Football Australia must quickly fix their Bruno Fornaroli “mistake” to ensure the former Socceroo plays in the upcoming Australian Championship, according to ex-Adelaide United captain Stefan Mauk.

Fornaroli is seemingly out of contention to feature in next month’s Australian Championship after revealing he opted against signing for another club to ensure he could play in Avondale FC’s NPL VIC Grand Final triumph last week.

The 39-year-old A-League great entered the season decider against premiers Oakleigh Cannons knowing it would be his final appearance for Avondale, having already confirmed he would leave the team at the end of the campaign.

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But following Avondale’s penalty shoot-out triumph over Oakleigh at Lakeside Stadium, Fornaroli revealed his next move could have come before the showpiece.

Signing for another club during the week would have made him unavailable to walk out with Avondale in the decider, leaving the 2026 NPL VIC Golden Boot winner with a significant call to make and he sacrificed an Australian Championship spot, with the registration window closed.

On this week’s episode of the Football Friends podcast alongside Stefan Mauk and Ben Garuccio, the former weighed into the situation.

For the full chat and plenty more, listen or watch below.

“Who knows why Bruno’s obviously decided to leave because you’d assume they’re one of the biggest NPL clubs that just won the grand final,” Mauk, currently playing for Vietnamese champions CAHN, said. “He was the golden boot winner.

“So I wonder what other Australian Championship team tried to sign him and what they were throwing at him.

“But I think it’s disappointing that he can’t (play). I don’t know how this works with the transfer windows for the Aus Championship compared to A-League, because they’re not professional contracts, but surely Football Australia can just say, ‘listen, we can let him play’, because why would he miss out on the the grand final in Victoria when he’s played with them the whole year to sign for the Aus Championship team, a different team? The timelines don’t add up.

“They’ve obviously just made a mistake with that and they need to fix it quickly. I’m sure they can.”

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The second Australian Championship will begin next month – the same weekend as the start of the A-Leagues campaign.

For this year’s Championship, the groups have been constructed to include two of the competition’s eight foundation clubs alongside two clubs who qualified through their National Premier League.

Defending champions South Melbourne are in Group A, alongside NPL NSW champions Sydney United, Canberra Croatia and Sutherland Sharks, while Avondale will face Wests APIA, NPL SA champions Adelaide City and Broadmeadow Magic.

Group C consists of Marconi Stallions, Sydney Olympic, Oakleigh Cannons and NPL WA champions Bayswater City. In Group D, Preston Lions, Wollongong Wolves, NPL Tasmania champions South Hobart and NPL QLD titleholders Lions FC will go head-to-head.

The 2026 Australian Championship will also see the introduction of penalty shootouts for draws in the group stage.

Mauk added: “You want the strongest players in the Australian Championship.

“I don’t know what coaches are coming into Avondale. I don’t know if there’s still an avenue for him to stay, but it’s gonna be very interesting with what we’ve spoken about Sydney Olympic, the players they signed last week, we couldn’t announce the other ones and now they’ve been announced.

“I’m sure there’s gonna be plenty more big signings that haven’t been announced yet. It’s gonna be really interesting.”