Marked for David Harrison
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Feb 2036
11 matches without a win for Brisbane Roar
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Brisbane Roar are no longer polite ones.
Market18 Feb 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Jordan Lauton and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match16 Feb 2036
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Feb 2036
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michael Maier after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market18 Feb 2036
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Michael Miller has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Brisbane Roar.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
Somebody else is better right now than Marc Tokich
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jan 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newcastle Jets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Brisbane Roar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match12 Jan 2036
No end in sight to Brisbane Roar's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Brisbane Roar has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Jan 2036
Cooper Taylor hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Brisbane Roar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Jordan Lauton was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Brisbane Roar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jan 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Harrison commits to Brisbane Roar for another 3 years.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Words at Brisbane Roar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shane Lee is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2036
Liverpool have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market14 Jan 2036
Marc Tokich told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Marc Tokich has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Brisbane Roar.
In brief
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The dugout
Marc Tokich gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Miguel Di Pizio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jun 2035
Pressure builds in the Brisbane Roar boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match25 Jun 2035
Position 11, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for David Harrison
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Brisbane Roar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Jun 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Brisbane Roar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Jordan Lauton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newcastle Jets have kept their man, and Brisbane Roar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market25 Jun 2035
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Brisbane Roar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Melbourne Victory: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
Craig Butler has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Brisbane Roar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Jun 2035
The mood at Brisbane Roar has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad18 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for David Harrison
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Brisbane Roar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Auckland FC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Brisbane Roar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Jun 2035
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Brisbane Roar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jun 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brisbane Roar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
Brisbane Roar asked and Central Coast Mariners said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Twente: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jun 2035
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Brisbane Roar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Fee done, terms next for Alou Kuol
Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers have settled on $240.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market11 Jun 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market11 Jun 2035
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jun 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mustapha Yakubu and Brisbane Roar agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Henry Blackledge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Brisbane Roar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market11 Jun 2035
The phone has started ringing about Cooper Taylor again, and this time the name on the line is Auckland FC. Brisbane Roar are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout11 Jun 2035
Stefan Duncan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Brisbane Roar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
Brisbane Roar have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Market23 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Brisbane Roar can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
Toby Jones: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Brisbane Roar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match21 Oct 2034
No end in sight to Brisbane Roar's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Brisbane Roar has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Jordan Lauton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Brisbane Roar
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match21 Oct 2034
3 matches without a goal for Brisbane Roar
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.