IT'S ALMOST Dickensian in its juxtaposition. Barely men, two young males are thrown in to the gauntlet of professional football with immediate success.

Yet success, being the cursed mistress that she is, has led these two upon diverging paths that have only now reunited.

I am speaking of course of Brisbane Roar's much heralded graduates of the A-League's third season, Michael Zullo and Robbie Kruse. Together they will be tearing down Phoenix's flanks this Sunday afternoon as Brisbane attempt to secure their first win of this campaign.

Both are vitally important to Brisbane's chances this season and both stand at defining periods in their brief careers, for vastly different reasons.

Firstly, there is Robbie Kruse. It has been no secret that Kruse was his own worst enemy last season. A series of minor, yet ill-disciplined off-field incidents saw the undeniably talented 20-year-old spend the majority of the season plying his trade in the National Youth League attempting to regain his manager's respect.

After appearing to do everything expected of him on the field and off throughout an extensive preseason (including gambling his future by rejecting a rumoured approach from Wellington Phoenix) it still seemed that Robbie Kruse was not going to be re-signed by Frank Farina. It was only at the eleventh hour, with Massimo Murdocca ruled out for four months or more with a broken leg, that Kruse was offered his lifeline.

Now, as unlikely as it seemed little more than a month ago, Kruse has started Brisbane's first two matches in what has been a solid if unspectacular start to the season. His decision making appears at this stage to be more considered, yet I saw enough flashes of the old erratically brilliant Robbie Kruse in preseason to suspect that his best is yet to come this season.

On the other side of the pitch is Michael Zullo who, it could be argued, has reached a plateau in his progress as the next big thing. Despite all the praise and the hype, Zullo has never firmly established himself as a starter under Frank Farina. This has partly been due to injury and this weekend he is yet again carrying a minor knock.

Another reason he has never been a guaranteed starter is that his game has been for the most part one-dimensional. Fantastic as part of a surging counter attack, Zullo's defensive skills were evidently lacking in his first A-League season. They improved last year but still I believe he has room for improvement, especially in terms of his physical strength.

Additionally Zullo's general build-up play could sometimes seem sloppy. Usually such things are what left wingers are made of but Brisbane employ a midfield rotation whereby Zullo can find himself sitting further back in the midfield than is perhaps ideal for a man with his skill set.

While there is no doubting that he is a fighter, he is not the largest of lads, and Zullo can also have difficulty holding and regaining the ball when he finds himself deep in the centre of his own half.

It was Zullo's lack of a fully developed game that had me scratching my head when he was selected in Pim Verbeek's C-Team Socceroos earlier this year. Although Pim's intentions were obviously more sink or swim than many gave him credit for, I personally had always considered Robbie Kruse to be the more complete of the two players when they burst on to the scene together in 2007.

Now, with the two of them forming part of a very competitive squad of midfielders at Brisbane Roar, they must show their best, week-in and week-out, just to maintain a starting spot. Hopefully this competition for places will be what irons out the kinks in their respective games and will subsequently give Brisbane Roar fans a season of finally fulfilled promise from these two undeniable talents.