In a new, post-Arnold era, is it time for a Popalution?
Michael Lynch: Cometh the hour, cometh the man....Australia certainly hopes so
It's an old axiom in sport that if you want to be selected, the first criterion you must meet is to actually be available for selection.
Given the abrupt nature of Graham Arnold's departure and the scaringly short timeframe Football Australia had to find a successor before crucial World Cup qualifying games against China in Adelaide and Japan in Saitama, the fact that Tony Popovic was sitting on the sidelines and ready to go with immediate effect was a major boost to his chances.
Would the FA have found a ''sexier'' candidate had they had more time? Would someone more ''interesting'' have been discovered had they been able to cast their net wider?
Who knows. The Australian job, for all of the doomsayers in the local ranks, remains an attractive proposition, so they could likely have attracted a Melbourne Cup field of candidates.
But sometimes time is of the essence and, to use another old aphorism, needs must when the devil drives.
Still, fans are unlikely to give much consideration to the problems faced by administrators when all they crave are results.
Given the febrile nature of local support and the knee-jerk reaction so prevalent in sport these days, if the Popovic era gets off to a less-than-spectacular start then the brickbats will be flying not so much in his direction than at those who appointed him with such haste, giving him little time to sort his squad out and make any selection or tactical changes he feels he may need.
Popovic's appointment in some respects feels a bit like a throwback to the days when Frank Lowy was running the show.
Remember when the Lowy-led organisation said it was conducting a global search to see who would be the best candidate to replace him as FFA chairman, and found that it was, strangely enough, his son Steven?
Or when the game’s current supremo James Johnson announced that the organisation would conduct a global search to find a ''disruptor in chief'' only to maintain radio silence for months before coming up with a man who had been hiding in plain sight all along, in the form of former Melbourne Victory, Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle coach Ernie Merrick?
That's not to say Popovic's appointment will end-up being the wrong choice. In the circumstances, he does look like the ideal candidate when all is taken into account.
Like Arnold, he is a man whose name is synonymous with the local game: a decorated international, a rugged centreback who played at the highest level in Europe.
He is a coach who enjoyed great (though not the ultimate) success in the A-League but who triumphed at the highest level of the club game by winning the Asian Champions League with Western Sydney Wanderers - a feat which for me represents the greatest sporting achievement by any Australian club in any competition (and yes, AFL and NRL fans, I include those competitions in that judgement).
He is about to find out that perhaps coaching at the international level is much harder than coaching at the club level - but in some ways, it is also a much purer test of a coach's skills.
You can't simply go into the transfer market and buy players (although of course, you can attempt to get them to switch allegiance through parent and family links, which Australia has historically done to excellent effect). Instead you have to nurture what you have, guide them, build up their confidence and create a club-like team spirit, all the while setting them up in a tactical formation that will not only nullify their opposition but show them to best effect. And to do so with just a couple of days to prepare ahead of each match.
Arnold had, by common consensus, run out of gas and could no longer inspire a group of players he had been supervising for several years.
That is no disgrace - the shelf life of most coaches is relatively short and Arnold had, despite the criticism levelled at him after the disastrous opening to the current World Cup qualifying campaign (a home loss to Bahrain and an away draw in Indonesia), achieved wonders with a squad of, in my view, fairly limited players — particularly in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
After that opening match thumping by France most expected Australia to bow out meekly. But Arnold, who admits that he is long on team spirit and ''vibes'', galvanised the group to achieve the best-ever performance at a World Cup: a round of 16 exit to eventual world champions Argentina having posted two wins in the group phase against Denmark and Tunisia.
The Popovic era is unlikely to be known for its feel-good vibes - unless, of course, the results come. Winning at this level is everything, and style is a secondary concern.
But in the hole Australia has dug for itself, his skillset - organisation, structure, discipline and hard-edged competitiveness are the virtues he has habitually instilled in his teams - could be exactly what is needed.
At his introductory press conference he said that in previous years he would not have been ready to take on the job of national team coach, but that now, in his fifties and with a wealth of coaching experience under his belt, he is prepared for the challenge.
Australia has to hope that he is right. Anything less than a comfortable win over a poor Chinese team that has conceded nine goals in losing its two opening matches would be catastrophic.
Given Popovic gets the three points in Adelaide - and boosts the team’s goal difference as an added bonus - then the trip to Japan is something he will surely relish.
A backs to the wall gritty performance in which the Socceroos carve out a result of some sort would surely build confidence in both the playing group and the coach: it is just the kind of thing Popovic managed to do with such effect when helming the Wanderers,
It is something those who appointed him will be banking on him achieving now.
*Michael Lynch is a freelance writer who previously covered the Socceroos for 25 years for the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald.