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“It all comes despite the sixth instalment of the A-League being arguably the best in terms of on-field entertainment.” And there it is again. This time by Age journalist Jonathan Howcroft.
The same line over and over again. Almost every article concerning the A-League Season Six leads to the same patronising line.
Hey you A-League fans! Don’t you know it’s the best season ever and you jokers are not turning up!
I’m sorry, but this is patronising knowledgeable Australian football fans that know much better than what the Australian football media is giving them credit for.
Save for some quality moments by Adelaide United ,Brisbane Roar, Central Coast and the Melbourne Derby (which I have to say has gone some way to being the saving grace of HAL Season Six) this has to be one of the worst seasons in domestic football history (save for the final years of the NSL).
When it comes to football you cannot distinguish between the on-field and off-field action. You have to look at the total package. During a game of football the fans feed the players, the players feed the fans, the referee incenses the players and the fans, and the cycle continues.
You can feel the energy passing back and forth between the two for 90 mins. Remember that A-League? 90 mins – 90 emotions. At times, it seemed that for 90 minutes both players and fans are going through the motions.
Instead of saying this is the best A-League season ever, I would be asking for my money back. Some games are more like glorified training sessions played on substandard pitches than top flight professional football. Tell me, how does this lead to the on-field action being the best ever?
Crowds of less than 10,000 I can handle but crowds of almost less than 1000 – are you kidding me?
Now is not the time to panic publicly, but privately, the FFA should be in emergency talks. Their two expansion clubs in QLD are not working. They are selling tea to coffee drinkers.
The second Sydney team was a disaster, and Melbourne Heart, while I’m sure will be thought of as a reasonable succuss has been anything but with empty stands and a club that stands for no-one.
There is no doubt that the A-League is in its biggest crisis point since its inception. And not like an NRL or AFL crisis that disappears the next day, it’s a crisis that should have everyone in football asking some hard questions.
Like: Now that the state leagues clubs are drawing bigger crowds than the A-League perhaps getting rid of the NSL clubs was not the right thing to do? Maybe we need to bring the “wogs” back into the fold.
I know clubs like Marconi, Sydney Olympic and South Melbourne would love to get back into the A-League. I would bet that these clubs averages would exceed the North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast, Central Coast and Melbourne Heart crowd figures; even Sydney FC’s for this season.
If you are worried about the ethnic tag just change the names and say they are Australian clubs with Australian values and pretend no-one is the wiser (it worked for Sydney FC and QLD Roar). Just keep saying it over and over again; I hear that trick can work sometimes.
Perhaps a good way to experiment with this idea would be to see what the reaction is if and when the state league clubs are asked to join the A-League teams during a proposed FA-Cup style competition.
Sure, the vision of violent ethnic football hooligans clashing on the six o’clock news was not a good look – but at least there was a crowd in the stand and at least the violence stood for something.
Don’t bring the NSL clubs back, you argue, it will just bring back the old ethnic rivalries and we don’t want trouble in the stands.
Well I don’t remember any Hatomoto security and risk management consulting firms that were around during the NSL days. In fact some home end experiences with Sydney FC have been very scary especially when police and fans started fighting each other during an away trip to the Central Coast a couple of years ago.
From memory pepper spray never used to be part of the price of admission to a game of football.
So what do you think, is this the best season of the A-League ever?
Con Stamocostas edits a football E-zine called Half Time Heroes, and is on Twitter.
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