To be fair, there were extenuating circumstances.
And you couldn’t really ask for much more in the way of extenuation from this particular set of circumstances: because the under-23 Asian Cup was scheduled outside a FIFA window, Australia were forced to take an essentially second-string squad to Qatar.
You could draw up a pretty strong theoretical starting XI featuring players who were blocked from attending by their clubs, which would include Parma’s Alessandro Circati, Brighton’s Cameron Peupion, and newly capped Socceroo Patrick Yazbek. On-loan Portsmouth whiz Alex Robertson and Marco Tilio, the former holder of the A-League’s all-time outbound transfer record, were injured. And yes, there was one other reasonably talented player overlooked for different reasons, which we’ll come to.
And so Olyroos coach Tony Vidmar deserves a bit of slack for his side’s failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics. But only a bit. This …