36 year old Alexandre da Silva Mariano, a.k.a. Amaral, is not one player that you would expect to be the (unofficially) most polite footballer.

Previously playing in footballing danger zones such as Italy (Parma; AC Fiorentina) and Turkey (Besiktas), representing Brazil 31 times, and winning an Olympic Bronze medal (Atlanta 1996), nobody anticipated that the former grave digger would have written a thank you note to his most recent club, Perth Glory.

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Morning to the blog, guys and gals.
Just a bit of breaking news, Jamie Coyne will not be going to Wellington after he was ruled out with a thigh injury. What makes this even more interesting, was that no one picked on this at yesterday's presser, the assumption was that there were no new injuries. Click to continue reading...

In early 2001, watching a game at North Sydney Oval with a friend, I noticed a familiar figure sitting a few seats across from me. Approaching him rather sheepishly, I excused myself and blurted that he was the finest Australian football commentator I'd heard, and that he always made football a pleasure to watch (or words to that effect). Click to continue reading...

Having already qualified for the 2010 World Cup, Australia has a friendly against the Netherlands this weekend. The two sides played before the last World Cup and have built up a healthy rivalry. This has been boosted by the heavy influx of Dutch coaches into Australian football. The Dutch ... Click to continue reading...

Our old friend has never been averse to a bit of character assassination (all in the name of raising the standards of Australian football, of course). But this is quite inexcusable, even by his standards.
Once again: Branko Culina's comments about Vitezslav Lavicka were rude and ill-founded, but at least he had the grace to subsequently apologise. Click to continue reading...

Recent Melbourne Victory supporters' protest

Big Story
It's an absurdly hyperbolic headline from the Roar, but their story of surveillance of fans is a little concerning, especially in the context of the long failure of the Australian football authorities to understand that heavy-handed restrictions and knuckle-headed security is not the way to grow the sport in a country with far more established sporting cultures.

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Adam Griffiths is hardly the biggest name in Australian football.
He wasn't the most high-profile star at his A-League club. He's not even the most recognisable player in his family.
But the twin brother to Joel and older brother of Ryan made headlines this month when he swapped A-League club Gold Coast United for Saudi side Al-Shabab after just one game. Click to continue reading...

Big Bob Malcolm, Scottish, has pushed Aussie Luke DeVere out of Centre-Back for Brisbane. Why? He hasn't improved the leaking Roar defence has he?
Was young Aussie Luke so poor last year when The Roar did so well.
And the embarrasingly fat Charlie Miller takes much of young Mitch Nicholls game time. Click to continue reading...

The next time someone in Canberra tells you we've a huge junior base with 20,000 kids/registrations tell them they are dreaming, same goes for 260,000 registrations across NSW or the paltry 50,000 in Victoria.
What we have is a lot of people playing independently in their own clubs, maximum community in Canberra is Woden Valley 1800. Click to continue reading...

Foxsports - Australian Football Weekly speaks with Perth Glory's Mile Sterjovski: "There are... Click to continue reading...

Thanks to Dirty Tackle to bringing this to our attention, because it's simply fabulous. Watch as Robbie Fowler attempts to decapitate his opponent and then marvel at the way the striker didn't even get a caution! Boy, Australian Football must have a whole set of different rules when it comes to cautions and red cards.

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Adam Griffiths is reputed to be heading to the Gold Coast.
Transfer fee: $1.4 million
Nice bit of business for Australian football, for the Gold Coast and of course his Agent.
Ned Zelic is in Canberra looking at what he describes as a largely untapped talent pool of juniors see the Offsider at www. Click to continue reading...

A couple of A-League club fanzines have flared briefly before dying over the last few years, but I hope that an engaging new publication from Adelaide United fans, Because of a Pissant Town, can build up a head of steam and flourish.
The title is, of course, a reference to Aurelio Vidmar's notorious comment towards the end of last season, and Bill of The Spawning Salmon has been the chief driving force behind the mag. Click to continue reading...

THE FIRST edition of the Australian Football Fanzine, Half-Time Heroes, was published last night on the net.
In the end 25 writers, from all across Australia, contributed to over 40 pages of copy.
This is no mean feat.
Football Perth managed to get a couple articles in aswell (on pages 15 and 37). Click to continue reading...

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been following the fortunes of Sydney Olympic, on and off, for a good many years. Last night their season came to an end under a barrage of Sutherland goals, as the team from the Shire booked their place in the NSWPL finals at Olympic's expense.
For the "favourites" in this season's state league, it was a miserable end to another season in which Olympic's legendary self-destructive capacities were in full bloom. Click to continue reading...

Eamon Flanagan (The Nearpost blog) and Con Stamocostas (A Football Story blog) are pulling together a monthly fanzine called "Half Time Heros".
Some of Australia's most committed Football writers have joined, including Tony Tannous (The Round Ball Analyst & The Roar), Mike Salter (The Football Tragic), Fiona Crawford (A Girl Called Fred) and Bill Skinner (A Spawning Salmon/A Pissant Town) plus many, many more (including myself looking a look at the Young Socceroos and other youth issues). Click to continue reading...

Fox Sports have covered the Gold Coast boycott. Really this can not be allowed to stand. The financially strongest team in the A-League is threatening the viability of one of the less strong clubs. This is not good for the sport. How will the FFA respond?

"I won't be going to the game for sure, I don't think it's worth it," said Palmer.

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by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor
RIGHTO - just a little note to let you know about the progress of the Australian Football Fanzine.
It's been dubbed Half-Time Heroes and the first edition is planned to come out next Wednesday just in time for the start of the new season.
According to the organiser Eamonn Flanagan from the Nearpost Blog, there's 18 writers from all across Australia (including yours truly) who have agreed to contribute to the fanzine for the first editon. Click to continue reading...

We've fired up the media department. What have they been doing all year. Anyway Half-Time Heroes has taken up another office in Sydney and has released it's first official release.
And look who we got to launch it!
Half-Time Heroes: Australian Football Media Release
Tuesday July 28, 2009
Frank Lowy the chairman of Football Federation Australia (FFA) says that the desire that underpinned the revival of football at a local level is the same desire that motivates the World Cup bid. Click to continue reading...

I was expecting people to sign-up for the new Australian football fanzine Half-Time Heroes from Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and co given the writers we have and their existing readers but I guess I hadn't thought too much about the overseas readers.
Bangkok, Taiwan, and London fans appeared in the first fifty subscribers. Click to continue reading...

Every A-League player agent must be working overtime to secure their players a more lucrative contract in Asia, Europe, America, Antartica or wherever before the August deadline.
God bless the Agents as they work hard for Australian football.... mainly to send overseas.
Brendan Santalab another who returned from Europe with high hopes of taking it to the A-League, he didn't did he, has fled the Fury before a ball was kicked. Click to continue reading...

Forget the Ashes we've lost them, the Tour De France not a chance, as a true Aussie I've thrown my daughters bike away, chucked the cricket ball over next door, I'm now very focused on Diving, getting my daughter to practice immediately we won gold.
And great news this morn from little ol SBS all our Under 20 games live on Telly at some godly hour. Click to continue reading...

Jacob Timpano, Alex Brosque, Brandon Santalab, Michael Zullo, do those names ring a bell? No? What about Robbie Fowler? Thought you knew that name.

Fowler is the newest marquee player in the A-League and he is playing for the North Queensland Fury. I am sure everybody knows Robbie Fowler, a man with 230 goals in all competitions next to his name, a member of the PFA Team of the Year and twice PFA Young player of the year.

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Prime Minister heads to FIFA HQ to lead the Aussie World Cup bid.
Gold Coast beat Englands seventh best side, 2-1!
Perth sign Socceroo Chris Coyne.
Enjoying the off-season. Click to continue reading...

The Newcastle soap opera continues, with Branko Culina taking a second shot at the A-League after the surprise departure of Gary van Egmond.
Culina has a considerable cheer squad within Australian football, with one of his long-term fans welcoming his return with open arms. If he can indeed get Newcastle playing football similar to that of his Sydney United and Sydney Olympic sides during the fading days of the NSL, the fans will be grateful. Click to continue reading...

The National Football Curriculum has arrived. 5MB worth of impressive-sounding methodology, nuggets of good advice and, as I mentioned earlier, a couple of worrying little kickers, if you'll pardon the pun.
First, a couple of small quibbles. The "Identified Gaps" section contains a couple of highly questionable assertions which deserve a wider airing; the document makes much of the fact that the successive waves of European immigration have dried up, and concludes that Australian football needs an injection of new blood as a result:
The historical immigration dynamic that has underpinned football in Australia appears to be weakening. Click to continue reading...

by Usman Azad, Football Perth Editor
PERTH Glory fans need to come out and support the club, said Glory coach Dave Mitchell yesterday.
Mitchell, speaking on local radio show Let's Talk Football , praised the work of Glory owner Tony Sage in acquring some big name players but warned that the fans needed to also support the club. Click to continue reading...

The guys over at 888 are covering all the latest sports and online gaming events. And they are currently putting a bit of focus on the Down Under market: the home of Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and, erm, Mark Bosnich. 888's sports betting Australia section features many sports options, including football. Click to continue reading...

Images via Four Four Two Australia

The Aussie boys were out in full force last night at the Australian Football Awards. Winners included Socceroo keeper Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill, and Kickette-fav Nikita Rukayvytsa (as the best Under 23 player.) No word on why Harry Kewell has aged 40 years or which retail outlet hates Tim Cahill.

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Images via Four Four Two Australia

The Aussie boys were out in full force last night at the Australian Football Awards. Winners included Socceroo keeper Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill, and Kickette-fav Nikita Rukayvytsa (as the best Under 23 player.) No word on why Harry Kewell has aged 40 years or which retail outlet hates Tim Cahill.

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Ange Postecoglou was a guest commentator for Foxtel's coverage of the Socceroo's qualification game against Qatar on Sunday and backed this up with the starring role in the ABC Offsiders sports program. Ange has earned his place in Australian football, a top class player and coach in the NSL and in Greece. Click to continue reading...

We've made it!
With a fairly colourless draw against Qatar early this morning, enlivened at times by Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell, the Socceroos have qualified for their third World Cup. Congratulations to Pim Verbeek and the squad.
Of course, as many have already pointed out, there wasn't quite the sense of occasion this time; no penalty from John Aloisi or rocketing shot from Jim Mackay to stir the blood. Click to continue reading...

Great job Pim Verbeek and ignore the criticisms we're off to the World Cup and that is all that matters.
It wasn't that long ago this country and its sports fans would never have expected us to get there or have any real belief we could.
And this time we did it the hard way. 14 matches across Japan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and China to name a few. Click to continue reading...

The running bitchfest between Ljubo Milicevic and his employers is going beyond amusing and becoming thoroughly embarrassing for Australian football. It needs to be mediated, quick smart.
It's hard not to read a touch of cynicism into Milicevic's championing of Kaz Patafta, who has been something of a poster boy for those who choose to drone on ad nauseam about "technical players being ignored" in Australia. Click to continue reading...

I conducted an interview with Sean of Soccer City FC today. I spoke about Arsenal, blogging and Australian football and gave my thoughts on how the 2008/09 season went for the Gunners. I have included an excerpt below: Q. Can you give a quick assessment of the 2008-09 campaign. What went ... Click to continue reading...