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General A Leagues thread (Men and Women) 2025/26 season

Football us life said:
I think Jake Hollman is a decent player—probably better than "decent" by A-League standards, though not yet at the level where you'd expect him to walk into a top European league....

And I think it's plausible that Jake Hollman could play in a league like the Belgian Pro League or the maybe the second tier in Belgium, but probably not yet for one of Belgium's top clubs.

Ditto Holland, Austria, Denmark etc...

Im not knocking thw lower divisions in England either, it's the heart and soul of the game but some players have the attributes to thrive in those leagues and some don't.

The mistake people sometimes make is assuming that because a player struggles in League Two, they aren't good enough for slightly up the food chain. Football doesn't work like that.
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A lot of good points made, FUL.

The fact that Hollman excelled in international u23 games, and the AL, plus the salient skill set, he looks to me like a not too distant Roo.

Ditto Jacob Farrell. Just let go by WSW.

They still have promising futures in the right setting.

Also, rather than o/s club coaches, and scouts, determining players’ futures, Villupillay, Okon Jr and Beach have excelled as Socceroos, whilst still playing AL and little else.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
Jake Hollman only got the one start for Walsall in the EFL Trophy and none altogether in his other seven matches across League Two and the Carabao Cup which highlights this even more so.
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Incredible!

Thanks for shedding light on this.

In his last season he was one of the best players in the AL.
 
Decentric said:
A lot of good points made, FUL.

The fact that Hollman excelled in international u23 games, and the AL, plus the salient skill set, he looks to me like a not too distant Roo.

Ditto Jacob Farrell. Just let go by WSW.

They still have promising futures in the right setting.

Also, rather than o/s club coaches, and scouts, determining players’ futures, Villupillay, Okon Jr and Beach have excelled as Socceroos, whilst still playing AL and little else.
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Farrell wasn't let go, his loan expired
 
TheAgent said:
Nope, from the official press release from WSW "Jacob Farrell, who joined on loan from Portsmouth in January this year, made seven appearances for the Wanderers during the campaign and will now return to his English side."
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Thanks.
 
melbcityguy said:
They reckon the fixtures could come out in next few weeks. That would be great more time to organize trips!
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It's only the A-League Men fixture release that's slated for within the month though so there's still uncertainty with regards to the scheduling for the Dub heading into season 2026-27 unfortunately.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
It's only the A-League Men fixture release that's slated for within the month though so there's still uncertainty with regards to the scheduling for the Dub heading into season 2026-27 unfortunately.
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Does the ALW have a future? With the demise of Western United and the probable loss of Canberra and the Mariners it is down to 9 teams. Add to that the apparent disinterest of the Bulls and Auckland in fielding a women’s team the future is indeed looking gloomy.
 
Decentric said:
I don’t.

You’ve made a good point though. Arnie used to talk about it all the time - and overlook AL players.

A decade or so ago, Raymond Verheijen, did a lot of work on Periodisation. Essentially, the findings were that once players did an overload over an optimum, injuries are most likely to occur.

It seems an AL season of 26 games, plus an 8-10 game ACL season is ideal, plus a few National Cup games.

Without the ACL it is too short.

On the other hand these 46 game English Champ, L1 and Scottish seasons appear to be too long. Quite a few players say with international fixtures as well, they don’t get enough rest. Whereas in the AL, international games are a welcome addition to the short 26 game season.

I think others have posted here the Dutch, Belgians and Portuguese have a 34 game season - which may be ideal.

I suppose if one has a durable body like Cam Burgess, a Champ season is ideal. However, Riley McGree has struggled with the Champ workload. He has been injured a lot.
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Not enough rest ? They get four weeks holiday a year, just like the rest of us. They are in work for about four hours a day.
 
Decentric said:
A lot of good points made, FUL.

The fact that Hollman excelled in international u23 games, and the AL, plus the salient skill set, he looks to me like a not too distant Roo.

Ditto Jacob Farrell. Just let go by WSW.

They still have promising futures in the right setting.

Also, rather than o/s club coaches, and scouts, determining players’ futures, Villupillay, Okon Jr and Beach have excelled as Socceroos, whilst still playing AL and little else.
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Okon Jnr has had minimal games.
Wasn't the Turkey game his first true test barring some warm up games at no where near the intensity/friendly's << they are no where the same.
Beach the 1 Turkey game that yes excelled but its pretty premature to consider making the grade yet imo.
Villupillay - yer nup, he is Not NT regular standard.
AL has a long way to go providing seasoned long term Roo players - look at the squad, most are OS based players if I'm not mistaken talking genuine picks and regular start up players with the exception of Popas over cooked rotation..
 
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