Yesterday we saw a headline stating that the Newcastle Jets had signed a Socceroo. Needless to say we were fascinated to see which high profile player they had signed.
Once we clicked on the story are enthusiasm waned when we read that they had signed 32 year old Kasey Wehrmann. That is not to cast aspirations on Wehrmann who was a very accomplished player before he headed overseas, and of whom we have witnessed very little of late.
The truth is that he played for the Socceroos four years ago in 2006 against Ghana. Yes he is, and always will be a Socceroo, but surely it should have read “former” as there must be a period in which you are no longer regarded as a current Socceroo?
This sort of analysis also carries over into the Hyundai A League itself where clubs are reported to have “x” number of Socceroos, so they should perform better. But surely it should be taken into account when they played, how many times they played and against what opposition. In other words how important was the fixture.
If once a Socceroo, always a Socceroo it is interesting to look at the number who played for each A League club last year. Perth Glory were heavily criticised for under achieving yet based on these statistics their performance in fact stands up as not so bad. Melbourne Victory had eight in their Squad, Sydney and Newcastle Jets both had six, Brisbane Roar and Adelaide United five each, Central Coast Mariners and Gold Coast United, four each, Perth Glory just three and North Queensland Fury two. Note that other internationals have not been included.
Do these figures once again reflect the attraction of the clubs in terms of distance to these players?
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I am in the same boat as you, if you look at international friendlies they have devalued the international cap.
I think every player can be proud that they represented their country, but it should be used in context.
I don’t consider players to be “Socceroos” until they’ve established themselves over a number of games in the national team.
That headline about Wehrmann almost made me vomit, it devalues the title of being a Socceroo, not because he has only played one game but because it groups a lot of average players with our national heroes.
I don’t think that you could even call him a “former Socceroo”, its the same way that you would not call Brett Dorey a former Member of the Australian Cricket team, he’d be better referred to as having played 4 ODI’s for Australia.