I HAVE been told Joel Griffiths is a regular on au.fourfourtwo.com, so I hope what follows reaches the mighty marksman well in the Chinese capital.
I hope it finds astute Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek too, and in some small way achieves its goal to help get Griffiths another go in the green and gold.
If you haven't been following Griffiths' fortunes since he left Newcastle Jets on loan to Beijing Guoan, you'd probably be interested to know he's netted eight goals in 18 games.
To put it in perhaps a more impressive manner, that figure represents over 21 per cent of all goals scored by Guoan in the Chinese Super League this season. One in five, for those of you who favour fractions.
Given Mark Milligan's Shanghai Shenhua outfit are currently ninth, Verbeek cannot use the level Griffiths is playing at as a defence to his exclusion. Griffiths' Guoan sit second, just a point behind leaders Henan Jianye, and remembering Milligan secured a ticket to Seoul earlier this month, the CSL standard is not the issue here.
So what is? Pit Griffiths' goalscoring exploits against others who are currently making the squad, and there's little basis to omit the all action striker. Let's look at Griffiths verse Bruce Djite, Nikita Rukavytsya and Dario Vidosic, all of whom are plying their trade at what can perhaps be considered a comparative benchmark.
In his time at Genclerbirligi Djite has scored six goals in 25 matches. Rukavytsya, at FC Twente Enschede, hasn't struck in five first team fixtures. FC Nürnberg's Vidosic has earned his goal bonus on three occasions from 16 games.
I'm not calling for Griffiths to necessarily replace any of these players in upcoming squads, rather that I believe he deserves his place alongside such names. With matches against the Netherlands and Oman in October, and a host of friendlies leading up to South Africa in the New Year, Griffiths warrants inclusion as potential nuisance value.
As I'm sure Verbeek's aware, in Germany they call the player who comes off the bench to cause trouble and surprise "das joker". This is exactly what Griffiths represents. You know he'll chase, fight, and, given half a sniff, probably score. His unpredictability is a virtue not a curse.
All things being equal, Griffiths' case should actually be made more compelling if his move back to the Jets from Guoan eventuates later this year.
As we're aware, A-League names such as Jason Culina, Jacob Burns, Mile Sterjovski and others remain firmly in the hunt for destination Jo'burg (some more so than others), so strong performances in the back half of the 2009/10 A-League campaign against the likes of these players would have to firm Griffiths' chances...wouldn't they?
Of course, it's unlikely many A-League players will actually make the final cut to S.A., and in fact I'm not advocating Griffiths should be a part of that exclusive 23. But, simply not being given any opportunities in camps of late, like others of the same, if not lesser quality are, seems a minor travesty.
Indeed, there's one such quote that sticks in my mind from Griffiths which highlights just how desperate he is to be involved with the Socceroos. Talking about pre-season hikes up the sand dunes at Nobby's beach, Griffiths said that during each one he'd 'think of Pim Verbeek and the Socceroos', using that as his motivation.
At the very least, Griffiths deserves a sustained chance in the camps leading up to South Africa.
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On first impression, Ali Abbas looks like Iraqi gold. Interesting, though, that we trialled him some time ago and chose not to sign him.
Would TD of the time Branko Culina have told Lee Sterrey to take him back to Marconi to further develop the player? If so, and I'd back a coach of Culina's know-how for this to be the case, it'd represent possibly the best piece of foresight by Jets management, ever. I'm not sure if this is true, but I'd like to think so.
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Finally, everybody makes mistakes, but I feel for Tarek Elrich having to miss a match due to a send off like that. Simply unjust.
