Police direct Gold Coast United fans after they stormed a closed off area of stadium in protest of a crowd cap at Skilled Park during the round 13 A-League match between the Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury , Saturday, October 31, 2009. Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer made the decision this week to limit the Skilled Park crowd to 5,000 people to save on stadium fees. AAP Image/Dave Hunt.
A week ago, everyone was talking up a two-horse title race between Sydney and Melbourne in the A-League. Yet after the weekend’s results, which saw the top two lose, that idea has been flipped upside down. But we’ve heard this before and that’s the beauty of the A-League, it’s predictably unpredictable.
Indeed, it seems every second week there’s a new title favourite in the A-League with results consistently perplexing the average fan.
Gold Coast United and Perth Glory have had good runs near the top, ushering in hype as title candidates, while the likes of Wellington and North Queensland have had periods of fine form.
It was only a fortnight ago that Wellington (who were bottom at the time) thumped Gold Coast (who were top at the time) 6-0.
I recall switching on the coverage late in that contest to find that lopsided score line, much to my surprise and disbelief, and initially thought it must have been a Fox Sports typo.
Or maybe my eyesight?
Indeed, form or media hype seem to equate to little when the next game comes around, with the weekend’s Round 14 fixtures highlighting that point to a tee.
There had been speculation during the week that Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory were ready to surge away from the pack, but the Sky Blues’ 1-0 loss on the Gold Coast and Melbourne’s 4-0 hammering from the Mariners rubbished thoughts of a two-horse race.
At least for now.
Perhaps we should’ve been wiser than to begin hyping up a two-horse race when the A-League has consistently proved unpredictable in the past.
And the reality is that this is the beauty of the A-League.
The competition is not going to replicate a product such as the English Premier League or the Spanish La Liga in terms of quality and standard.
But as a form of entertainment, the A-League continually succeeds in keeping the viewer on edge thanks to its sheer unpredictability.
I am a Blackburn fan in the Premier League and recently tuned into the box to watch Rovers journey off for a trio of rather difficult away trips at Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.
In all three contests I went into the game expecting my boys to get thumped and they duly didn’t fail my expectations: 6-2 at Arsenal, 5-0 at Chelsea and a relatively pleasant 2-0 at Old Trafford.
Yet despite the predictable results, I still watched the games (although I did ‘fortunately’ dose off at half-time in the Chelsea game with the score 1-0 at the break).
But the A-League isn’t as privileged as the English Premier League with its market and passionate fanbase.
The point I’m trying to make is that the A-League offers something which the much revered Premier League can’t and Australian football fans shouldn’t forget that.
The way the league is run, with equalizing strategies like the salary cap, enables this unpredictability to occur for the greater good as a way to attract fans.
There are some who believe removing the salary cap altogether would be good for the A-League as it would allow clubs to spend more on better players, thus improving the overall quality.
But that move would benefit only the clubs willing and capable of spending on their playing list.
And while a few more quality players may grace our shores, it may not be a good trade-off with the decreased unpredictability in the league which would accompany it, especially when the FFA are trying to expand the code nationally rather than in isolated pockets.
Indeed, a lopsided A-League with dominant clubs predictably knocking off the smaller teams would be very difficult to sell in the Australian sporting market which traditionally loves the ‘underdog’.
And that’s the beauty of the A-League, that the ‘underdog’ can get up on any given day.
We should treasure that rare delight in this day and age where the examples of European football show us exactly what we need to protect.
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