Brisbane Roar head coach Warren Moon is challenging the A-League Men’s club to use their underwhelming 2021-22 season as a platform for improvement.
The Roar host Sydney FC on Tuesday night in the last fixture of a disappointing campaign for both clubs, with Brisbane second-last on the ladder and Steve Corica’s Sky Blues to miss finals for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
At the end of a season that has featured COVID-19 chaos, fixture upheaval and weather disruptions, Moon admits the Roar’s ladder position shows that his club simply hasn’t handled those obstacles as well as their rivals.
“It’s been incredibly tough,” Moon told AAP.
“I mean it’s exposed and stripped back a whole range of things, not just at our club, but other clubs as well.
“No-one can account for who had it worse or which club had it better, it’s not about that. It’s challenged everyone.
“Some clubs have obviously done well this year and some have struggled and we’re certainly a club that have struggled.
“Instead of pointing to the negatives, I think the important thing for us to do is to learn from this and we’ve taken a lot of key learnings from this year about how we would do things and handle things.
“We certainly hope for a bit more normality next year. I think that’s the hope of everyone.
“We have to find the positives … make us a better squad next year without making too many excuses.”
Moon says he’ll be making changes from his team that lost 2-0 to Central Coast last week although the future of overseas recruits Juan Lescano, Matti Steinmann and Ryo Wada looks unclear after all three didn’t even make the bench against the Mariners.
Sydney meanwhile head north with Corica’s future uncertain given the two-time championship-winning coach’s contract expires at the end of the season.
Corica says he’ll work out his own future after Tuesday’s match, which will be the final game in Sydney colours for retiring forward Bobo as well as potentially several key figures such as Socceroo Rhyan Grant, captain Alex Wilkinson and Serbian playmaker Milos Ninkovic.
“Normally this would be a match in the schedule most of our fans and supporters would look to and it’s going to be difficult,” Moon said after just 1652 fans attended last week’s clash with the Mariners.
“Tuesday night, a work night, with wet weather.
“We can’t control the weather but the fixturing can be looked at and I’m sure they’ll (Australian Professional Leagues) do a better job next year with a bit of a normal run of it going into the season.”
