Running, running running...

Craig Moore for the Socceroos? I think not. Nice idea but they will just have to live without him. He came back to Australian after playing a minimal number of games in a last season for Newcastle. He just is not fit and strong enough for international football. And the Roar are finding that they cannot rely on him being available for most games in the short A-League season. Each game it is touch and go, will he - won't he. With world cup qualification at stake you just can not risk someone at this level of fitness.

So why does this story just keep running?

One last comment on Craig Moore. I don't quite understand the talk of Liam Reddy's mistakes against Central Coast. Anyone there could see that the Roar were out-played, albeit by a long ball game. The Roar were out-muscled in echos of season 1, and the centre forward was outclassed by the opposition defence - hopefully by his wisdom teeth.

The emerging economic conditions will challenge crowds this season. Without the compelling viewing of a new team in the mix, and with unhelpful international breaks - that the non-fox audience will not understand - it will be interesting to see if a momentum is built up by the time of the peak seat sales - December and January. The Socceroo crowd of 15 October at Lang Park will be a lead indicator. A large part of the non-Fox audience may not even know that world cup qualifiers are on - after all the first the broad public knew of the 2006 qualifiers was the final two matches...