Strikers News 2003/2004

Attacking midfielder David Pilic won the first Roman Empire Bar Restaurant Man of the Match Award for his efforts against Sydney Olympic last night.

The award, sponsored by the owners of the restaurant and adjudicated by BSSA members and assistant coach, Luciano Trani, wins a prize of a meal for two at the restaurant (located at Shop 1, 742 Creek Road, Carindale).

Pilic, who played strongly throughout the game until his substitution around the eightieth minute by Louis Brain, scored the home team's goal with a beatifully flighted free kick from twenty metres out.

The votes, cast on a 3-2-1 basis by a five-person BSSA panel last night, will now be combined with votes from other BSSA members and will count towards the eventual awarding of the BSSA's Player of the Season trophy at the end of the season.

If you wish to vote in the Player of the Match award you can - but only if you are a BSSA member. If you are not yet eligible to vote, please take out membership of the BSSA (using the form found on this website), and then email your vote, in a 3-2-1 format to [email protected] or phone Alex Wainwright on 3279 2807.

The Brisbane Strikers will take to the field against Sydney Olympic on Saturday night intent on producing a performance that befits their rebirth at the Queensland’s ‘home of soccer’, Perry Park - a venue at which they have not played for eight seasons.

Player-coach Stuart McLaren said earlier this week that, while it was important "not to get too carried away with it", the occasion of playing again at the club’s new and permanent home ground was bound to provide a little extra motivation for his team to perform well.

"I hope it does", he said. "It provides an extra little bit of adrenalin and motivation. There is a sense of purpose in the players to prove to people what we are capable of".

When we contacted him today, McLaren told us that he had trained his team on the newly restored main pitch on Thursday night to give them a feel for how it would play. McLaren said he had been delighted with its condition. "It looks like its going to play pretty quick, so it should suit us", he said.

Whether tonight’s soaking thunderstorms will slow the surface down remains to be seen, but what we do know is that McLaren’s optimism about the benefits a fast surface will confer on his team stems from the football philosophy that he and his assistant, Luciano Trani, applied to their recruitment drive when they sat down to plan their team back in early August.

"We wanted to try to harness the youthful exuberance of players like Matthew McKay and Shane Stefanutto, who were already on our books, and add new players like Steve Fitzsimmons and Royce Brownlie who are very mobile players who can help us play the kind of game we want to play", McLaren said this week. "If we can play at a higher tempo, then teams coming up here - particularly in the warmer months like January and February - may find it difficult to live with us.

"To sustain a high tempo game for ninety minutes is well-nigh impossible - we’re fit but we’re not superhuman - but the time when you’re going to hurt teams is when you can increase the tempo quickly".

McLaren explained that the impetus for going with the 3-5-2 formation that the team has adopted this season came from a desire to play attacking football without the defensive insecurities that plagued the team over the past two seasons.

McLaren said the formation was "due to our personnel. We felt that Shane Stefanutto had a lot of pluses for the team when he could go forward, but it left us short at the back. With the addition of Josh McCoughan and Karl Dodd we should have a solid back trio, and a solid platform to go forward. Players like Shane Stefanutto and Steve Fitzsimmons (on each flank) won’t be held back from going forward any more".

Of course, standing in the way of McLaren’s successful employment of his ‘need for speed’ on Saturday night will be eleven men wearing the colours of Sydney Olympic - the club that has appeared in the previous two NSL grand finals and won the title two seasons ago in Perth.

This Sydney Olympic team, however, will contain plenty of different faces from the ones that featured in the swashbuckling brand of football that carried the club to those finals. Having joined the ranks of the NSL’s ‘have nots’ during the last off-season after the departure of its previous owners, Olympic was unable to hold on to many of its star players.

Out have gone Ante Milicic, Troy Halpin and Tom Pondeljak, and former Brisbane Strikers Jeromy Harris, Clint Bolton, Jade North, Andy Packer and Wayne Srhoj - all regular first choices in the teams of former coaches Gary Phillips and Lee Sterrey. New coach Peter Papanikitas initially filled the void with a number of players drawn from clubs playing in the local competitions around Sydney. However, in recent weeks Olympic has also managed to recruit seasoned NSL striker and former Socceroo Pablo Cardozo and, from right under the Brisbane Strikers’ noses, exciting young goal sneak Michael Baird.

Baird’s inclusion can be expected to add a bit of spark to the contest in more ways than one. While his electrifying pace and aggressive attitude will be sufficient to liven things up for the Brisbane defence, it should be remembered that the Brisbane defence will be led by the man Baird spurned only two weeks ago when he turned his back on Brisbane after trailing for several weeks with them - that man being McLaren.

There can be little doubt that McLaren and his team mates will be looking forward to producing just that little bit of extra effort whenever Baird gets on the ball. And they will probably be aided and abetted by numerous Strikers supporters who pride themselves on the strength and loyalty of their support and were less than amused to see Baird quoted on Olympic’s website, in the week that he signed, saying "Sydney Olympic has always had a strong and loyal supporter base and that is definitely a bonus".

While Baird and Cardozo could form a dangerous combination, Olympic’s defence bristles with physical strength and experience, with Paul Kohler, captain Ante Juric and Scott Baillie likely to form a significant stumbling block for Brisbane’s relatively inexperienced frontline duo of Joshua Rose and Luke Morley.

McLaren, however, is confident that if Rose and Morley, both young and very mobile players, can turn to face their defenders they will cause them problems. To this end, he will be looking for Stefanutto and Fitzsimmons to launch raids down the flanks to turn the big defenders around. Provided they have what it takes to get the better of Olympic’s wide men, Stefanutto and Fitzsimmons should be assisted by the wide open spaces of Perry Park, which will make it difficult for Olympic’s midfielders to clog things up in the middle.

But if things don’t go to plan for McLaren, he will can look to his bench for inspiration. Sitting there this week, waiting to make his debut for the Brisbane Strikers, will be Warren Moon. The former Queensland Lions player scored the only goal in last week’s Queensland Premier League grand final in Lions’ win over Pine Rivers.

In a very strong indication of how highly McLaren rates Moon abilities, the player-coach has changed his intention of earlier in the week to stick with the same fifteen who went to Sydney for last week’s 3-1 win over Northern Spirit. McLaren did not say who would make way for Moon but it is likely to be either Daniel Dreger or Louis Brain, who provided midfield cover last week.

Perhaps one final ingredient to what shapes as a mouth-watering fixture will be the atmosphere created by having grandstands on both sides of the field available to Strikers supporters for the first time in the last eight years (the 1996/97 finals campaign at Lang Park notwithstanding). McLaren’s team is looking forward to the extra vocal support that should encourage, and also to the prospect of some louder-than-loud, pulsating rhythms from local samba drum band 'G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera', organised for the occasion by the BSSA.

With the weather set to be fine and dry, the first appearance in Brisbane of the club’s new youth team, an attractive main game on offer and an atmosphere to suit, Perry Park shapes as a fine place to be for Brisbane’s football supporters from 4.30 on Saturday afternoon.

Silk and Steel, that’s what Stuey offered us when he came to power in the Strikers coaching position last month. 

And that is what they produced at Pittwater Park, according to the match reports. Moday’s Aussie says that we were “too strong and too fast” for Spirit. The report on Soccer Australia’s web site mentioned Luke Morley’s “clinical proficiency”, adding that he ”and Joshua Rose looked lively up front for the Strikers”, and it and others have praised the efforts of each of the midfielders.

Silk and Steel.

Saturday’s home game against Olympic gives Brisbane the opportunity to catch up with this exciting, young, strong fast team, and to see Luke and Rosie add to their tally of goals. In the wings are waiting Louis Brain, Royce Brownlie and Warren Moon, and they don’t expect to be keeping the bench warm this season.

And the Old Lady of Football, the Home of Brisbane football – Perry Park, has had a face lift for the return of the Brisbane Strikers this season.

And if you thought that the Brasilian atmosphere had left the Strikers when Fernando left, think again. 

This Saturday the Old Lady will Samba through the evening to the fabulous, loud, inspirational and motivational sounds of the Brisbane Samba School drum band, 'G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera'. 

It’ll be good for the football, and it’ll be good for your sex life. So come along, and bring your partner to Perry Park on Saturday night 27 Sep 03, for 7pm kick off.

In the unfamiliar surrounds of Pittwater Park in Sydney’s north, the Brisbane Strikers will today kick off their NSL season against Northern Spirit after what one prominent Strikers player recently dubbed "the longest off season in history".

If you listen to the ‘experts’, it will be a season in which the Strikers will be little more than whipping boys for more fancied teams. A scan of newspapers and internet sites dealing with the NSL this week revealed not a single pundit who was willing to give Stuart McLaren’s men any chance of making the top six.

How strange, then, that when asked yesterday how his squad was feeling about the season ahead, McLaren should say to us "we’re all really excited. We had a talk about it at training yesterday, and we can’t wait for Sunday to come around".

That’s hardly the sound of a player-coach looking with trepidation at a troubled season ahead, is it?

It was not lost on McLaren that his team’s first round assignment is against the same club they faced in the opener last season. A year ago to the day, Northern Spirit came to Brisbane and sunk the Strikers’ hopes for a good start to the 2002/03 season with two long range goals to Vuko Tomasevic and John Hutchinson. McLaren said that the memory of that match, while not a pleasant one, had stayed with him and he was looking forward to avenging it today.

In some ways, today’s clash has a strange symmetry about it when compared with the situation the clubs were in a year ago. When the Sydney club came north a year ago they did so on the back of a miserable previous season and they brought a squad full of new, young faces. They faced a Brisbane Strikers side which had qualified for the finals the previous season and was virtually unchanged. The Sydney team was expected to struggle, but made off with all three points.

This time around it is Northern Spirit who come off the back of a finals campaign, and who now have a virtually unchanged side while the Brisbane Strikers have recruited a platoon of new, young faces after enduring a miserable 2002/03. Can the Strikers go south and do what Spirit did to them a year ago?

McLaren said he was expecting a tough game. However, given the personnel that Spirit are likely to field, he felt he had a pretty good idea what to expect.

"Spirit have basically the same squad as last season, except for Wayne O’Sullivan who is a basic type of midfielder who hits simple passes and works really hard. They’ve got plenty of experience in players like Tobin, Ferguson and Petrie. They will give us a stern test - we’ve had no NSL opposition as yet (in our pre-season), so it will be tough".

The fifteen Brisbane Strikers players that McLaren has selected are an interesting blend of established and new faces. Jason Kearton will again start in goal, with the Strikers to field a 3-5-2 formation in front of him. McLaren will take up a position on the right side of the defence, with newcomers Karl Dodd and Josh McLaughlan in the middle and left sided positions respectively. Across the midfield, left to right will be Shane Stefanutto, Matthew McKay, Peter Grierson, David Pilic and new boy Steve Fitzsimmons, while youngsters Josh Rose and Luke Morley will be buzz around in the front third trying to cause some havoc for the likes of the experienced but ageing Alex Tobin and Julian Watts.

Stefanutto, whose hunger to get forward from defensive positions in previous seasons has often given him the look of a caged lion, should relish the role expected of him today. McKay, Pilic and Fitzsimmons are likely to supply willing and pacy outlets for the vision and passing of their new skipper Grierson, who is likely to play the "holding" role behind his younger midfield colleagues.

On the Strikers’ bench will be Louis Brain, who seems for the moment to have lost out to David Pilic in the battle for the right-sided midfield spot, Adam Webber (who shapes as the probable cover for McLaren) Daniel Dreger and reserve ‘keeper Scott Higgins.

Spirit, for their part, will look to Noel Spencer to provide the steel in their midfield in front of a solid defensive line marshalled by Tobin. O’Sullivan will graft away alongside Spencer, while the artistry in their midfield is likely to come from wily old Scotsman Ian Ferguson. Up front, Adam Kwasnik and last season’s success story, Stewart Petrie, will be expected to cause Dodd, McLaren and McLaughlan plenty of problems. Tomasevic, who made scoring from long range something of a specialty last season, will need to be watched closely anywhere within 30 metres of goal and from set pieces.

Finally, and although he was not named among Spirit’s fourteen as provided to Soccer Australia, McLaren believes that rangy young forward Dylan McAllister is likely to take the field at some stage. If so, he is another player the visiting team will need to keep close tabs on.

Anybody who expects today’s encounter to be low-key is likely to be surprised. As well as the "vengeance" motivation that will be firing up the Strikers, and McLaren’s desire to set his club up for an emotional and well-attended homecoming to Perry Park next week, there is a fair bit at stake for Northern Spirit.

Spirit coach Lawrie McKinna said earlier this week that the club was desperate to get three points to please the punters who turn up for its first home game at Pittwater Park, and the Sydneysiders will also be anxious to put behind them a tumultuous pre-season marred by a dispute with players over non-payment of wages.

It all makes for a potent flow of adrenalin and augurs well for what could be one of the best matches of the opening round.

The Brisbane Strikers today confirmed internet reports that they will not be signing Brazilian forward Alex Moreira this season.

Player-coach Stuart McLaren said today that considerations related to the player’s visa conditions had been the rock upon which his attempts to bring the player to Brisbane had foundered.

"As a visa player, there were certain standard conditions that had to be met, and the club decided it wasn’t quite prepared to go that far", he said. He added that, since visa players must be signed to 12-month contracts, Moreira’s contract would have taken him up to the beginning of next season. This was something the Strikers Board did not want to proceed with, given that the current season is scheduled to end at the end of February.

McLaren said that Moreira had been "very keen to come up and play", and was very disappointed when informed that his desire to do so had not worked out.

However, McLaren has now moved to add not one, but two, forwards to his squad in the absence of Moreira.

21-year-old Taringa Rovers forward Luke Morley, who has impressed in pre-season trials with the Strikers, signed with the club two days ago.

"I offered him a contract on Monday, and he signed just about on the spot", McLaren said. "He is similar to Josh Rose, in that he is mobile and quite quick, and his finishing is quite good. But obviously, at 21 there is improvement left in him, and he is probably one for the future".

Meanwhile, McLaren has re-opened discussions with Queensland Lions marksman Greg Di Losa, who McLaren regards as being "in the proven scorer bracket". Di Losa was initially invited to trial with the Strikers some weeks ago, but had turned the offer down due to his intention to retire from football and focus on his job as a teacher.

"I had discussions with him again after the game on Sunday" McLaren said, referring to the Queensland Premier League semi-final between the Lions and Palm Beach. "His contract with the Queensland Lions expires after the Grand Final. He is a free agent after then, and he is seriously considering having a good crack at it"

McLaren said that he and Di Losa were discussing ways of overcoming the player’s concerns over the impact that an NSL career might have on his job (at a Brisbane high school), and that with flexibility in the Strikers’ training program it should be possible to resolve those concerns.

There is no doubt that the negotiations with Di Losa, who is fast across the ground, good in the air and as strong as a bull, are quite crucial to the young Brisbane Strikers coach at this juncture. Having missed out on the signatures of both Michael Baird and Moreira, and with first-choice forward Royce Brownlie needing to undergo a minor knee operation that will rule him out of at least the first game of the season, McLaren desperately needs another quality forward on board.

"Royce goes under the knife this afternoon, and will be out for ten days to two weeks, depending on how he responds to treatment and physio, etcetera", McLaren said.

"The temptation is to use Pete Grierson - or some people have even been crazy enough to suggest me - up front. But it’s likely that we’ll use Luke and Josh. With the young players, it’s a good chance for them to prove they’re up to it and maybe even force their way in even after Royce Brownlie comes back", he said.

Peter Grierson is the proud new captain of the Brisbane Strikers.

Player-coach (and now former captain), Stuart McLaren, passed the baton to the composed and wily midfielder this morning after a process which involved the rest of the Brisbane Strikers players, the coaching staff and finally the club’s Board.

McLaren told the BSSA today that "he (Grierson) was the person I’d had in mind for some time to recommend to the Board. But obviously I wanted to get some feedback from the players, so we put it (the captaincy) to the vote and he was the clear choice".

McLaren said that stepping down from the captaincy himself and then conferring it upon Grierson had been an "awkward" experience for him because he (McLaren) had worn the captain’s armband with a great deal of pride for three seasons.

"But I was still happy to hand it over to Pete", said McLaren. "He has been as loyal to the club as players like Shane Stefanutto and myself and has become part of the furniture, really.

"He is a respected player, not only amongst our players but also amongst the players and coaches of other NSL clubs".

McLaren also said that Grierson, when told the Board and players wanted him to be the new club captain, had reacted with delight. "His hand was out - ready to shake - almost before the words came out, I think", he said.

This was an impression Grierson himself happily confirmed when we contacted him tonight.

"I was delighted, obviously", Grierson said. "Hopefully I can do a good job and be a success for the club. I hope to lead by example, on and off the pitch, and to set a good example for the younger players. I will be doing everything in my power to be successful".

Grierson’s first outing as captain will occur on Sunday in what will be, quite fittingly, his one-hundred-and-first game for the club, against Northern Spirit in Sydney. Grierson achieved his personal century in the club’s final game of the previous season and it would have been almost impossible at that point, with the club’s future plans veiled in secrecy, for the player to predict the situation he now finds himself in.

"Well, (back then) I didn’t know Stuey McLaren would be coach. And if he wasn’t the coach I believe he would probably still be the captain, because he was such a good leader. Then, after the season, I was in limbo and didn’t know whether I’d be re-signed".

Grierson said that his uncertainties evaporated back in June or July when the club offered him a new contract that he was happy to sign. Now, those uncertainties have been replaced by optimism because, even before being handed the captaincy, Grierson had formed the opinion that the Strikers have a far better squad than some observers might believe.

"Going by the training, it’s looking good. There’s competition for places and everybody has been very keen. I’m very optimistic about the season, and Stuey McLaren and Luciano Trani are both very positive people and they are getting that across to the players".

Grierson is not at all fazed by the reappearance, right on cue, of the annual tendency among NSL pundits to ignore the Strikers when assessing their finals candidates.

"I think we have as good a squad as we did when we came fourth a couple of seasons ago. Everyone has written us off this year, but that’s motivation for us. We’ll be out to prove them wrong".

The new skipper sees a lot of positives in the locally-based flavour of this season’s Brisbane Strikers squad, and is quite relaxed about how to interpret his role within it as captain.

"Even with the new lads that have come in, most of the other lads who were already in the squad have known them for a while. They have played with or against each other for a number of years. The new lads have settled in quite nicely, and I’ll just be giving advice and pointers. At the end of the day, you can only do so much (as captain), and it’s down to the individuals really, and how hard they want to work".

The Brisbane Strikers’ pre-season campaign continued in a winning vein Saturday, albeit with one or two stutters, as the boys in yellow and blue ran out 4-2 victors over a scratch "State" eleven drawn from Queensland Premier League clubs not involved in the QPL semi finals, plus a few from the Strikers squad.

The opposition was coached by Peter Tokesi, a former Brisbane Strikers’ assistant coach to Frank Farina, who was reported yesterday to be the coach of the Strikers’ new NSL youth squad.

While a 4-2 scoreline looks convincing enough, and the Strikers were never behind, it is the latter digit in that scoreline that had a few Strikers diehards scratching their heads and asking questions.

They were not alone in their puzzlement. At one stage in the second half, after the Strikers had conceded their first goal, player-coach Stuart McLaren was seen to punt the ball deliberately into touch in order to buy time to express his displeasure with some of his backline team mates, who’s concentration seemed to have gone AWOL.

However, highlighting that factor alone would be to dwell on negatives when there were also some positives to be gained from the day. The form of goal-getter Royce Brownlie, signed last week, was good, as was that of midfielder David Pilic, who looks stronger and a half-metre quicker than in any previous season.

At the back Karl Dodd, while sometimes a little self-indulgent, looks a quality player who is strong in the air and in the tackle, and very confident on the ball. It might be a little early to be saddling Dodd with comparisons, but there are times when he looks uncannily like Steve Laybutt.

And Brownlie’s prospective striking partner, Michael Baird (who looks certain to join the Brisbane squad if he can gain a release from South Melbourne), looked twice the player he did in last week’s performance against Taringa Rovers. In the second half Baird’s pace and skills were a constant headache for the "State" selection’s defenders, and he was directly responsible for creating the third goal with a precise cut-back after having a shot parried.

The form of young midfielder Chris Scuderi also continues to impress. If Scuderi can reproduce in the NSL the sort of energetic and aggressive running and passing he is showing in the pre-season, this could be season in which he cements a starting position and makes a name for himself in the NSL.

The game also featured an appearance from a mystery player wearing the number eight, who partnered Brownlie and Baird up front. Little is known by Strikers supporters of the player except that he is a Chilean who has been playing in New Zealand. While he didn’t set the world on fire yesterday, he did display some pace and aggression, and a few nice touches. 

The Brisbane Strikers have set the seal on what has been an exciting week for the club by signing four new players to their NSL squad.

Club Establishment Coordinator, Steve Wilson, could barely contain his enthusiasm today when he told the BSSA that the Strikers have signed attacking midfielder Warren Moon, defenders Josh McLaughlan and Karl Dodd and forward Royce Brownlie - all of whom had been trialling with the squad in recent weeks.

Wilson said the club was also confident of signing Michael Baird as a striking partner for Brownlie, although there were still some contractual difficulties to sort out with the player who is still contracted to South Melbourne.

The senior squad is now nearing finalisation - with a decision on a second goalkeeper the only major consideration yet to be resolved - while the club continues to trial Taringa Rovers striker Luke Morley.

But while Stuart McLaren puts the finishing touches to his senior NSL squad, just as much energy is being poured by the club into the recruitment of its NSL Youth squad.

Wilson said that the open trials held by the Strikers last Saturday attracted more than sixty youngsters and, while the club would have been delighted to unearth as few as five or six players to invite to continue training with the thirty already been recommended by various coaches, expectations had been exceeded. Thirteen players had been selected from the open trials, which meant that a total of forty-three were put through their paces at Stage Two of the youth team recruitment program which was held at Perry Park on Wednesday night. 

"There were some very talented players there from age 16 and up", Wilson remarked. Stage Three of the NSL Youth squad recruitment process - the whittling down of the 43 triallists into the number required for the squad - was now underway.

In a related development a meeting held this week with the Mayor of the Logan City Council, Councillor John Freeman, about developing Meakin Park (where the Strikers’ youth teams will be based), had also been very productive. Wilson said he was confident the Strikers would soon have a top class set-up at the ground.

He also said that a great deal of work this week had been undertaken at Perry Park, which will be the senior team’s home this season. A temporary stand had been erected opposite the old stand, and the club’s facilities in the interior of the old stand were in the throes of extensive renovation. The seats in the old stand have been painted in the club’s colours of yellow and blue.

There was also good news on the composition of the NSL today, after a week of turmoil caused by the late withdrawal of Adelaide City. Wilson said that a new Adelaide-based team, put together by the South Australian Soccer Federation with the help of some corporate backers, had been accepted into the NSL to replace Adelaide City. The club would play out of Hindmarsh Stadium and take up Adelaide City’s spot in the already-released season draw. It was, however, looking for permission from Soccer Australia to have its first three games rescheduled in order to play its first game on 17 October. This would mean that its first game would be against none other than the Brisbane Strikers, at Hindmarsh. Surely a promoter’s dream!

There was less joy on the NSL front, though, for the Queensland Lions - who had been hoping that they might be able to turn the Adelaide situation to their advantage and gain late entry to the NSL themselves. This did not eventuate, and the Lions will now have to wait another year before making another pitch for an NSL future.

But while some Brisbane Strikers fans with long memories might be quietly rejoicing over this, Wilson said he had a different view. While he was relieved that the potential for a chaotic late bidding war between the Strikers and the Lions over players for this season had been averted, he would not begrudge the Richlands club a place in the NSL later on.

"Look, they have the infrastructure - they should be there next year if they meet the criteria. I look forward to the local derby next year", he said.