IS IT time for Roar to get a new coach? It's not for me to decide, of course, but perhaps I can be forgiven for asking the question.

You see, I've been a passionate Roar supporter for a few years now. I've driven my kids up the motorway from the Gold Coast time and again. I've dragged friends along to games. I've purchased programmes, consumed over-priced food, and bought bright orange merchandise.

And sure, I have enjoyed some patches of entertaining football. But I have also been repeatedly frustrated by Roar's chronic inability to get a result when it matters.

Once again this season, Roar's run of form was left much too late, and another poor show in the finals means no Asian adventure next year. Once again, a few mis-firing strikers take the blame. Once again, so much potential, and so little to show for it.

And once again, after last week's Preliminary Final, Frank Farina was insisting that his losing team had played "better" than their opponents. Unfortunately, however, that same familiar refrain has been heard so many times that it's almost become the norm.

Was Roar's game really "better" than the Reds'? If your team goes a goal down and then plays Mad Crazy Attack while your opponents fall back and successfully defend their goal, who is playing "better"?

If your team goes one goal up but cannot land the killer blow, and then falls to a sucker punch in extra time - as so often happened to Roar earlier this season, and last - who has played "better"?

The truth is, this 2008/09 season has never been more than a two-horse race, and Queensland was never more than a great pretender. Results don't lie.

Adelaide were stretched to the limit by their Asian Champions League commitments this year and yet they still managed to finish ahead of Roar on the A-League table.  The boys in orange couldn't score a win against them in four attempts. Which team was "better"?

In fact, it was Queensland's failure to finish ahead of Adelaide on the ladder which may have ultimately doomed their Grand Final chances. Farina himself said a preliminary final in Brisbane would have drawn over 40,000 fans. That kind of support may have just carried the squad over the line and into Asia. But just like last year, it was poor results earlier in the season, especially at home, which ultimately cost them the chance of a home final.

And for that, surely, the coach has to accept some share of the blame. In fact, it's fair to ask whether Frank Farina hasn't now become part of an entrenched problem with a perpetually under-performing team.

Like Miron Bleiberg, Farina understands that attacking football draws a crowd, and fans ultimately pay the bills. But Jogo Bonito is a whole lot more fun when you win! Fans will still support a team that plays well and loses, of course, but in truth Roar's football has sometimes been far from entertaining.

Crowd numbers have been poor in Brisbane as much as elsewhere this year, and surely I wasn't the only one who shuddered last week when Farina said it was OK by him if his team "play absolutely crap".

Don't get me wrong - I like Frank ! I think he did a great job in charge of the Socceroos, and I can't help but admire how he sticks by his mates through thick and thin (think Tiatto, Reinaldo, Kruse...).

And sure, as Sydney FC fans repeatedly insist, stability is important.

But Roar next season need to break out of this endless rut. Other A-League clubs are cranking up their game a few notches, with wholesale upgrades on and off the pitch. What's Roar's plan? Maybe a change of coach is a good option to at least consider.

For me, in any case, it's time to say farewell. I'll be supporting the new Gold Coast team next season. And I suspect that many other football fans in this part of the world will be doing likewise.

Particularly if all Frank Farina can promise is more of the same.