also agree on the fixturing, playing a midweek game with one team from friday and the team that had the bye to avoid extended breaks.

I guess if we’re talking 33-rounds, a point I didn’t make in the article is the difficulty to introduce midweek matches into the A-League due to our geography. Midweek games would be very cruel on the likes of Wellington, NQF and Perth who need to travel alot. It would be a major disadvantage for them in terms of preparation time, recovery time etc..

I don’t think so … the media companies each have so much money invested in the NRL & AFL that once it starts … boom bang thank you all the sports media starts up in lifting the ratings … Until the baby can walk or have our own FTA media deal we must play as much as possible not head to head and have our finals without competition..

Perhaps the A-League season should kickoff in early October after the AFL and NRL have finished up. Then the A-League finals would be when the new AFL & NRL seasons are just beginning. Is that viable?

Just had a look at that theafc link and I wonder if ‘the league matches’ could include finals, because any team who qualifies for the ACL from the A-League would have to play in at least 3 finals.

I think a Cup competetion would help by catering to the demands of the AFC, die-hard supporters etc whilst keeping the HAL sacrescent. I would play a 22 Round + FInals HAL and then extend the season as required using the Cup Competition. With finals have 26 weeks where all players are available for the HAL. Than add another 12 weeks of pre-season Cup & FA Cup style comp which can be played whilst accomodating for FIFA dates, Asian Cups and playing in less popular times etc.
Aug – Pre-Season Cup
Sep-Apr – 22 rounds + finals HAL with Cup games on International calender dates.
Thats a 9 months comp like in England or Italy.

well that’s easier to get around i guess. Pre season cups and FFA cups cld easily be run to extend the period bya few onths either end of the “real season”, it’s just whether anyone wld notice.

If a local Melb, Syd, Bris, Adel team ,etc is doing well in the HAL that should still carry excitement/momentum in the local scene even if the AFL/NRL has begun.

Just dont expect a Melb or Sdyney market to retain crowds if those teams are not in the HAL finals.

Some smarter scheduling to avoid direct clashes would also help in the latter part of the season.

The only downside perhaps is that in Melbourne’s case, Etihad availability might cause some fixturing clashes should either of the Melb HAL teams make the finals as I’d imagine the new bubble stadium wont have the capacity required for a Grand Final. That would be avoided if the FFA are happy to play all finals incl the GF at the new bubble though or Sat night is free at Etihad.

Overall, clean air is best at the start with some pre marketing not diluted by the big football finals of the AFL and NRL.

Redb

I don’t think playing teams 3 times (what we have now) is very fair anyway because one of the teams gets 2 home games and the other 1.

The only really fair way is home and away once each and I think 20 games is probably too low. Works for me though but perhaps they would need to bring in some sort of cup to make up extra games.

I think I read somewhere that the magic number the AFC want a competition to have is 33 games, I wonder if 33 rounds but only 30 games satisfies that?

I think Wednesday Night in Brisbane would be more succesful than day time games so I see potential there.

Could solve the problem of Fox wanting all the games on different times so at least two or three daytime games but a few teams wanting night games (Bne, Adelaide, Fury all prefer night time games)

Also, thinker your suggestion of 26/27 rounds. Are you suggesting the A-League go AFL-style and have some teams play each other 3 times and some twice? Would that work with football?

33 Rounds sounds like a lot but if it’s only 30 matches the players have to pay I guess like you say in the article the mid week experiment this season during the summer school holidays will be crucial. If it works then no problem, if it doesn’t then they are going to have to look at each team playing each other twice and then 4 or 5 teams a third time.

I’ll just correct this, because I knew this would come up. It would be 33 rounds, because each team would play each other 3 times equalling 30 games and each team would have 3 byes. Therefore 33 rounds of football are required to be scheduled. Same thing applies if it was 22 rounds.

If it’s 11 teams I think 30 games is more likely than 33. Everyone plays each other 3 times, same as this year.

11 teams playing each other twice is 20 rounds not 22