Nick Montgomery in an interview said he would prefer imports that are around locally than going through the scouting and acclimatisation process for players overseas.
Makes sense, and reduces risk through them being known quantities (theyāve played in the A-League and therefore know the conditions and quirks).
Were CCM linked to ABJ as well? Or was that only speculation because Val said they were signing a German player.
Speculation I think. They ended up signing Nicolai MĆ¼ller from the Wanderers.
Read a German interview with Baumjohann shortly after his release saying he was going back to Germany.
Yeah, pretty sure it was the MĆ¼ller speculation that he was mixed up in.
Tongyik re-signs with the Mariners for one season
2 Likes
Have CCM only lost DDS so far? (besides Staj)
Clisby, Kuol, Nigro, Janota and Stensness
Got as far as the one the keeper threw in, forza Superannuation League. 
Looks alright. As an Asian +1 (assuming he has a JPN passport) could have been handy.
Looks NPL at best
This is odd:
Meanwhile, Central Coast Mariners are without a home ground for the start of the season with the club yet to reach a tenancy agreement with Central Coast Council for use of the stadium in Gosford. Senior A-League sources suggest the APL is negotiating with the council on behalf of the Mariners, though the club is entertaining the prospect of playing their first home games in other regions, potentially in Sydney and Wollongong.
Iām not overly surprised by this. Thereās been a long ongoing battle between Charlesworth and the council over the cost of leasing the stadium, heās threatened several times to take games to North Sydney Oval and Brookvale oval. The problem is, the council always calls his bluff, I mean, itās pretty obvious that the Mariners would want to be based on the Central Coast for their games. The hand that Mariners might play is to threaten only playing half of the games at the Central Coast to reduce the cost of the stadium lease, but the council could just play hard ball and say that itās an all or nothing deal (play all games, or no games).
Iām not standing up for Charleworth, but it sounds like the council are being pricks. For what I heard a few years ago, the key people involved are Rugby League fans who always wanted the Central Coast Bears playing there, but that never eventuated.
Charlesworth also wants ownership of the stadium, has done since he took ownership of the club. Mainly to add to his property portfolio and put in a hotel type development around the ground, not for the benefit of the club. The council wonāt give it to him though.
Ownership or a 100 year lease kinda deal?
I think they wanted the contract to operate the stadium?
Stadium lease. Council are a clusterfuck at the moment and screwing about with the Mariners.
The Mariners put a submission in fur stadium rights. The council staff stole the best bits of that submission, and put their own internal submission to run the stadium internally.
This has been a two year saga.
I guess rugba league powers have a lot of sway. I donāt see that that would be less of an issue at North Sydney, Brookvale or the Gong though. These are all grounds linked closely with RL clubs, Bears, Sea Eagles, Steelers/Dragons. Youād think the Bears would prefer the Marinersā success in the CC region rather than trying to shaft them. Maybe Iām naive.