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Australian Dual Nationals šŸ‡¦šŸ‡ŗšŸ³ļø

Itā€™s a strange one in many ways. He is still a bench player in a bottom half championship side and whose form hasnā€™t been great in the last couple of months.

I canā€™t see him getting a first team cap for the Croats any time soon. I wonder if they have whispered sweet nothings to him as a way of building their base of potential players in the future. Which I am guessing he succumbed to after not getting in the squad for March.

I wonder if we will see him in their U/23s or something.

I do wonder if him scoring for Sydney while he was in the a league and doing the ā€˜call meā€™ Poppa celebration was a bit of an indication of entitlement. But who knows at the end of the day.

Funnily enough now possible in a couple of years we could have Circati, Robertson and Volpato all in Green and Gold but not Triantis and Segicic. If you put that proposition to Socceroos fans a couple of years ago we would probably have taken it.
 
Somebloke said:
Itā€™s a strange one in many ways. He is still a bench player in a bottom half championship side and whose form hasnā€™t been great in the last couple of months.

I canā€™t see him getting a first team cap for the Croats any time soon. I wonder if they have whispered sweet nothings to him as a way of building their base of potential players in the future. Which I am guessing he succumbed to after not getting in the squad for March.

I wonder if we will see him in their U/23s or something.

I do wonder if him scoring for Sydney while he was in the a league and doing the ā€˜call meā€™ Poppa celebration was a bit of an indication of entitlement. But who knows at the end of the day.

Funnily enough now possible in a couple of years we could have Circati, Robertson and Volpato all in Green and Gold but not Triantis and Segicic. If you put that proposition to Socceroos fans a couple of years ago we would probably have taken it.
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Maybe the Croats are playing the longer game here. They don't necessarily want him immediately or maybe even think he is ready yet, but see that in 3, 4, 5 years time he might be someone worth having. So they lock him up now, remembering that he only needs to play a minute for them (or does Croatia have an U23's, as playing there would lock him in also) to bind him forever. And with Croatia also knowing that if he does decide to switch back to Australia before he plays for them, there is a paperwork process which seems like it could also be a mental roadblock for some players. It needs to be a deliberate decision and process for him to switch back to Australia.

And if he doesn't pan out to be anything for Croatia, what have they lost? Nothing!

Edit: And the annoying thing is, we could do the same (or similar) thing. Play him for the required games/minutes to lock him in, and he is ours even if he doesn't amount to much in the future. Hell, even just give him some minutes in games that don't contribute to locking him in, at least he maybe feels wanted then and less likely to be swayed by other countries.
 
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I wonder if the meeting with Volpato signals a switch of tactics by Poppa and FA. I am guessing that they heard about the Sega switch before we did. He said in the presser ā€œ we are still not selling the shirt butā€¦ā€ and the ln described how they met with Volpato to essentially lay out a case of why he should play for Oz.
 
Unforgivable from Popovic. He's a disgrace. I'm so filthy that this has happened. I knew it was a risk. We're so naive at managing dual nationals. Like Triantis all over again. Sega was probably told he wasn't part of March squad and that was the final straw.
 
verrelli said:
Croatia will be doing everything to lure Segecic. Another that Poppa should have already secured. He's already lost Triantis who could have been one of our brightest prospects for the next decade. Honestly, he just takes way too long! I'm just a mug but I've been saying for months to secure these two. We've lost one and it'd be naive to think we're not at risk of losing the other. Not a peep from the media about Triantis slipping through our fingers due to mismanagement. People say they have to want to play for us. Look at the videos of him in his green and gold jersey... he did want to play for us. Ask yourself why that changed and who's at fault.
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This was so obviously a risk. If a mug like me could see ut happening >6 months ago, why couldn't Popovic?!
 
Daniel Garb reporting that there was no falling out with Poppa and his staff and that the Croats had been trying to get him to switch for some time
 
verrelli said:
I do agree with this. He seems to have a massive chip on his shoulder expecting to walk into the team given what he has actually achieved so far and at which level, which is far from compelling. I'm not at all sold on him.

That said, I continue to be troubled by the fact that we are consistently pissing off dual national players when we need to be especially conscious of nurturing these relationships. I'm not advocating for us to gift caps to these players. But I do expect us to be communicating with these guys and taking every step to ensure they feel valued and have a future with the team. It almost feels like we're going to thr other extreme and we're so hyper conscious of not favouring these guys that we're actually treating them WORSE than our non- dual nationals. We constantly make mis-steps and fuck things up and shoot ourselves in the foot. We're on the verge of doing it again with Segecic if we're not very careful. Other less naive nations will be very quick to try to convince these guys to change allegiance. Popovic and whoever came before or after are simply custodians of our team.... the people's team... the nation's team. They have an obligation to be growing the team and keeping the best possible available talent in our stable, and that isn't happening right now. When we have guys who's father and grandfather wore the green and gold, and they then followed and also chose Australia... only for something big enough to happen to flip all that history upside down and choose to walk away, you need to wonder what is going on.
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And again...
 
verrelli said:
Was just about to post the same article. Honestly I don't know how any could still be defending Popovic after reading that. Why the fuck would he have at the very least not reached out to say, you're doing great, we're watching you, keeping doing what you're doing and your time will come before long to join the group. Shows absolutely abysmal man management that this isn't happening. Regardless of WC qualification, if we lose Segecic following on from Triantis, he should be sacked. Segecic's form last season demanded selection, but as always Popovic moves slower than an iceberg until others start to take notice and he questions his allegiance.
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And again...
 
verrelli said:
Right now it feels like Popovic is just being stubborn and pig-headed with this ridiculous line of not diminishing the jersey. Let's see how well that goes when Greece pinch Triantis, Croatia pinch Segecic and Italy pinch Volpato. If those countries want those players in their stable, they're going to be moving heaven and earth to act on it to make sure of it, not naively waiting by the phone for the players to reach out and ask to pretty please play for them.
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This was from back in June 2025.

#PopaOut
 
Pretty disheartening news.
It seems a pretty clear imbalance with the setup of the system to favour larger football nations at this point. Lodging paperwork one time is enough and they are tied forever. It is actually a disadvantage to have kids come through your youth system because this doesn't actually tie them down. We had to cap Segacic 3 times in qualifiers. Croatia just needed him to lodge paperwork
 
Weird move from the kid considering how close he is to a spot at the WC. I doubt he is good enough for the Croatian A team either. I suspect they might have offered him an opportunity for the U-21 side which he is still eligible for (2004 generation). Interestingly, they announced the squad for the upcoming qualifier against Turkey and he isn't in it.

 
Sharkman84 said:
How is it?

Yes he played for Sydney nearly two decades ago but the facts are he has coached our two biggest rivals since.

He seems loathe to pick current or former Sydney players as a result and now we've lost one of the hottest prospects of this generation as a result.
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He did pick Al Hassan Toure and Okon-Jnr after they had one good game. Thats one of the reasons Iā€™m so upset about this defection. If Al Hassan Toure is good enough for a cap after one good game, why wasnā€™t Segacic or Triantis good enough after one (or more) good seasons.

This is so disappointing. He was one player that I was genuinely excited to see make his debut for Australia after playing so well for Sydney FC. Such a shame.
 
This reeks of another reactionary tantrum? Maybe in the know that he is no chance for the WC, could've been a useful super sub for a different manager.
Maybe dosn't work hard enough defensively for Popa-ball?
My only hope now is that we can somehow shit house our way out of the group, with this formation and tactics.
 
patjennings said:
The whole Triantis family wanted to play for Australia. Nectar was the only one that had the talent. But something is seriously wrong with Popovic's man management.

He inherited a very solid defence from Arnie, he's screwed around in midfield and he has Veart to thank for his most threatening forwards.
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When Popa said heā€™s isnā€™t trying to sell the shirt but then goes to Italy to try and convince Volpato to play for us? Something tells me they are selling us a smokescreen instead.
 
I don't think responsibility for our strategy with dual nationals should sit with the coach. It's has broader implications for football beyond a coaches tenure. Football Australia are just as responsible for letting this happen by being naive and passive in their approach to dual nationals.
 
Quicky said:
I don't think responsibility for our strategy with dual nationals should sit with the coach. It's has broader implications for football beyond a coaches tenure. Football Australia are just as responsible for letting this happen by being naive and passive in their approach to dual nationals.
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The fact they donā€™t have a technical director who can do this is a failure on them, relying on coach to find talent is always a risk considering they jobs are always on the line if they donā€™t get results.
 
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