One of the great mysteries of Phoenix's A-League season (apart from the obvious one of why they can't win away from home) is the fall from favour of Dylan Macallister.
When he arrived at the club, it seemed Ricki Herbert had found the missing piece in his puzzle - a big target man who was as good with ball at feet as when it was aimed at his head.
But perhaps the biggest benefit he brought was the release of Chris Greenacre and Paul Ifill into their most potent roles.
Last season, both spent time playing furthest forward, a position neither enjoyed. Macallister's arrival would change all that. Greenacre has always played off a big target man and the prospect of foraging for knock-downs and loose balls in and around the box was one he was relishing.
Similarly, Ifill is at his most dangerous picking up the ball in wide positions and raiding towards goal with it, free of the responsibility of being an outlet for team-mates who want to hit forty-yard passes into the centre-forward position.
Things began well. A couple of pre-season goals, including one against Boca Juniors on his Westpac Stadium debut, boded well and it was absolutely no surprise Macallister began the A-League season in the starting XI.
He was there for the first four matches and while they weren't man-of-the-match performances, he came as advertised - a big man who could play the point of the arrow, causing problems in the air and bringing his fellow front-men into the game.
The first sign things weren't going quite so well was in the away loss to Perth when he was dragged at half-time. It's been lean pickings since with just two appearances off the bench and then, inexplicably, he's been unable to even make the matchday squad for the last two matches, and he's not on the plane for the trip to Adelaide.
It seems that Mirjan Pavlovic (oddly) and Toto (unbelievably) are now ahead of Macallister in the Phoenix pecking order. Pavlovic is fine if you want someone to run around a lot in the manner of a headless chicken, but Macallister can certainly provide a lot more than that. And for the completely underwhelming Toto to be considered a better impact option is just astonishing.
What has Macallister done wrong? He's committed, trains hard and there's certainly no bad blood between he and Herbert or his team-mates. It just seems he doesn't fit the gameplan at the moment.
The bad news for Macallister is that it's hard to regain a spot in one of Ricki Herbert's sides once you've fallen out of favour. Just ask Diego or David Mulligan. Having said that, Macallister offers significantly more than those two.
With matches coming thick and fast between now and Christmas, Macallister will surely get his chance to impress again soon. When it comes, I'd love to see him knock in a couple of goals and get what could be a prosperous Phoenix career up and running.
