4: KARL DODD

Of all the candidates, few will actually be coaching a national side. The ex Brisbane Roar, Fury and Wellington Phoenix defender who has also coached in the Queensland NPL with Western Pride (a club also managed by Kasey Wehrman in recent years), is currently back in Australia due to the COVID-19 situation.

He is in his third year on the Micronesian island of Guam working as national team coach with the Guam Football Association. The 39-year-old Queenslander, who also played in Scotland and Romania, was in the mix for the Brisbane Roar position last year, but he’s continuing a unique coaching experience in Asia where he’s learning every small detail of management.

Last year, a 5-1 aggregate over Bhutan put Guam into the pot for the second round of qualifiers for Qatar 2022. "I do everything just about. I don’t have a team manager so … you wear a lot of hats. The amount of planning and detail in international football, you’ve got to get it right,” he told FTBL last year. 

5: CARL VEART

The history-making man - he scored the A-League’s first-ever goal in 2005 for the Reds - has incumbency on his side, having been part of the Reds set up under Verbeek last year, as well as playing for the club in the early years of the A-League.

He may well take the side for the remainder of the season if it is played in August. This would be an ideal platform to showcase what he can do as a head coach. It’s never easy to make that step up, but Veart knows the local game in SA better than most and would be in the conversation for the top job.

Veart, capped 18 times for the national team with a strong career in Australia and England, has also worked for Football Federation South Australia where he was the NTC Head Coach. He holds an AFC Pro Licence and was previously an Australian U-20 Assistant Coach as well as an assistant coach at United during the  Aurelio Vidmar era.