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2026 Australia Cup final rounds thread

Apart from Redmayne ,Roux ,Steele and Mauragis the only other experienced players CCM have on their books are Sainsbury( not risked on artificial turf after long term injury) and Eames( still young but a lots of A League experience now).Brandtman,De Lima,Donnell,Lavale and Auglah played last season but really are not experienced.
 
For NPL clubs who are in the middle of their seasons it’s a good time to strike a-league clubs who have started pre season training, most of them would have 2 weeks of training under their belt so they won’t be fit enough to last the whole game.
Whilst is why we have seen NPL teams finish stronger in games like the mariners and jets games as an example.

Again another reason they need all the leagues to be aligned together, it’s even sillier that the a-league starts in October so the teams would barely be fit enough to take these games seriously anyway.

It’s all over the place much to our frustration with how the game has been for a while now, which has been discussed plenty of times.
 
southmelb said:
I feel like the standard of players is quite similar. The ultimate differences comes down to fitness levels. Npl clubs are in season and fit but also part time, A league players are professional but in early pre season.

If you made both 100% part time or 100% pro i think the difference these days is minimal.

I also remember in the early years of the cup it would be the foreign/marquee players of the A league teams that would be hard to stop.
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With the reduction of the A-League salary cap along with less clubs spending on marquee players the gap is way smaller when compared to the early days of the then FFA Cup. The gap is even closer with it being off-season for the A-League meaning the squads are incomplete with many off contract players and players that have left and yet to be replaced. So the difference in total squad salary/value between an off-season AL squad and an in-season NPL club is probably not that great. Especially if you were to compare this weeks salary spend rather than the annual salary spend. Squad values have never been closer.
Also, in previous Cups, we would see two AL clubs face each other in the rd of 32. In 2023 there were two games where that happened. That fixturing guaranteed at least 2 AL clubs would make it to the 16. This cup we have no AL clubs facing each other in the rd of 32. So, the chances of a an a-league club getting through are slightly less. Not at all surprising we have seen some AL clubs get knocked out already.
 
southmelb said:
I feel like the standard of players is quite similar. The ultimate differences comes down to fitness levels. Npl clubs are in season and fit but also part time, A league players are professional but in early pre season.

If you made both 100% part time or 100% pro i think the difference these days is minimal.

I also remember in the early years of the cup it would be the foreign/marquee players of the A league teams that would be hard to stop.
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I think that has always been the case. the only difference is that the R32 happens around 2 weeks earlier into preseason now and the ALM starts a week later than before meaning the ALM are 3 weeks earlier in their pre-season.

TBH - the skill levels shown by NPL players often overshadows ALM players.
 
Beretta said:
To many of those SUS "nazis, racists" around, so he needed to go undercover.

in all seriousness, i thought it was just Farah Koko's relatives, as he brings his whole family (10+) weekly.
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Redmayne was copping heaps last night no undercover for him lol
 
HonestSpursFan said:
Nobody 25 or over other than Andrew Redmayne and Storm Roux. Only two foreigners (Scotsman Noah McCann, age 37 and Kiwi Storm Roux, age 33). United actually fielded three foreigners (Japanese Koya Nakano and Tomoki Wada, and Fijian Leroy Jennings). Sofascore says that Lucas Mauragis (CCM) got MOTM based on ratings.

Mariners' starting 11 had an average age of 23.2, which seems reasonable but that doesn't account for two things: A. the obvious outliers (they fielded guys aged 33 and 37) and B. the bench (which was all under-19s except for Harry Steele). In comparison, United fielded an 11 with an average age of 25.8 but without extreme outliers (since there was more diversity in the ages of their players, whereas Mariners had a 17-24-year-olds plus a 33-year-old and a 37-year-old).
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Looked at the 18 player game day squad. Average age a touch over 21, aged 23 or less 15 players, teenagers 9, plus Redmayne 37, Roux 33 and Mauragis at 25.

That said - the average age of the whole squad at this stage is slightly less than 21.

At the end of the day that is CCM decision to have that young a squad at this stage of the season and too be honest they defended pretty well. The attack needed quite a bit more but at the moment it is what it is. SU58 turned up and took it to the Mariners all night and were the better team over the 120 minutes.

TBH I would have been pretty gutted if I was a SU58 supporter and lost that.
 
grazorblade said:


I dont think ive seen a coach have their son play in the team in any decent european league? It seems uniquely australian?

At this point im just gonna live with the nepotism, what can u do?
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Sir Alex Ferguson played his son, Darren Ferguson, between 1991 and 1994 at Man U. There have also been instances in the Championship league - can 't recall who and when.
 
No Totti No Party said:
How? They can't play players they don't have
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Just put more effort in. Still rotate but do it at the level other teams overseas do. Currently the teams and even the players don’t even care, it’s treated like a preseason friendly. Heaps of fans don’t even go to cup games unless it’s the semis or the final.
 
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NR93 said:
Not sure you can make that claim. Given what crowds you get for a npl game compared to a cup game. It seems to run opposite in the npl clubs case.

What is probably correct is that the diehards of either a club and “franchise” know how to support correctly (cup,league,CL/OFC etc) but the vast majority of those clubs/franchises suppporters support in a very odd way.
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Not always the supporters' fault.
In Adelaide's case it is the club's owners who always delay in signing up the club's full roster.
Who wants to watch your team full of youth and reserve players in the Australia cup?

Adelaide, with Asian matches coming up should be making a bigger effort, but the same thing always happens.
 
Is Melb City gonna play there U17 kids again? Wot a joke of a club they should be kicked out if they do. Talk about baiting sports/betting sites with there fixed squads. Easy money if u r betting against them but like I said the fix is already set.
 
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