U-Nite: Week 10 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

We’re back with a full round of action after the international break, and it’s a tasty looking set of matches. Of course this does no favours for my tipping, which continues to slide. Even when I pick up a win, I realise I’ve forgotten to submit the tips in the competition I’m a part of. Onto the matches, starting with the Friday night opener.

North Queensland v Perth

Date: Friday 15th October

Time: 8:30pm EDT
Location: Dairy Farmers Stadium

Betfair Odds

North Queensland: $2.58
Draw: $3.30
Perth: $2.94

Changes

North Queensland

In: Brett Studman (promoted), Jason Spagnuolo (promoted) , Ufuk Talay (returns from suspension)
Out: Dyron Daal (suspended – one week)
Unavailable: Adam Casey (calf – one week), Matthew Ham (knee – three weeks)

Perth

In: Jamie Coyne (returns from suspension)
Out: Robbie Fowler (running away from Ferguson), Dave Mitchell (inability to coach)Unavailable: Chris Coyne (on loan – 6 weeks), Robbie Fowler, Tommy Amphlett (Hamstring – 2 weeks)

Well, well. When I wrote the piece about Dave Mitchell a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that a coaching change would come about so quickly. Just one more loss was all it took for him to get the boot – which is exactly what it is. The claim that he’s been ‘moved into a new position’ is just the nice way of saying it.

It’s set up this game into a can’t miss situation with all the sub-plots running through it. Obviously there’s Perth’s form slump, which is approaching panic stations. Combine that with Ferguson’s first game of coach being back at Dairy Farmers and the question of how the squad responds to him and it’s all set up for an interesting 90 minutes.

There’s also the Fury side of things, with reports coming out again during the week claiming that the Fury were on their last legs. With that backdrop, it makes it so very tough for any stability at the club, and it will eventually transfer out onto the football pitch. If the Fury had an older squad, I wouldn’t be too worried about it, but it’s the fact that their younger players won’t have dealt with the situation before that complicates matters. Add that to the high likelihood that they will be approached by opposition clubs, and it has to wear down on them.

Last season North Queensland won their first home match for the season by coming back from a goal down to beat the Glory, the comeback capped off by a Daal wonder goal that was probably the most underrated goal of the season. It may or may not have sparked a wild celebration and an increase in the bank account, but that’s another story for another time. The point is that even though the majority of the Fury squad is different from that game, the Glory players will remember just how tough it is to go into North Queensland’s house and get the three points.

Countering that is the issue of new manager syndrome. Everyone knows that the introduction of a new manager tends to lead to a positive result for the team in question, but I’m not sure that this is a typical case of that. Ferguson probably won’t depart too much from the tactics used so far in the season to start off with, which will leave the area for improvement squarely on the effort given by the players used. Surely they have to be fired up for the game given the run of form and (in theory) the freedom that usually comes with a new manager while he figures out the style he wants to play. Solely because of that, I’m tipping a Perth win in an entertaining match.

Tip: Perth (3-1)