Honestly, I expected to be getting Laga-aia into the line up at some point this season, too, but like you say the competition is tough - particularly in the guard area. The challenge for us as a nation is skill sets that would force their way in easily 10 to 20 seasons ago, when we were winning things internationally, just don't measure up against the upper echelon of international sides these days. There are some genuine monster sides out there right now. On paper as a list of skills we might be the strongest line up ever, but as a comparison against our modern day counterparts we're probably not (obviously, or we'd be winning Asian Cups and playing off at the Worlds).
But I do think we're working on it and I do think we're closing the gap, which is a massive pat on the back to our community. WE absolutely punch above our weight range. Our rating is up to 17 at the moment, which isn't bad when you look at how many managers are active in Australia compared to some of the bigger nations. There are sides with more votes on their National manager than we have active managers that could possibly vote! That gives them a massive depth advantage, so against that we're doing ok.
I am more than happy to hear any musings, wonderings or brain farts people have about how we might take down Spain. Sometimes someone's left field idea can spark a new way of thinking about a problem. I won't promise to use every crazy idea directly, but I'll use them to inform my thinking.