Now,

I think that's the important thing with this final.

You look at it as an opportunity.

Yes, there's significant animosity.

Like the history that goes into this game, the animosity, the ill feeling, the sins of the past, that helps drive the narrative.

And that needs to be embraced because let's face it, you're not getting 30,000 people watching.

to this game if that doesn't exist.

I just had to.

So who else is going down aside from Dandenong Thunder?

Well, unfortunately for the Bentley Greens, their time in the Victorian top flight has been rather short.

They've gone down in their first year back in the competition, so they'll have to look to rebound again.

And then, well, another...

Big name in Victorian football history, Green Gully, who I think haven't been out of the Victorian top flight in decades off the top of my head.

They've been relegated too.

So whilst we are seeing the likes of Melbourne Knights coming up and we've seen Brunswick Juventus pushing for promotion, Northcote FC, Bulleen Lions.

Oakley, Hume City, Avondale, South Melbourne, Heidelberg and Preston.

But but is, is that gonna be another approach being reborn out there, call it something else? Or is someone like South Melbourne, who we had on last night, and have been very forthright in looking to take the spot left by Western United, is that the realistic option?

I think certainly it makes sense for the A-League to look to place another license in Melbourne.

Um, it's certainly when you look at population-wise, the business base here, it is a city that can support more than two teams if they're executed well.

Um, personally, as somebody who wants to see Australian football work towards connecting its pyramid, uh, promotion and relegation and really bringing the game together, I think South Melbourne makes a lot of sense.

Also, it makes a lot of sense in that it already exists.

It has a fan base, it has a junior set-up, men's and women's teams already.

It has everything that you need.

Did we capture the World Cup well off the back of our Socceroos?

So what did you make of that?

I agree that Australia needs to figure out what it wants to be.

I think it's important whenever we're having these discussions, we don't just try to copy and paste whatever's in du jour right now.

So say Spain just won the World Cup.

Well, we need to play like Spain.

We're never going to play like Spain.

Nobody can play like Spain because Spain's got hundreds of years of football tradition and culture baked into their system.

Can you foresee Popovic developing a flexibility in his management that wasn't evident at this World Cup that would likely be required for success at the Asian

Do you get the sense that this group believes it can do something special?

I think the group absolutely does believe some, they can do something special.

When you're, uh, talking to them, when you're just attending training and looking at them, it, it's, it's remarkable that they're so on the ball.

Um, anybody familiar with Tony Popovic's approach will know that every detail of every little thing that the team is doing, whether that's training, whether that's mealtimes, whether that's travel to and from the stadium, has been planned to the nth degree.

But that hasn't led to a feeling of, you know, I guess fraughtness or anxiety amongst the players.

They seem genuinely at ease.

They've felt largely at ease throughout this entire tournament.

How much do Egypt sort of depend on him to win the game, and how much planning from Australia will revolve around him?

How much flexibility do we have?

I think certainly in this game especially has opened up more possibilities.

We saw against Turquoise how they can sit back in a low block today.

Maybe the signs that, yes, they didn't score against Paraguay, but maybe better for the start.

Christian Volpato is able to get things going in a future contest.

Jordy Boss, if he is to play on the right throughout the rest of the tournament, we don't know the injury status of Jordy.

Jacob Italiano, who went down with a groin injury before this game and forced the shuffle that saw Boss move to the right and Aziz Beic come into the side on the left.

When you first looked at the draw in the group stage and saw the teams Australia would be up against, the Socceroos would be up against, did you think the Socceroos had the depth and the talent and was a very young team to make it through to the final 32?

Joey, hello.

Hello.

How are you? Good.

I'm good, thank you.

I'm an interstate heavy haulage truck driver, and part of my job is, well, not part of my job, but I get pulled over periodically by Highway Patrol for compliance, which is, yeah, I make sure the truck's registered, I've got my logbook, my driver's licence, and more often than not, mandatory drug and alcohol tests on the side of the road.

Now, in saying that, that caller earlier on was making mention about going to the hospital for testing.

Yes.

If a heavy vehicle operator is involved in an accident, regardless of fault, They are taken straight to a hospital for mandatory testing.

I'm asking you, Joey.

Yeah, I think the traditional powers are widely expected to be at the forefront.

So all former world champions, so Spain with such a complete side talent all over the park, France.

who have probably the most fearsome collection of attacking talent assembled in the world today.

Argentina looking to go back to back with Lionel Messi at the helm, although albeit a four years older Lionel Messi from when he lifted the World Cup in Qatar.

So we don't know what physical state he will be this time around.

England forever dreaming of bringing it home today.

How far can we go this time? I noticed you didn't list them in those names of could-bes.