Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick says "no one's listening" when he talks about international breaks and doubts the big Sydney and Melbourne teams could cope as well if they lost half their side.
And his Central Coast Mariners counterpart Paul Okon feels introducing an international break would be the fairest option — provided the A-League could fit them into the season.
The Phoenix will miss five of their starters from last week's win over the Newcastle Jets, who are all on duty with the New Zealand national side, when they face the Mariners at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.
The All Whites are playing World Cup qualifiers against New Caledonia.
Bigger leagues around the world have international breaks to allow their players to represent their country.
But that's never been the case in the A-League and the Phoenix are hardest hit given the number of All Whites they have in their line-up.
Merrick said it would be a "challenge", but he backed his depth and said the players coming in would be desperate to impress and keep their spot.
That doesn't stop the fact the Phoenix will be without their captain Andrew Durante, first-choice goalkeeper Glenn Moss and striker Kosta Barbarouses.
But the Wellington coach doubted anyone at the A-League head office cared.
"I've said it so many times and I'm not just talking about this year with Phoenix — it was said after the first season in 2006," Merrick said.
"So it's a continuing message, but no one's listening at the moment so we'll just get on with it.
"I don't think some of the big teams in Sydney or Melbourne would cope with having six out of the starting 11 out of the team, but I knew what to expect.
"I came into this job with eyes open and I think the last couple of years we've handled it quite well ... [and] I think we'll pick up from here on in."
Okon played in Italy, England and Belgium at club level and also had 28 caps for Australia. He understands the importance of international breaks for both club and country.
FFA chief executive David Gallop said an A-League international break they would be "counter-productive to the commercial growth of the competition".
Okon felt for Merrick and the situation the Phoenix coach finds himself in, but he still wanted his Mariners to play as entertaining, attacking soccer as they can.
He was hoping for a vocal Canberra crowd, with the Mariners expecting about 7500 to turn up on Saturday.
"International breaks would be the perfect scenario, but whether that creates calendar issues at the back end of the season when other codes are starting up, I'm not aware of that," Okon said.
"For us it's a game against Wellington Phoenix, it's not a game against a team that has lost players.
"We feel that the team they put out tomorrow will be a very, very strong side and we expect to have a really tough game."
A-LEAGUE ROUND 6 & W-LEAGUE ROUND 2
Saturday: Canberra United v Melbourne City at 3pm; Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix at 5.35pm. Both at Canberra Stadium. Tickets available from Ticketek.
Mariners squad: 1.Ivan Necevski (gk), 2.Storm Roux, 3.Scott Galloway, 6.Blake Powell, 7.Fabio Ferreira, 8.Nick Montgomery (c), 9.Roy O'Donovan, 10.Mickael Tavares, 11.Connor Pain, 12.Trent Buhagiar, 13.Kwabena Appiah, 14.Adam Berry, 16.Liam Rose, 17.Josh Bingham, 19.Jacques Faty, 20.Paul Izzo (gk), 21.Michael Neill, 22.Jake McGing.
Phoenix squad: 2.Jacob Tratt, 4.Roly Bonevacia, 5.Ryan Lowry, 6.Dylan Fox, 7.Gui Finkler, 8.Alex Rodriguez, 11.Hamish Watson, 13.Marco Rossi, 14.Alex Rufer, 15.James McGarry, 17.Vince Lia (c), 18.Ben Litfin, 20.Lewis Italiano (gk), 21.Roy Krishna, 23.Matthew Ridenton, 24.Logan Rogerson, 30.Oliver Sail (gk).