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Australia's greatest goalkeeper

Who is Australia's greatest goalkeeper?

  • Mark Bosnich

    Votes: 9 25.0%

  • Mark Schwarzer

    Votes: 22 61.1%

  • Zeljko Kalac

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Danny Vukovic

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Brad Jones

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Michael Petkovic

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 2 5.6%

  • Matt Ryan

    Votes: 3 8.3%
  • Total voters
    36
The Flying Bat

The Flying Bat

Squad Player
Joined
Nov 1, 2024
Replies
426
So firstly who is Australia's greatest goalkeeper?

And secondly why does Australia not produce world-class keepers anymore?
 
For me it's Schwarzer without question. 514 appearances in the EPL and 109 caps for Socceroos is immense.

Bosnich made 206 appearances in EPL and 17 caps for Socceroos.
 
And besides Schwarzer and maybe Bosnich have we really had any other world class keepers? I don't know if we've produced enough to suggest we don't produce them anymore, as if we used to.
 
Jeff Olver

in answer to the second question: a lack of application and discipline... too much time spent on TikTok and gaming
 
I think on raw talent and skill it's Bosnich but Schwarzer for longevity and big game skill. I hated Schwarzer is his early Australia days as I felt he always got beaten too easily. He got better from Nov 2005 onwards.
 
Another troll thread by the author known to most on here by a different name, using a sock puppet account.

It is not a question about Aus's greatest keeper, but part of his narrative to claim Aus doesn't produce quality keepers anymore. This is also part of his bigger agenda, and others who didn't post much on 442/IS, to denigrate Aus football in its entirety in contemporary times.
 
Decentric said:
Another troll thread by the author known to most on here by a different name, using a sock puppet account.

It is not a question about Aus's greatest keeper, but part of his narrative to claim Aus doesn't produce quality keepers anymore. This is also part of his bigger agenda, and others who didn't post much on 442/IS, to denigrate Aus football in its entirety in contemporary times.
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This A league season has seen young local keepers get their careers started. I remember Vukovic getting smashed by Sydney early in his career. We've also had a few more overseas keepers getting into the starting spot of late.
 
JS96 said:
This A league season has seen young local keepers get their careers started. I remember Vukovic getting smashed by Sydney early in his career. We've also had a few more overseas keepers getting into the starting spot of late.
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Kilakopic has fought himself out of a tough spot, peraic cullen has had a bright start. Beach and vidakovic both have had a bad game. Hope the coach keeps patience.
Schwarzers club career was impressive, for the roos a lot of rocks and diamonds and had some real howlers. Brilliant against italy tho and of course that pen shootout. ..
 
History tells us Bossa could have should have but he screwed himself as we know.
I actually was set back a lot or more disappointed by Scholes comments on him - worse that he couldn’t kick a ball passed halfway !
“
“I go back to the goalkeepers and when you had to try and replace Peter Schmeichel which is always going to be difficult,” Scholes said on The Overlap.

“I thought he was a good goalkeeper at Villa, Mark Bosnich, but he came to us, he was so unprofessional. Honestly, it was ridiculous.

In shooting practice you normally take 15-20, after three shots he’s knackered...and I never realised, he couldn’t kick a football. I’d never seen anything like it.
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“We actually played Everton away the first game of the season and none of us picked up on it, he couldn’t reach the halfway line. There was no wind, it was a perfect day.

“You look at his feet, size 14s, he was just kicking the floor all the time. Honestly, disappointing.”

There is NO doubt MS is no1 imo to date.
Gauci is looking promising.
 
grazorblade said:
Kilakopic has fought himself out of a tough spot, peraic cullen has had a bright start. Beach and vidakovic both have had a bad game. Hope the coach keeps patience.
Schwarzers club career was impressive, for the roos a lot of rocks and diamonds and had some real howlers. Brilliant against italy tho and of course that pen shootout. ..
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Would have to check defence but Confed 05 was hard to watch and I remember a chip over his head in a home friendly against Iraq where Ahmed Elrich scored. Come 2008 and I saw him live the first time in the Ghana friendly and his command and gathering skills were second to none.

Would have to look back but I think some big Asian night away performances happened and only conceded once in 2010 qualifying.
 
JS96 said:
Would have to check defence but Confed 05 was hard to watch and I remember a chip over his head in a home friendly against Iraq where Ahmed Elrich scored. Come 2008 and I saw him live the first time in the Ghana friendly and his command and gathering skills were second to none.

Would have to look back but I think some big Asian night away performances happened and only conceded once in 2010 qualifying.
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Remember a big night against paraguay in a friendly too

Germany 2010, japan 2006 and brazil 2006 were ones that stood out. But i do remember when i bimged old roos matches being surprised by a few howlers
 
It is a bit perplexing that Brad Jones and Michael Petkovic are put in the poll, whilst Matt Ryan, who has played many games as a Socceroo, isn't put in the poll mix?

Moreover, Ryan has played a lot of recent games for the Socceroos.

There is also the added function of the modern keeper. The ability to play as a sweeper.

A modern keeper has three parts of the job - shot stopper as a line keeper, ability to command the penalty box and sweeper. Some of the keepers are better in some areas than others. Some of the older keepers listed in the poll struggled as sweepers.
 
I am a lot older than most of you so I am going for Ron Lord who played in the fifties and sixties.He was a great shot stopper and commanded his box to take or punch high balls.About 184 cm tall but powerful arms and legs.He had been a champion teenage gymnast thus he was able to throw himself around.

Also strange that Ryan not in the list-maybe some bias involved.
 
booney52 said:
I am a lot older than most of you so I am going for Ron Lord who played in the fifties and sixties.He was a great shot stopper and commanded his box to take or punch high balls.About 184 cm tall but powerful arms and legs.He had been a champion teenage gymnast thus he was able to throw himself around.

Also strange that Ryan not in the list-maybe some bias involved.
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if there were a list of the worst he'd be in mine
 
Going back to the 70's and 80's Jim Fraser and Terry Greedy were both very good keepers. Their Socceroos careers were very short, primarily due to the game being part-time in Australia back then, but they were both the type of keepers that you don't see much of these days - controlled their penalty area, with very good positional play which meant they often made things look easy.

I would also add that goalkeeping has changed significantly in the past 20 years or so, primarily due to the backpass law introduced in 1992, which has meant that keepers who developed since then (not the likes of Bosnich and Schwarzer, who were about 20 when the law was changed and both struggled with it compared to todays keepers) play the game somewhat differently to those previously.
 
Lupi said:
if there were a list of the worst he'd be in mine
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Agree. Matt Ryan was left off the list because despite appearing for the NT he's actually a very average goalkeeper. I can't actually believe that he made as a professional in Europe, even as a journeyman....

His NT appearances due to the massive fall in goalkeeping standards which I'd assume is because of the type of coaching and instruction these goalies get from the KNVB goalkeeping programmes.

And it shows. He's probably A League or NPL standard in terms of his technical abilities.
 
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