Socceroo and Melbourne City defender Alex Wilkinson says the national team has developed a cut-throat mentality when competing for a spot to represent Australia.
Coach Ange Postecoglou originally left Wilkinson out of the squad for the World Cup Qualifying games against Tajikistan (7-0) and Jordan (5-1), but took the place of Matthew Spiranovic after he accumulated a calf strain.
However, the 31-year-old did not play either game in Adelaide or Sydney and instead the centre-back positions were filled by Preston North End’s Bailey Wright and Jiangsu Suning’s Trent Sainsbury.
Wilkinson praised the versatility in the squad and said it was best for the team to get as many Socceroo players as possible.
“You’re always disappointed not to play, when you get called into camp it’s an honour, the next step is to try get on the pitch, it’s disappointing, but that’s football,” Wilkinson said.
“Every time you go into camp you’re fighting for your position, when Ange first came in he said he wasn’t happy with the depth that was available and over the last two years he’s made a point of introducing new players every camp.
“Now down the track we see it’s worked well because he’s exposing guys to international football and its sink or swim.
“It’s great to expose them to that cut-throat competition, at the end of the day it’s created a lot of depth in each position of the field.
“For me it’s about working hard at club level and hopefully getting into the next camp. Once I’m there, I’ve got to work hard at training and make the boss’s job difficult to pick the team and that’s what I’ll be looking to do.”
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Despite not being fielded for the crucial clashes, Wilkinson said he tried to get involved as much as he could by helping the younger players in the squad.
The City centre-back was happy with the progress of the Socceroos and praised their efforts after their comprehensive victories.
“The boys both games did very well, two great results, we finished top of the group which was the goal going into camp and now we wait and see who we get in the next draw,” he said.
“I guess if you don’t play your job is to push the guys in front of you. I go into every training, enjoying my time there and I work as hard as I can to make the next camp.”
“I won’t worry about Russia yet, it’s more about the next camp, it’s one camp at a time with Ange, he makes it abundantly clear at the end of each camp that everyone’s got to be playing and training regularly.
“Every time we get together the boys on the pitch have been improving, the performances over the last week were two very good performances.
“There’s a lot of depth there now, I think we saw in the last two games, we made five changes from the first to the second game and the transition was very seamless.”
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