Magnificent Mariners...Mile and McAllister

Central Coast Mariners smashed Queensland 4-2 and Sydney FC put five (5-2) past Perth.

The Mariners lost Ahmed Elrich for the season due to injury and Adrian Caceres before the match.

But they needn't have worried.

Mile Jedinak was back and wiped out any threat from Charlie Miller or indeed any Roar player. How the Mariners had missed him.

Keeper Mark Bosnich returned significantly overweight but it was Liam Reddy who stole the show...with a number of embarassing errors giving Matt Simon and Dylan MacAllister easy opportunities. They both scored.

The Mariners looked well-organised this week. Jedinak ran the show and scored a wonderful free-kick. Their confidence grew throughout.

They may have lost their wingers but with Dylan MacAllister adding a serious goal threat, two on debut he should have had three, the Mariners will take some stopping.

Even if they have no width.

The Roar have a lot of work to do. Matt MacKay and Massimo Murdocho huff and puff but they'll rarely blow much down, not regularly anyway. One has to go and Frank Farina needs to reshape his team.

Danny Tiatto is way too slow at full-back these days and Robbie Kruse needs to start.

He, not Michael Zullo, was dynamic last season and it's time to give him an extended run.

Farina has plenty of talent but the team is lacking variety and invention. They may do better away from home. With Reddy gifting goals a poor performance tonight was punished further.

In Sydney Perth somehow contrived to give away a shocking first goal to Alex Brosque. Eugene Dadi showed they are a team to reckon with, if they get their collective minds on the job.

Dino Djubic was sent-off for abusing or maybe even spitting at the ref and Sydney converted the penalty and scored at will for a 4-1 half-time score.

Were Sydney any good? Hard to tell. But their fourth goal showed three Sydney players in the box waiting for a cross. Shannon Cole scored and that might be the difference.

Players actually getting into the box. Sydney missed that last year. Corica, Cole Bridge, Brosque all scored and John Aloisi came on to look for more goals. Sydney were shocking in the second half against ten men. Perth were poor throughout. But it's Sydney's goal threat that will give them hope this season.

They are already top...with Melbourne.

Interestingly Canberra's Nikola Topor-Stanley looks jaded, like his mind or body hasn't quite returned from Beijing. Seems like he needs a break after three months training leading into the Olympics. But there's no time for that is there?