The Sydney FC midfielder, who turned 21 in November, is probably Australia's most gifted young attacking player (notwithstanding the much hoped for return from injury of Tom Rogic).
He is not of 'generation next'. His age decrees that he is of 'generation, the one after next'. As such Antonis is a ray of hope for those among us who still grieve over the passing of the Socceroos' so-called golden generation.
He is an exquisite talent whose technical gifts and ball skills have been attracting onlookers, as though he was a budding circus performer, for at least the past decade.
Now he is an experienced, established professional, Sydney FC's best player in the A-League week in and week out. And he is still so young.
But are his talents being fully harnessed?: And will Ange Postecoglou harness them when he picks him to start in the Asian Cup?
As one of the onlookers who has been gazing over Antonis's development since he was a child, I am a little mystified by the deep midfield role he has been given by successive coaches at Sydney FC. Given his inventive qualities, surely he is a creator not a controller, a number 10 much more than a number 6.
An explanation might be that Antonis is a very mobile player, possessing engines that enable him to cover vast expanses of the park. His coaches have not missed this and have repeatedly said to their defenders, 'When you get the ball, just play it to Terry and he will do the rest'.
Understood. But to me he is a playmaker, a schemer, who should be domiciled in forward positions where he might prompt the strikers, creating for them scoring options and even scoring himself – which we know he can also do.
As playmakers go I believe Antonis is the best Australia has unearthed since the emergence of Mark Bersciano, ironically against whom the young man might well be competing to gain a spot in the Australian team.
Is there necessarily not a place for both?
Postecoglou has tweaked his system since the World Cup in Brazil, where he played a 4-2-3-1 and lately has been preferring more of a 4-3-3. This, against Kuwait in Australia’s opening Asian Cup game, would allow one controlling (holding) midfielder in skipper Mile Jedinak with two forward looking midfielders on either side of him, say Bresciano and Antonis.
Those two prompting, say, a Kruse-Cahill-Oar front trio would, I think, be potentially a pretty sight.
What we do know is that Postecoglou, for all his insistence on wanting to do well in the Asian Cup, is still in the midst of a process, a process that is designed to culminate in 2018 in Russia.
Does not, I am asking, unleashing a 21-year old talent in Antonis now, in 2015, fit in with that process?
Despite the doom and gloom over the passing of the 2006 Germany generation, things are looking not that bad as we look ahead to the Asian Cup in terms of the national team's re-generation.
Consider an XI such as this:
Not bad is it?
And then there will be more beyond. Soon the likes of Rogic, Aaron Mooy, Daniel De Silva and Awer Mabil will come into the mix. Pretty good. There is hope for us yet.
But for the moment, Terry Antonis must be etched into our international future. The time is right.
