The Warren Joyce wrecking ball doing damage at Melbourne City

The English coach's hardline approach has left players and coaches in his wake

Neil Kilkenny. Tim Cahill. Bruce Kamau. Luke Brattan. And now Bruno Fornaroli.

Melbourne City coach Warren Joyce has shown time and time again he's not afraid to stamp his managerial authority in ruthless fashion.

The latest of these stamps saw him drop Fornaroli from his starting side for supposedly inadequate skin folds with Fornaroli refusing to travel with the team to Brisbane on the weekend as a result.

It was a costly decision and reaction with City failing to score in a 2-0 loss to the Roar with the Uruguayan an invaluable asset to at the very least have had on the bench.

Without him, City rarely threatened with an experimental attack and former Adelaide United coach John Kosmina believes Joyce may have pushed things too far this time.

“I know Joyce is the coach and I think he’s fantastic - he’s been a breath of fresh air because I think that club needed a kick in the backside and he’s tried to give it to the players - but maybe this is one kick too many," Kosmina said on Fox Sports.

“Someone like Bruno, you’ve got to cut him a little bit of slack.

"I look at his body shape and think he’s not going to be lean at the best of times, but you know what, he can do a job for you."

Fornaroli and Joyce's falling out reportedly stems from the striker's desire to join Sydney FC in a big-money move over the off-season, according to The World Game.

Regardless of the root cause, Joyce's resulting treatment of Fornaroli was not only costly but continued a trend of the coach's rather heavy-handed player management style.

Only a few weeks prior to Fornaroli's omission, Brattan found himself dropped completely from the City squad with sources close to Goal confirming Joyce's relationship with the midfielder is far from rosy.

Kilkenny found himself an early casualty of Joyce's reign last season with the club's previous Player of the Year frozen out of the side as he eventually found a new home at Perth Glory - where the former Socceroo has shone.

Scoring against City last season, Kilkenny's celebrations were aimed directly at Joyce with the Glory man revealing the extent of his poor relationship with him.

"I played like that every day in training and the man ignored me," Kilkenny told Fox Sports.

“I had something to prove and hopefully I did that. It was just one person’s opinion, he didn’t like me.

“It’s one of those things. I didn’t get the opportunity I thought I deserved."

You can add Tim Cahill to the list of players who felt they didn't get the opportunities they deserved under Joyce with the Australian striker deciding to leave the club late last year in search of more game time.

Bruce Kamau is another with the young attacker frozen out of Joyce's side after his move to Western Sydney Wanderers was revealed - despite the fact he had impressed early on in the season.

Players aren't the only ones that have fallen victim to Joyce's strict regime with former assistant and W-League coach Joe Montemurro demoted before the beginning of last season for questioning pre-season training methods, according to The Covert Agent.

Montemurro had experienced great success with City's W-League team and has since landed on his feet taking charge of 's Women's side.

Old-school as coaches come these days regularly sporting shorts and boots on the sidelines, Joyce has undoubtedly added some real steel to City over the past 12 months but it's come at a cost and it's one the club might not be willing to pay much longer - particularly when star players aren't being allowed to shine.