FURIOUS Olyroos midfielder Neil Kilkenny believes under-23s coach Graham Arnold misled him about his role at the Beijing Games and that a light preparation at the tournament has stymied his start to the club season with Leeds.

After performing a vital role in the midfield for much of Australia's qualifying campaign, Kilkenny played a full 90 minutes in the 1-0 loss to Argentina but did not play in the opening match against Serbia nor in the final group match against Ivory Coast.

"The manager promised me certain things but went against his word," Kilkenny said. "Australia have had a few games lately but I am not concentrating on that. I want to get promoted [from League One] with Leeds, so that is the priority.

"My form has been up and down this season, partly because my confidence was knocked a bit when I went away to the Olympics in the summer and didn't play as often as I wanted."

The 22-year-old - who shunned England and Ireland to play for Australia - said he believed Arnold was not frank with people at Leeds, and was particularly frustrated at how his fitness dropped off during the Beijing campaign.

"Pre-season is important, and the Australian manager told me we were going to have a really strong, hard pre-season, but the hardest I worked was when I came back to Leeds for a week," he said. "I worked harder in that week than I did for six to eight weeks with Graham Arnold, which is another thing that really annoyed me about him.

"I am a big confidence player, and hopefully I can get a run of form going because I feel I have been trying to catch up on my fitness since coming back from the Olympics."