The Championship Finals are too long
Roar Rookie
By Australian Football, 19 Mar 2010 Australian Football is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- A-League, football, Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC
The real Australian Football prize is the Premiership Plate. FFA has to rethink the HAL finals and bring them into a working relationship with the ACL.
What is currently known as the Championship finals are too long, with the six teams who qualify.
It needs to be culled down to a workable unit of a four team playoff final series, with the reward being the second prized ACL’s spot that exclude the Prem-Plate winners, who should be known as the real Champions with no further reason to be involved in the playoffs for the second ACL spot.
As it is currently, this year’s end of season is overly congested, with the six team final playoffs and the ACL starting up at the same time.
Something has to give.
The finals are a cultural importance to Australian Football. That said, however, let’s get real about it and acknowledge that the ACL is far more important, which every HAL team should aspire to win.
The Premiership Plate is rightly rewarded, with the automatic qualification into ACL.
FFA should be bold enough to cull the end of season finals from six to four. The next best four teams should play out for the second ACL prized spot in an ACL-place Final.
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Tom said | March 19th 2010 @ 7:09am | Report comment
Well, no. I don’t acknowledge that the ACL is far more important at all.
I honestly care more about my team being champions of Australia than champions of Asia.
And, like most Australian sports fans, I’ve grown up believing that the champion is the winner of the season’s final game, played by the two best sides.
Fivehole said | March 19th 2010 @ 7:44am | Report comment
No Chance of culling with 2 more teams to join over the next 2 years. Plus, fans of the “minor” premiers would be cheesed if they came 1st in the regular season and were then excluded from the finals. The finals need all the best teams playing.
Dogz R Barkn said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:24am | Report comment
When I read The real Australian Football prize is the Premiership Plate. FFA… , I thought to myself: I thought the premiers won a cup and flag!!
It’s a good thing the FFA doesn’t leave the running of the game to soccer purists – if it was left to them, they would immediately introduce 4 divisions, get rid of the salary cap, scrap finals, have a cup competition that involved every soccer club in Australia, and bring the game and comp to financial ruin within a couple of years.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:25am | Report comment
You really don’t know much about Australian Football and the Asian Confederation do you.
Dogz R Barkn said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:44am | Report comment
Yes – like 99.9% of all Australians.
You can argue that they should care more, but short of holding a gun to their head, there’s no real compelling reason why, for example, the people of NSW should care more about Melbourne Victory vs Seongnam than Parra vs the bulldogs.
It’s just plain wishful thinking.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:17am | Report comment
That’s debateable—how many would care in Melbourne about Parra vs the Bulldogs.? I’m from NSW originally and with a 100yrs of league an ex Newtown Blue Bags Supporter, I couldn’t care less about a Bulldogs GF win. But if Melbourne Victory make the ACL final I would be right behind them for an Asian Champions Leagues Final Win. With 2/3s of the world population now living in Asia it is hard to ignore.. Remembering that the HAL is barley 6 years old—not a hundred years old.
Victer said | March 19th 2010 @ 1:38pm | Report comment
Whilst I would call myself a fully fledged football fan, adopting a european style structure would be the death of the a-league. You can argue about what types but a salary cap and a finals system is a must in australia.
Art Sapphire said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:48am | Report comment
AF – looks like you have already conceded the Championship to Melbourne Victory
The Championship is the big prize for the majority if A-League fans and to your dismay Victory could be the proud owners of three dunny seats come tomorrow night. Enjoy the game
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Looking forward to GCU first bit of silverware—get to the ground early Art and watch the Beach Kids win the Gold Coast’s first piece of silverware..
AndyRoo said | March 19th 2010 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
The Chinese are backing Perth Glory in the final though
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/glory-in-the-money-20100318-qihk.html
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
Hmm, I wonder if Clive Palmer knows about that? I will send an email to GCU’s website—our youth team should be involved in that as well.
Smokygrayson said | March 19th 2010 @ 8:51am | Report comment
Dogz.
Yep, agreed.
Although it would be nice to increase the Salary Crap and soften its effect on the skill level of the league.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:11am | Report comment
I’m disappointed with my article that the mods edited down—here is my original piece.
Does SFC’s Lavicka really care about winning the HAL Grand Final?
The real Australian Football prize is the Premiership Plate. FFA has to rethink the HAL finals and bring them into a working relationship with the ACL. What is currently known as the Championship finals are too long. With the six teams who qualify, it needs to be culled down to a workable unit of a four team playoff final series––the reward being the second prized ACL’s spot that excludes the Prem-Plate winners––who should be known as the real Champions with no further reason to be involved in the playoffs, for the second ACL spot.
As currently, this year’s end of season, is overly congested with the six team final playoffs and the ACL starting up at the same time––something has to give. The finals are of cultural importance to Australian Football, that said, however, let’s get real about it and acknowledge that the ACL is far more important; which every HAL team should aspire to win. The Premiership Plate is rightly rewarded with the automatic qualification into ACL.
Australian football needs to mature and part of that process is to be a responsible partner with our membership in the AFC––that realisation is more important than the A-League Grand Final because it no longer represents the end of the season’s campaign in Australian Football, unlike the AFL and NRL––we have a bigger fish to fry in Football than to stop at the Grand Final.
The Australian Football season now extends past the normal premiership rounds, which include Asia, with two ACL spots up for grabs; two clubs are afforded the opportunity to take the A-League onto the intercontinental stage, which in itself, is a stepping stone to the even more financially lucrative and prestigious FIFA World Cup Club Championships.
FFA should be bold enough to cull the end of season finals, from six to four––a shorter campaign and no Prem-Plate (Champion) winner involved––the next best four teams should play out for the second ACL prized spot in an ACL-place Final.
Ernie Merrick’s and Ricky Herbert’s sides should have been facing each other in a Final for the last spot in the ACL––with a genuine reward for both team’s final effort. For Melb Victory it is now a HAL Grand Final of irrelevance compared to the coming tussle with Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale FC next Tuesday.
As it has been written before the HAL’s big selling point is it can go on to the continental and global stage––so much so that clubs like Adelaide United and indeed Melbourne are now household names throughout Asia.
Do Asians care who wins the Grand Final in Australia? No, I bet not, but they sure care who will be their opponents in the ACL.
The same is true conversely––due to the ACL, Australian supporters are now awakened to Asian football and most could probably give you one or two Japanese, Korean or Saudi Arabian clubs, but how many could name the winners of the J-League or the K-League last season?
With the FFA having total control of the ‘Final Series’ the clubs receive zero income from the gates. Compare that to the ACL that can bring sizeable financial rewards to struggling Football clubs, and where the prize money is substantial––$21,900 for a draw or $43,800 for a win in the group stages that rises all the way up to the $2.7 million that is on offer in the final. Also clubs can chase new sponsors that will lend their support with big dollars invested.
If further success follows, then comes the FIFA, CWC, which can financially ensure a club’s future for years to come and that’s why Melbourne have been let down badly by the FFA with an insane long unnecessary finals series––with Melb Victory’s dreadful start to this season’s ACL, which should have been priority over the HAL Grand Final.
Does Lavicka really care if SFC wins the Grand Final? I am sure he is bemused after his team have won first past the post and no prize money or gate money for his club. What will it obtain out of this match––the bragging rights for winning the Grand Final? Really, do you think he cares? I would bet quietly Lavicka and the club owners were more relieved the club won first past the post Prem-Plate and have made the ACL.
The SFC and Melbourne Victory have already been assured of a place in the 2011 ACL so a better Final would have been if Wellington had made the Final with something tangible to play for; for both teams.
The irony is that it was reported that the Victory officials suggested last month that should the club qualify for the ACL through winning the Premier’s Plate then it would have considered giving precedence to Asia, and now having nothing to play for, it should do exactly that.
Winning the ACL Final means something, both in prestige, and financially.
——–
AF
AndyRoo said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:24am | Report comment
It’s a shame they cut it down because the points about the ACL in the article proper needed to be expanded on.
I enjoyed the full version much more.
Lavicka might not have cared at first because it’s all a bit foreign to him but I think he and the SFC CEOwould have cottoned on that the fans care, the media care and the players care.
Football people love big games, LV would realise with all the extra media at trainign that something was up.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:55am | Report comment
AndyRoo,
I haven’t said we should scrap the Grand Final but to modify it—to mean something better that relates and connects better to the ACL second spot play-offs.
AndyRoo said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:19am | Report comment
I was refering to this apragraph about VL
“Does Lavicka really care if SFC wins the Grand Final? I am sure he is bemused after his team have won first past the post and no prize money or gate money for his club. What will it obtain out of this match––the bragging rights for winning the Grand Final? Really, do you think he cares? I would bet quietly Lavicka and the club owners were more relieved the club won first past the post Prem-Plate and have made the ACL. “
I think the last part “I would bet quietly Lavicka and the club owners were more relieved the club won first past the post Prem-Plate and have made the ACL” is true
I just think the answer too “Does Lavicka really care if SFC wins the Grand Final?” would be a big yes. Just because you care more about something doesn’t mean he won’t care about winning the Grand Final. It probably won’t hurt him as much as it would Merrick to lose it this year because he isn’t familiar with the concept but he will learn pretty quick smart.
He is probably treating it like a cup final i.e. a big occasion but that doesn’t quite do it justice.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Every team goes out to win—even friendlies—but you don’t lose too much sleep over it if you lose. Because, we now have the ACL participation and knowing that my team SFC have won the Prem-Plate—first into Asia, the Grand Final does not seem so important to me anymore. It has just become a big friendly match of no real importance a end of season celebration. I have now placed more importance on the Prem-Plate.
Now as an old timer who has been brought up on Finals Football all my life, if I now feel like that ie the GF is just an end of season friendly. So what is really going through Lavicka’s mind. Yes he will want to win the GF but he will not lose any sleep over it now that we will be wanting the big one—The Asian Championship League as representative’s of Australian Football—the Prem-Plate winners, first past the post, the real champions, as it is known through out the world of football.
Cpaaa 2018 said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment
Heres what i consider the major problem
1/ Both Sydney and Melbourne will be competing in the ACL no matter who wins. I would rather watch a Grand Final knowing that there is more at stake than just pride or bagging rights. Knowing that one team will certainly miss out on the opportunity to play against other Asian Club Champions and the opportunity to play against the best Clubs in the World if they happen to get that far. Which makes the Premiership Plate more valuable for it is a done deal. As AF said, why participate any longer?
2/ How many times are we going to watch Sydney V Melbourne before it starts sounding like a broken record.
The FFA have been lucky this year we could have easily had Gold Coast V Newcastle in place of Syd and Melb. Not great for crowds and not a great scenario for the FFA marketing team.
Sydney are the Champions of Australia and a finals series is for that second Asian Champions spot. the FFA need to promote it this way instead of mimicking other sports set ups. Their finals series exist the way it is because it is the end of all competition. Im sure the AFL would have a different finals series if they had the opportunity to play in a bigger competition.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment
Cpaaa 2018, glad we agree
Simmo said | March 19th 2010 @ 11:05am | Report comment
“How many times are we going to watch Sydney V Melbourne before it starts sounding like a broken record.”
This will be the 6th time Sydney play Melbourne this season. 6th.
Including 4 times in, what, 4 weeks?
The FFA is fortunate that the two fanbases are passionately opposed to each other and that there has been something important at stake for most of those games. If two non-rival teams were to play each other 6 times in a season their fans may be more bored than inspired.
Take note FFA.
Midfielder said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:16am | Report comment
AF
The problem we face is no matter what we do … our game struggles against the NRL & AFL during there seasons … while I appreciate you thoughts the greater issue is how do we organise football to ensure the best gates and TV ratings and built a following that can take on the main codes…
Soon we will have a 12 team format over 33 rounds plus 4 weeks of the finals that is 37 weeks plus the FIFA free weeks…
We are heading into uncharted waters … I am surprised we are moving forward at this rate… I guess the TV deal awaits …
My great fear is we expand too fast …. very interesting times ahead… Just hope BB & Co know what they are doing…
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:56am | Report comment
Archie Fraser has spent too long in AFL and it shows with his decision making.
Cpaaa 2018 said | March 19th 2010 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Those damm administrators. That is pretty horrible editing!!
Towser said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:18am | Report comment
Whilst I agree out of the two an ACL spot (therefore possible access to WCC) is in reality in terms of prestige & money far greater than a Grand Final win you have to consider the stage of development of the ACL.
That being that it is in its infancy.
So at this stage you have to equally respect Australian sporting traditions.
This argument reminds me of the early days of English clubs participating in European comps.
There was no way in those early days( of which I experienced) that English fans would consider any comp involving “foreigners” better than the FA cup or winning any of the 4 professional divisions.
This continued for many years. However now the balance has gone wholly in favour of the ECL. Why? Evolution of the European comp & familiarity simple as that.
The same will happen here in time.
Australian Football said | March 19th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Yep, I agree with that..
AndyRoo said | March 19th 2010 @ 11:31am | Report comment
I think a lot of the excitement amongst football fans about the ACL is the potential rather than the reality. And we do have to improve our own scheduling around the ACL so that Australian teams perform as well as they can to put us in a good position and grab as many spots as possible before the other leagues improve too much for us to keep up.
The reality though is teams often send sub par squads and last year we had a UAE team pull out mid stream while the final was played in a half empty stadium in front of a smaller crowd than the A league grand final.
True Tah mentioned some of the problems rugby has in getting people to care about the non Australian teams in Super Rugby and that’s true of football too.
I live in Australia and follow the A league, but I also have close work and personal related links to Korea, Japan and China so I should be really into the ACL but for all it’s potential I currently find it looks like paint drying when compared to the ECL or the A League Finals.
I am yet to meet an Asian fan who actually enjoys watching “grass rolling” they seem to just tolerate it because “that’s how it is”. The AFC should do something about it because you can spend a billion dollars in fireworks but it won’t cover up the fact the product has some serious flaws when it comes to being entertaining and that’s one of them.