Round 8 v Queensland

[skilbeck]

yep they are full strength except for Ham and Packer and I dont see Milicic, Grossman, McLaren or Minniecon on their list but they are probably avaliable but not selected

[pjennings]

Still not a bad line-up considering how many we have out.

My only concern with the last couple of teams shown is Browny at right back. Is he really able to cover at right back? Is Porter and McAndrew a better option on the right?

[bobandbill]

From TWG.

Mrdja fears season over

Central Coast Mariners striker Nik Mrdja fears his chronic knee problem could send yet another season in an injury-plagued career down the drain.

The A-League leaders are riding high, three points clear atop the competition, but Mrdja says he's endured the darkest days of his career since a recurring knee injury flared up and sidelined him a month ago.

The 28-year-old is rated an outside chance of a return in Sunday's match against Queensland, but admits he would be playing through the pain barrier and with concerns over the long-term health of the knee at the back of his mind.

A recent trip to the specialist proved inconclusive and Mrdja said if the pain didn't go away soon, he may have no choice but to undergo season-ending surgery.

"We're still not sure (what it is) at the moment, but if it's not going to improve and get any better and basically be comfortable for me to run around on, well then the next step would be surgery," Mrdja said.

"That would be another season gone down the drain and it's very disappointing."

Mrdja has had a horrid couple of years battling the injury.

He missed the Mariners' entire 2005/06 season and played only six games in 2006/07.

Adding to his frustration this season is the impressive form with which he started the year, scoring two goals in his first three games and sparking up a promising striking partnership with new signing Sasho Petrovski.

His early-season form even earned him a shock call-up to the Socceroos' squad to face Argentina but all his momentum has been brought to a shuddering halt.

"It's probably the worst time that I'm going through now, that I've ever been through," Mrdja said.

"But what can I do? I can't do anything about it, it's out of my hands so I've just got to look forward and get back on the park as soon as possible."

"To play again is all I really want to do and it's quite gut-wrenching not being able to run around with the boys."

"I want to get back out there and play and keep playing and it's disappointing not to be out there ... it is pretty upsetting to be honest."

Mrdja said he would have a run at Friday's training session before deciding whether to risk playing on Sunday.




Doesn't sound good - got to feel for the guy. According to this though he still stands a chance at being included in the squad, and he says that he really wants to play. Don't doubt his spirit.

[brett]

djgrounsell said:

I'm not so worried with creating goals as we'll have players like Sasho, Tommy, Kwassy and Owens........but at the back I'm concerned. Yes I know it's QLD, but will we get the I can't score QLD or the tonight it will gel QLD? Jedi needs a big 1 like last week and whoever plays on the right side of midfield will need to drop back and help out Porter or Owens (whoever plays there)

QLD must be the only HAL team not affected this weekend?

Yep, QLD are completely unaffected by the Olyroo and NZ call ups. The only team as such.

Even though I usually push the barrel of 'once you go under strength in the HAL you start losing games' I have a good feeling about this game and think we will show the league how good our depth really is.

[bobandbill]

Also, according to this week's Express, Brown stands a good chance to be promoted, Clark is to play centre back with Jedinak, Porter may by at right-back and up front it will be Sasho with either Simon or Kwasnik... Wilko says he should return either next week, or the week after against Sydney.

Interesting front page by our favourite writer (guess who?) with the headline "Booted Out - Rugby Leage Officials Fume after finals get the flick pass". All about angry league officals upset their games got moved for the Olyroos and Mariners match aftre all the rain...

[pjennings]

I think we can do the job with a lineup of

----------------------Trott------------------------
Porter------- Mile --------- Clarky ------- Heff
Gumps------Hutch-------Tommy----------Brown
------------ Kwas-------------- Sasho-----------

Redmayne
McAndrew
Owens
Simon

[Auburn Mariner]

Crowd, 10111.

Score, 2-2. A double for Sasho, don't care about them. A yellow for Liam, right in front of us.

Reinhaldo to get scouted by the Brazillian Olympic Diving Head Coach, Double Pikeinho.

[Bearinator]

pjennings said:

I think we can do the job with a lineup of

----------------------Trott------------------------
Porter------- Mile --------- Clarky ------- Heff
Gumps------Hutch-------Tommy----------Brown
------------ Kwas-------------- Sasho-----------

Redmayne
McAndrew
Owens
Simon

Id have that line up, BUT......

Browny bench, Tommy at left mid, Kwaz in the middle, and start Simon. Id possibly even have Owens starting at right back?

[skilbeck]

bearinator said:

pjennings said:

I think we can do the job with a lineup of

----------------------Trott------------------------
Porter------- Mile --------- Clarky ------- Heff
Gumps------Hutch-------Tommy----------Brown
------------ Kwas-------------- Sasho-----------

Redmayne
McAndrew
Owens
Simon

Id have that line up, BUT......

Browny bench, Tommy at left mid, Kwaz in the middle, and start Simon. Id possibly even have Owens starting at left back?

Last time Owens played in the backline was in the grand final for Adelaide. I think we should learn from their mistakes. there are only 5 possible players avaliable i would include in a backline they are: brown, clark, jedinak, heffernan and possibly mcandrew

[mustapha_beer]

I've tried throwing this one out before, but here goes again:

How about swapping Heff & Brown around, so Heff gets the midfield gig? We're struggling for goals, and he got a lot in season 1 by making forward runs.

Trott

Porter Clark Jedinak Brown
Hutch
Kwasnik Gumps Heff
Owens Petrovski

Subs:
Redmayne
McAndrew
Simon
Mckinna
Ferguson
Tobin
Lord Lucan
Shergar

And whoever else is fit......

[DJ]

mustaphabeer said:

I've tried throwing this one out before, but here goes again:

How about swapping Heff & Brown around, so Heff gets the midfield gig? We're struggling for goals, and he got a lot in season 1 by making forward runs.

Trott

Porter Clark Jedinak Brown
Hutch
Kwasnik Gumps Heff
Owens Petrovski

Subs:
Redmayne
McAndrew
Simon
Mckinna
Ferguson
Tobin
Lord Lucan
Shergar

And whoever else is fit......

lol - throwing Brown to LB and Heff LM makes perfect sense to me and I wouldn't be surprised to see the 2 of them swapping around during the game.

[marinermick]

absolutely DJ

the great thing i find about v3 mariners tactics is that the players are totally interchangeable and do so during the game

they often swap positions or move an extra player to one area of the park to change things up

while heff is listed at left back he often plays left wing/midfield - more so when browny plays

so, in essence, i wouldn't be too worried about where players are positioned when the whistle blows

[alicia]

When Danny is back from olyroo's, he can remain in goal and Trott to go centre back??

[DJ]

Just put my preview up on .net

This weekend sees the Mariners take on Queensland Roar at Bluetongue Stadium, a confident Queensland team will be hoping for 3 points whilst a depleted Mariners team will be doing everything they can to stay on top of the league. Read my match preview below

Mariners news and possible line-up

Well the Mariners are down to the bare bones for this game, we will be missing Vukovic and Boogaard through olyroo duty, Vidmar who is serving the second week of his 2 game suspension, Mori who has finished his short term contract, and Wilkinson, O’Grady, Mrdja and Osman all through injury. It’s a huge week for those guys coming into different positions and it’s also an opportunity for a few of the younger guys to step up and prove their worth to Lawrie. The squad should look something like this :

----------------------Trott

Porter----Jedinak----Clark-----Heffernan

Gumps----TommyP----Hutcho-----Brown

---------------Kwasnik----Petrovski

Bench – Simon, Owens, McAndrew, Redmayne

The Mariners still have plenty of fire power at their disposal, but at the back is where we will surely be tested this weekend. Porter could be making his first start of the year at right back, if so, he could very well be up against McKay and Lynch which will a very tough assignment. Lawrie may opt for an out of position Greg Owens to play there, but if it were me I would prefer a few more fresh attacking options on the bench. The substitutions we will have available for this 1 only have limited game time up their sleeves this season, which isn’t going to leave Lawrie with many options, if there’s ever a time for these guys to step up and prove their value it’s now. Up front we will have the in form Petrovski supported by Kwasnik and Pondeljak, when these guys are on the park anything is possible. There has also been a suggestion that Mrdja could be thrown onto the bench for this game, but we’ll have to wait and see if he’ll be risked for this fixture.

Queensland news and possible line-up

Queensland will be raring to go and feeling very confident that they can take 3 points home. After just coming off a first home win of the season, a good away record in Gosford plus the knowledge that the Coast has a depleted squad will only add to their confidence. Their attacking options could be seen as 1 of the best in the league, and up against a weakened Mariners defence could spell danger. However, the question on everybody’s lips is which Queensland Roar will turn up? The 1 that can’t score? Or the 1 which puts all the pieces of the puzzle together? Their line-up could look something like this :

--------------------Reddy

Seo----Ognenovski----Moore----McCloughan

------Marcinho----Tiatto----McKay

-------Kruse-----Reinaldo----Zullo

Bench – Lynch, Griffin, Murdocca, McMaster

After last weeks performance from young guns Kruse and Zullo it will be very hard for Farina to leave them out of the starting 11. However, he may prefer their pace and energy off the bench later on when a tiring Mariners defence may struggle more, this could mean that Lynch will earn himself a start.

A-League History

---------------------Matches---Mariners win--QLD win--Draw
Played-----------------7--------------1---------------1-----------5
At Bluetongue--------3--------------0---------------1-----------2

My prediction

Well a draw has always been the most popular result between these 2 teams and it would be hard to go against that, sadly though I think we may see the Mariners first home defeat of the year. The Mariners certainly have the ability to get 3 points, but we’ll need to go out all guns blazing, take early control of the game and our make shift defence will have to be at the top of their game.

I hope I’m wrong and good luck to our beloved Mariners, but I’m going with Mariners 1 Queensland 3

[brett]

Good preview DJ as usual.

Yes, Owens was pWned by Fred in the Grand Final when he played left back.

But did he not spend a portion of the season at right back for Adelaide to good effect? Coonan?

If fit enough, could be a good option. DJ makes the good point that if we go that way, there isn't much attack left on the bench, particularly if Matty S gets a start.

[greenpoleffc]

I might bring my boots and see if I can get a game :-)

Point will do me all things considered

[Adz]

As long as they put in an effort and don't drop their heads and give up if we happen to go a goal down, then i'll be happy... happier if we score a few goals and win

[pjennings]

With a couple of results that did us no harm tonight this could be an opportunity to skip away if we can sneak a win.

A Phoenix win or a draw followed by a Mariners win will see us with a siz point buffer.

Come on you yellow!!!!

[EGGBA]

alicia said:

When Danny is back from olyroo's, he can remain in goal and Trott to go centre back??

Lol no Trotty in goals and danny @centre mid we all know thats where he wants to be.
Last nights scores helped alot scum choke mariners win we 'll amazingly be 4-7points clear again that would be huge considering who's comin back.

[Ursus]

4-2 Mariners, I am feeling strangely confident about this game (a bad sign?).