The Roar are a team that learns. They have learnt to use Reinaldo to free-up Kruse, and Kruse to feed Reinaldo. Zullo is able to soak-up a defender and occasionally devastate a team will a solo run or amazing cross. They have also learnt to defend and close out a game.
While Adelaide missed Angelo Costanzo, McLaren and Murdocca stepped into the Roar midfield that missed Marcinho and Tiatto. McLaren has only played 3 times this season and 3 positions - defence, striker and now mid field. Wow. Frank Farina's selection headache has reversed - who to leave out?
While it was the Kruse-Reinaldo show, man-of-the-match was Moore. Organising the team and particularly defence, Moore also saved some power shots with his head and feet. Matt McKay also had a great game and had more to do without Marcinho or Tiatto to take all the set pieces.
At Perth the Board will determine Ron Smith's future. It is getting very hard for them to keep him, even if he is a good coach, their poor funding and injuries have given Smith few options. I'm not really sure where they take it to from here. Perhaps they will appoint assistant coach David Mitchell?
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All joy for Roar fans of course. We have this habit of knocking off whoever is topping the table - goodness there are worse habits.
The hugest thing for me, during and after the game, and even now as the existentiality of the emotion has subsided, is relief for Reinaldo. Jacob and I both wanted him to do his signature flips in celebration, but then I realised it was not a time for ostentation. This was just relief and release of the demon that has been haunting his game. It was not time to shout, "Look how great I am," and he didn't. Next time the flips.
And you're right to distill the situation into, "The Roar are a team that learns." The thing is, I still don't think we've seen the best of them. Farina and the boys have something special on the workshop bench, and hopefully we'll really see it in, oh... about 10 weeks. Until then, carry on fellas with the learning and growing.
Hey, our strikers have been scoring goals!
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