Added bonus of keeping more games alive right to the end by making a four-point gap a one-possession game without needing an and-one.

...might also be some subconscious effect from currently having the Sheffield Shield in the background and how that operates for cricket, notwithstanding how it's also been treated as an afterthought by lame administration.

On top of admittedly my general international football is king brand, this is just me thinking out loud with no real answers.

...even in the 'secondary' woso club football world, there are also major questions over the viability of reducing the club game to reserve football and if, just in our own context, how much a simple and cheapish part-time ALW is ultimately really farking flawed in its own ways on and off the field.

...is for international play to be the main regular thing ‒ think of some FIFA World League with tiers. It would, on the surface, make things far more straight forward for countries like ours, for one thing. But on top of how much that may well be selling the game's club-based potential short...

The extreme difficulty of the former (I'm including Oz football's chronic administrative struggle to not make things harder, because it's foolish to not generally take that as likely-to-certain) makes me again ponder if the best avenue for woso *globally* (outside of its few strongest club areas)...

Koalas in particular are a nonsensical mention for this particular case given...

(2/2, and now 3/2:)

I realise Popovic can conversely be pointed to as an ostensible big tick so far, but I retain big long-term reservations (in much the same manner as Arnie). JM too might be a tick…or he might not, and in any case the failure to get him for 2023 will linger in my mind.

For years, people cried out for the need to have a “football person” with uncompromised whole-of-game interests in charge of sokkah. That James Johnson was basically that, and his football discernment still sucked, reinforces some uncomfortable deficiencies in Oz football’s actual football thinking.

2026 WC #Boltah alert

This is a roundabout way of saying that I personally think it would be foolish and presumptive for pro-JM folks to also use an AC title as a ‘told you so’ validation if we then struggle in Brazil. But it also works (or it should, to me) the other way around.

There are also those of us (me at least, feeling like I’m on a lonely island) who championed him for the job since his Arsenal days primarily for the 2023 WC cycle, yet now aren’t too fussed about this upcoming home tournament and still have the KPIs more based on where we’re at at WC 2027.

It's ok, it's only the country's third and fourth-biggest and rapidly growing markets we're talking about.

And only 6pm for fans of the visiting team.