North Queensland Fury captain Robbie Fowler has admitted the club will miss fellow striker Daniel McBreen.
McBreen, 32, has this week signed a two-year contract with rival Hyundai A-League club Central Coast.
North Queensland offered him a sweetened one-season deal but he turned it down in favour of the Mariners.
“He will be missed but life does go on when players leave,” Fowler said of McBreen.
“It’s just up to whoever’s left here to try and do the job.”
The pair has proven an imposing forward partnership so far this season with the combination of Fowler’s finesse and McBreen’s muscle sparking many a scoring opportunity.
And the Liverpool legend says that’s not going to change despite McBreen’s decision coming with at least 10 games remaining in the Fury’s season.
“I don’t think so …” Fowler said.
“He obviously thinks he’s got a great deal elsewhere and good luck to him.”
“He’s here for the rest of the season and if you’ve seen Daniel at training you know what he’s like, he’ll put in his all right up until the end of the season,” he said.
But coach Ian Ferguson has put his defecting striker on notice that any reduction in the quality of his performance won’t be tolerated.
“I did say to him that I would still be looking for the same effort and commitment that he’s given us and he’s assured me that he will,” Ferguson admitted.
“And if he does that I won’t keep him out of the team.”
“I have said to him if it does drop then he won’t be considered and that’s how open and frank it was.”
“Daniel’s pretty honest and I’m pretty honest and we were fine, I trust the boy.”
North Queensland says it already has a few tricks up its sleeve when it comes to filling McBreen’s boots.
“There’s one or two irons in the fire so we’re pretty confident we can get him replaced,” Ferguson said.
“We’ll just keep scouting about to see what we can come up with.”
Meanwhile the club is hoping to nail down new contracts with strikers Dyron Daal and David Williams in the near future.
It secured youngsters Osama Malik and Jack Hingert for an extra two years as well as recruiting 22-year old Adelaide defender Michael Marrone.
