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Nothing's likely to change with MC still in charge.

 

[Ironbark]

Kind of repeating myself but this looks to be going one of two ways.

~ New owner/s come in and inject some capital and new players and we're off to a good start.
If the sale actually is in process it makes sense we're aren't hearing about players or direction yet. That would be for the new owner/s to decide and announce.
Or
~ The sale doesn't go through and it's basically rinse and repeat for the spoon.

The general silence really means it could go either way.
I don't know how much stomach I have left for option 2 though.

 

[style_cafe]

Kind of repeating myself but this looks to be going one of two ways.

~ New owner/s come in and inject some capital and new players and we're off to a good start.
If the sale actually is in process it makes sense we're aren't hearing about players or direction yet. That would be for the new owner/s to decide and announce.
Or
~ The sale doesn't go through and it's basically rinse and repeat for the spoon.

The general silence really means it could go either way.
I don't know how much stomach I have left for option 2 though.

Hang in there mate remember " We`re all in this together"...

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

As I`ve said before, Macarthur are building a very strong roster.
Like West Sydney and Western United did in their first 2 years, they also have salary cap concessions which allow them to spend considerably more than the cap.
Add to that teams like Sydney, Adelaide etc that have marquees (also outside of the cap) then we are always going to be up against it.
Our focus has to be not getting the spoon again and I can`t see us doing that without a decent experienced centre back and a striker.
Once we have them locked in then we`ll have some hope...

Agreed. Heck, with the reduced cap, we should at least have a chance of being on the same playing field as everybody else (except for the 'who on earth would want to play for the Mariners????' factor)

 

[Yorkshire Mariners FC]

Kind of repeating myself but this looks to be going one of two ways.

~ New owner/s come in and inject some capital and new players and we're off to a good start.
If the sale actually is in process it makes sense we're aren't hearing about players or direction yet. That would be for the new owner/s to decide and announce.
Or
~ The sale doesn't go through and it's basically rinse and repeat for the spoon.

The general silence really means it could go either way.
I don't know how much stomach I have left for option 2 though.

Sadly option 2 seems to be in place (I hope I am wrong). Early last season I vividly remember the commentary where commentator A said "the Mariners can only better than last season". Commentator B "there is an extra team, so they can be worse off". We cranked it down to 11! Sadly the same could be true this season, in fact, unless key defensive and attacking foreigners are lined up it is inevitable.

Let's Moneyball it a little.

Attack- added Boumann?
Defensive- added youth.

Last season Goals For= 26 (at an average of exactly a goal a game)
Last season Goals Against= 55 (at an average of 2.11 goals a game).

Essentially- we need 2 goals a game just to cover our defence. And personnel has not changed significantly enough for this to happen.
Kim, Fox and Oar out. Oli in.
I'm just not seeing how we can turn this around.

I keep getting suckered in but unless I can see a path (signings) to improve attack or defence- just give us the spoon now.

Sorry for the pessimistic outlook- I just want us to be better!

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

Really struggling to be optimistic, Bozanic is our best signing by far but even he was underwheling in his last stint in the A-League with Victory/City. Bouman has played barely any senior football and couldn't break into an Eerste Divise team, something someone like Harry Ascroft did at a much younger age. Our defence was shambolic for a large part of the last season and has been weakened by the loss of Dylan Fox and has only so far been replaced by untried youngsters in Matt Hatch and Dan Hall. We have a midfield, that apart from Bozanic, has been shown not to be up to A-League level which has been weakened by the loss of Kim Eun-Sun. Unless Danny De Silva finally lives up to his hype, Stensness improves markedly, Nisbet consistently performs, we will once again have the weakest midfield in the A-League. We have no attacking wide players and our strike force consists of a very raw 19 year old and a 34 year old Matt Simon who didn't score a goal from open play last season.

I desperately want to be optimistic about the upcoming season but with radio silence from the club on possible signings and even seemingly minimal players trialling it is extremly difficult to see a ladder position higher than 12th let alone be anywhere near challenging for the finals.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I would like to think that there is still some squad money available for a decent signing or two. If not, then I fear we will have to wait for more money to become available, which in turn will be dependent on quite a few issues being resolved.

At present we have an owner who cannot afford to own the Club and wants out, but who is paying the bills to keep the Club alive until this is resolved. For this I am extremely grateful. ( I remember when wages were not being paid). However, no more money there.
Due to many virus induced cut backs Fox have reneged on their original commitment and cut funding to the league. No more money there this season.
The A-League is still in a transition stage of control being passed from FFA to a new ownership based organisation. Still not finalised.

The move to an independent A-League is a vital first step. There is no reason for that to drag on.
Second step is to return to a normal full season. But until the Covid virus epidemic is over in Australia, that will not happen. Hopefully this will occur during the first half of 2021.
When those two steps are completed the A-League can then negotiate a senior sponsor and broadcast rights.

Once all this happens there will be some certainty returned and funding of clubs should become consistent.
When this happens I think we can see some positive progress towards the successful sale of any A-League club. At present the future is too uncertain for anyone to commit. I have not given up on seeing a sudden announcement at the right time.

I am fairly hopeful that the Club will be snapped up when all those things occur. With the youth development becoming more real than just a talking point, the Club is a more attractive option for purchase than it has been in the past. If you could throw in a viable fan/community support trust, plus stadium management rights then buyers will be beating a path to our door.

Until that happens we will be spending reduced cap minimum. I am hoping we have not reached that and for once the Club is waiting for the right player/s rather than just grabbing who is available from NPL perhapsers.

If not, it will be a tough season relying mainly on youth and a few wise oldies. A point to remember is that some of the youth we are relying on have had at least one season of experience and should have progressed. I am thinking of players like Miller, Nizzy, and Stens. If they have progressed enough the season may not be the write off some here are fearing.

All Clubs are in for a disrupted season and any predictions at this stage are guesses.

Am I being optimistic hoping that we can have a good season with what we have and cause some surprises? Almost certainly I am, but if we do, it will be a wonderful foundation on which to build a new era.

 

[Coastalraider]

Interestingly Staj said in Mariner TV that we have agreed to terms with 2 visa players and are just finalising paperwork to be able to get them in the country.

 

[Michael]

Interestingly Staj said in Mariner TV that we have agreed to terms with 2 visa players and are just finalising paperwork to be able to get them in the country.

very good to hear, hopefully more info by the weekend

 

[true believer]

Interestingly Staj said in Mariner TV that we have agreed to terms with 2 visa players and are just finalising paperwork to be able to get them in the country.

gee i'd love to know what we're getting . anybody who can consistently score would make us competitive .
i looking forward to seeing hall . and i think my boy stens will have a few of you eating your words .

 

[Coastalraider]

I’m concerned we all seem to think a 10+ goal striker will make a huge difference. We could have had a quality striker last year and it would have made little difference without any quality service. With the loss of Harold I don’t think we really have any genuine wide players, just repositioned mids. We also have an untested 10. Ollie is a good signing, but he doesn’t make up for the combined loss of Milan and Kim for experience and quality.

Arguably we are weaker in every part of the field except the backline, which wasn’t quality last year either.

Im hopeful with Staj’s comment today that we still have 4-5 positions to fill, with 2 visas all but locked in, we still have some quality to come in crucial positions, and for me that isn’t limited to a striker and a CB.

 

[Josho Howe]

2 visa players coming in have to be a no.9 and a CB/RB surely

Birraz
Miller - Ziggy - Visa CB - Clisby (sigh)
Ollie - Nisbet - Stensness
DDS - Bouman
Visa striker

Pearce, Kuol, Tongyik, Rowles, Simon

Youth bench options - Hall, Hatch

Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence tbh

 

[Pirate Pete]

2 visa players coming in have to be a no.9 and a CB/RB surely

Birraz
Miller - Ziggy - Visa CB - Clisby (sigh)
Ollie - Nisbet - Stensness
DDS - Bouman
Visa striker

Pearce, Kuol, Tongyik, Rowles, Simon

Youth bench options - Hall, Hatch

Doesn't exactly fill me with confidence tbh

Shaun said
"the aim is for two of these to be foreign players for the front of the field"
So unless we're playing a high backline I don't think one will be CB.