''I am driven by one thing, I want to grow the game in this country. That's all I am interested in, if I am best placed to do that I will do that,'' he said. Postecoglou, who has won four national titles in his homeland, has never made any secret of the fact that he ultimately wants to lead his country. The big question is whether this, in the wake of the two recent horror 6-0 losses, is the right time, with the A-League season just having started and the World Cup eight months away. ''There's a big if there. For me to talk and think about hypotheticals is a waste of energy. The powers that be may already have made a decision," Postecoglou said. ''The A-League is going fantastic... but that doesn't mean we should dismiss our national team, it's an important part of our code and it's been pretty disappointing to see what's happened over the last couple of games.

''The only thing I would recommend strongly is that they appoint the best person for the job. I don't like this 'let's go local'. I have never been into tokenism, doing things because it seems right. I would not want to think that we would be taking any short cuts with our national team.'' Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi predicted the Socceroos would have an Australian coach at least by early 2015, and possibly sooner. Aloisi conveyed how gutted he had been to watch the Socceroos getting thrashed so badly in their past two matches, and that his top priority for Osieck's successor was more about improvement than about a candidate he favoured. "I'm sure that the FFA are now working through the names. Hopefully we'll end up getting someone good in, whether it's an Australian or whether it's a foreigner, because no-one wants to see us performing like we have in the past two games and losing like that," he said. "It's disappointing, disappointing as an ex-Socceroo. I still follow the national team quite closely. I won't say [it was] embarrassing, but it was pretty bad."

Aloisi was adamant whoever was chosen could not retain a position at the helm of a club, declaring the Socceroos job "definitely has to be a full-time position". He also endorsed the suggestion that the improvement of the A-League, and the Australian coaches within it, meant an opportunity for an Australian to take over "in the near future". "If it's not for this World Cup or in the next year with the [2015] Asian Cup, it will definitely be after that. Who knows, they might go with one now, but I think they will [before too long]." Loading "You could see the tactical [aspect of the] game tonight [between Victory and Heart] was good, so are we just bringing in foreign coaches just for the sake of it, or have we got coaches good enough to end up coaching at that level? I think that we've got a few that are good enough," he said. "A good thing now is that the A-League is talked about in high regard."

With Jesse Hogan