Jakarta Casual

But why would the 27 year-old forward want to leave Central Coast Mariners? The Gosford based side have won back to back ALeague titles and are now the reigning AFC Cup/AFC Champions League Two cup holders. Never have they been so dominant yet Hall has given all that up and been lured north to a team which has finished 10th and 12th in the last two seasons and is likely to be an also-ran in a league dominated by just one club.

On the outside, it's a move that makes absolutely no sense. Instead of looking forward to games against the likes of Shanghai Shenhua, Yokohama F Marinos and, ironically, Johor Darul Ta'zim, he now has the pleasure of Kuching City, PDRM and Sabah! And, as a statement signing, you would expect the club to follow that up with other players of a similar standing.

After eight rounds, Hall's new side sit 8th with two wins and two losses scoring nine goals along the way.

Australians are of course familiar with Malaysian football. Back in the late 1980s, the likes of Alaister Edwards, Darren Stewart and Abbas Saad blazed a trail north and Hall is arguably just continuing in that tradition. And even now there are strong links between the football families in both countries and doubtless Hall would have tapped into that shared knowledge before making the switch.

But, you know what? In an era when transfer rumours have become a form of entertainment with wall-to-wall coverage and some journos devoted purely to passing on bits of gossip, it makes a nice change to be genuinely blindsided by a move

# posted by Me @ 12:09 PM