Central Coast boss Nick Montgomery says he's mystified as to why Australia didn't include Mariners striker Jason Cummings in their squad for their World Cup qualifiers.
Cummings bagged a goal in the Mariners' 3-0 win on Saturday night over Adelaide United to extend their unbeaten A-League Men run to five straight.
But that didn't tell half the story. Cummings dropped deep, impressed with his link-up play and often troubled the Adelaide defence with his ability to manipulate space and draw fouls.
His performance was in stark contrast to those chosen by under-siege Socceroos coach Graham Arnold in Thursday's World Cup qualifier loss to Japan.
Struggling forward Mitchell Duke was preferred to Melbourne City's in-form Jamie Maclaren in the 2-0 defeat which has condemned Arnold's side to the unenviable intercontinental play-off route.
Scottish-born Cummings qualifies for Australia but was snubbed by Arnold.
Montgomery said he couldn't understand why the 26-year-old Mariners striker had been overlooked.
"I don't think there's a player like him available for Australia," Montgomery said.
"He's unbelievable on the ball, he has a great left foot and he's a natural goalscorer and, yeah, he's gone through a bit of a dry period but he's 26-years-old and an Australia citizen.
"I don't see how the national team can look past him and (Mariners goalkeeper) Mark Birighitti. I've said to them to keep working hard.
"Jason is top-class and his work rate around the box is first-class; he works and he scores and you can't ask much more of him."
Cummings has three goals and five assists in his 11 games since arriving in Australia from Dundee in January.
The former Hibernian man has helped spark a Mariners revival during March which has Montgomery's ninth-placed side well poised for a finals push with nine games remaining in their regular season campaign.
"I said to the boys, let's just keep going and put everything into this as a team," Montgomery said.
"There's boys that I didn't pick tonight that I left out and then their team performs like that, you've got to be fair to them and they've got to work their way to get back into the team."
The Mariners will be without Brazilian forward Moresche for next week's game against Western United after he was sent off on Saturday.
Leftback Jacob Farrell (concussion) will need to be monitored ahead of the trip to Melbourne.
