It marked the first time an Australian men\u2019s national team has missed an Asian Cup since 2006 \u2013 a far cry from the heights of 18 months ago when the Young Socceroos got their hands on the AFC crown for the first time in history.<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIA\u2019S U20 ASIAN CUP FAILURE: How did it happen, the impact of A-League clubs refusing to release players & what now?<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking on this week\u2019s episode of the\u00a0Football Friends\u00a0podcast alongside Stefan Mauk \u2013 the second episode of the season is out now across the Football360 network \u2013 the pair took a deep dive into the failed Asian Cup qualifying campaign, what it means for the players and how the Aussie game can move forward together.<\/p>\n Part of the post mortem has focused on the impact of players not being made available by their teams, including Melbourne City pair Medin Memeti and Lawrence Wong, and Adelaide United sensation Amlani Tatu.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an overreaction in terms of speaking about the way the pathways are and the way the next generation of stars coming through that they\u2019re not going to be as good because a lot of them weren\u2019t allowed to go by the club,\u201d said Garuccio, who played for the Young Socceroos and Olyroos previously.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s more so about getting a common ground in terms of all A-League clubs, and probably they need to do better with this, maybe all across the world, in actually having international windows for junior teams as well, where they\u2019re basing these tournaments around the senior international windows, so that if you\u2019re losing players anyway, then also these junior players can go.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand that some of these tournaments, they\u2019re not able to be created like the senior tournaments where they\u2019re flying out for windows all the time, but they could just do it around a window, and if you have a four-week tournament, you do it one week either side, so these players only are missing maybe two games, instead of missing bits of pre-season or cup games or whatever it might be.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s always been an issue, because even when we were young, we faced the same problems that we\u2019d go away and then we\u2019d come back and we\u2019d lost our spot with the A-League team, so I do feel for these these young guys because you only get these opportunities once as a young player, and you take it for granted when you are that age, because you think that you\u2019ll always play for Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we look back, we\u2019ve not been involved with the senior national team, but we look back to those days and how great was it to be able to go away and play for your country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a top, feeling, and it\u2019s great exposure, but these guys maybe now don\u2019t get to go to a World Cup or an Asian Cup. It\u2019s the first Australian team since 2006 to not qualify for an Asian Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a bit embarrassing, they haven\u2019t even got to the Asian Cup now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n INTERVIEW:\u00a0Small but \u2018surreal\u2019 detail in Aussie teen\u2019s unveiling the perfect symbol for a move backed by Bruno Fernandes<\/a><\/p>\n Mauk, who represented Australia at U17, U20 and U23 level, added: \u201cBack in our day, it was mandatory in our contracts, it was a clause in there that said if Football Australia select you for a camp or a window, you had to go, and if you didn\u2019t go, there were players that had got punished with missing those games.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo essentially you had to go, or maybe some players had an injury that came up, so they maybe were a little bit under an injury cloud and the club didn\u2019t want them to go, and then they played a week or two later.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s an interesting one. <\/p>\n \u201cThe A-League is trending in the way of playing young players, they don\u2019t want to play young players because they like young players, they want to play them because they want to sell young players, and then that gives them a lot more money to then run the clubs profitably and to grow the revenue of the entire club.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not going to Asian Cups, if you\u2019re not going to World Cups with the national team players, you\u2019re missing out on a massive opportunity of showcasing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re actually almost doing them a little bit of a disservice because they\u2019re not going there to help them qualify, and there\u2019s probably a lot of scouts at these tournaments, and then their resale value potentially, of course if they play for Melbourne City and Adelaide United, they can still get sold, but if you go to an U20 World Cup and have a really good performance, well, your value\u2019s going to go up even higher.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there needs to be this mutual understanding and agreement, especially right now, when it\u2019s in pre-season, ours used to be when the season was just starting, we used to miss the first week or two weeks of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI understood that, and that was a disaster because then the coaches were like, well why are we going to put you anywhere near the starting team, because you\u2019re not going to be here for the first couple of games.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat one made sense, now the A-League starts a little bit later.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit strange, but I think again, we all need to be on the same page, and the common goal should be what\u2019s best for Football Australia, what\u2019s best for the country, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s not always sunshine and rainbows\u2019<\/p>\n Fearless conversations. Those are the discussions Australian football should be having, and Mauk and Garuccio, despite both still playing, are leading the way. <\/p>\n It comes at a time when Aussie referees have threatened to go on strike<\/a>, and there is no collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in place ahead of the 2026-27 A-Leagues season.<\/a><\/p>\n Now part of the Football360 network, the show\u2019s most recent episode attracted a lot of comments on social media. Mauk said: \u201cWe got hammered last week in some of the comments saying that we were being negative.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI actually didn\u2019t think we were negative at all last week, we made a purpose of trying to be a little bit more upbeat about it, and we still got told we\u2019re being negative, but what do you want to say about it?\u201d<\/p>\n Garuccio replied: \u201cThis is the thing about speaking openly and honestly about actual issues within the game, because we can all come on here and sugarcoat everything, and sunshine and rainbows.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the reality is, it\u2019s not always sunshine and rainbows, and, yes, we need to big up our league, and we need to speak about all the positive things that happen, but, when there\u2019s so many things that aren\u2019t ideal happening, I think you also need to speak about that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get caught up in a fairy tale world these days that if you speak about something, you\u2019re negative.\u00a0No, we speak about something because we care and because we love it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe do this pod podcast because we love and we care about the game, and we want the game to be in a better place, and that\u2019s the only place that it comes from.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt might come across negative sometimes, but it comes across negative because you expect people that are above you and that are doing their jobs to be doing their jobs properly, and the league\u2019s not in this position, because I want to be playing in front of crowds of 5000 people.<\/p>\n \u201cI would love to be going out there and playing in front of big crowds. So it\u2019s not like that at all, it\u2019s from a place of love.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Socceroos coach Tony Popovic\u2019s first press conference since the World Cup<\/p>\n NEW PLAYERS:\u00a0Socceroos set to unleash fresh faces v Brazil as Popovic explains special Ancelotti connection<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018USUALLY DOESN\u2019T WORK OUT THE WAY YOU WANT IT TO\u2019:\u00a0Popa\u2019s response to Australia\u2019s great dual-nation discussion<\/a><\/p>\n WORLD CUP REVIEW:\u00a0Popovic doubles down on penalty shootout decisions & divulges his two World Cup regrets<\/a><\/p>\n Your Next Read<\/p>\n
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