Glory beckons as Perth make A-League Grand Final AAP Image/Paul Miller
Related coverage
This has been an unprecedented pre-season for the A-League. Never before has the round-ball code generated so many headlines in the midst of the AFL and NRL seasons.
But take Alessandro Del Piero and other marquee player speculation out of the equation, and it would have been quite a barren off-season, which will last a total 166 days – almost half the year. Besart Berisha’s controversial penalty that handed Brisbane Roar back-to-back titles over Perth Glory in last season’s decider really does seem like a lifetime ago.
Read Mike Tuckerman: How to Fix Australian football
As the early seasons of the A-League proved, starting when the AFL and NRL seasons are wrapping up starves the A-League of any oxygen in such a competitive marketplace, so the October to April season is the best solution.
But without the A-League for half of the year, football fans only have the respective state leagues to follow domestically – state leagues that vary greatly in quality, reach and popularity. Underneath the A-League Australian football remains disjointed and messy.
Two key areas, therefore, need to be looked at: how to squeeze in more competitive football into the year and how to strengthen the second tier (the state leagues), in part by better connecting the A-League with the grassroots of the game.
Already Football Federation Australia’s National Competition Review has spurred on the impending birth of the Australian Premier League (APL), which will unite participating state leagues under the APL banner in order to improve playing and coaching levels across the country.
While the creation of the APL is the first step in a process to elongate the season and strengthen the second tier, scheduling is key to ensure its impact is maximised.
Here is how the football season should be structured:
April to September: Australian Premier League.
- State leagues united under the one banner, opening the door for cross-state competitive matches and the possibility of down the track creating a promotion and relegation system to a nationwide Australian Premier League.
- The Australian Premier League to operate separately from the A-League. While promotion and relegation to the A-League should not be considered (more on that later), the structure of the second tier nevertheless filters down to the grassroots and will allow for movement from lower tiers.
- Winter season allows for players to be groomed for National Youth League/A-League summer seasons.
- Delivers a stronger football product in the winter, with the APL banner helping the state leagues achieve better recognition and quality.
July to October: Pre-season FFA Cup.
- With promotion and relegation to and from the A-League and Australian Premier League not a realistic option, the FFA Cup is the means to unite the top and lower tiers of the game.
- Timing of the competition allows for semi-professional and amateur clubs to be in season at commencement, while also providing A-League clubs with meaningful and competitive pre-season matches. As opposed to their current pre-season of random friendlies, the FFA Cup will be a better structured alternative to allow for more traction to be gained heading into the A-League season.
- Format should follow England’s FA Cup example whereby top tier clubs enter in the later rounds. Those eliminated in the FFA Cup can complete their pre-seasons with friendlies, as they do now.
- Avoids the odd situation of running a knockout cup competition alongside a league that is decided on a knockout finals system (a key difference between the English Premier League and FA Cup, for example, and the A-League and FFA Cup) while also giving the A-League the clean air it needs over its regular season without the confusion of overlapping competitions involving A-League clubs.
- Extends the football season and will help promote the Australian Premier League as a winter alternative for A-League fans and vice versa, marrying the two in a transition period of the season.
October to April: A-League, W-League and National Youth League.
- The top tier operates separately with clean air over summer and no other pro football competition (FFA Cup) interfering.
- October start allows for a strong launch post-AFL and NRL seasons, while future expansion could be catered for with an extended season into May (the traditional concluding month of domestic football around the world).
- Promotion and relegation forbidden in order to protect A-League franchises, irrespective of pressure from the Asian Football Confederation. Damage would be too severe to franchises and league as a whole to integrate A-League into a wider promotion and relegation system with the Australian Premier League.
This structure undoubtedly has some drawbacks, but it achieves two key requirements: extends the football season and better unites the tiers.
This is the second in a five-part Solutions series running this week on The Roar. Our football experts will be answering this question: “If you were in charge of football in Australia, how would you fix the problems you see and make football a bigger professional code – and could this help the National Team? What are your Solutions to the big issues Australian football is facing?”
Adrian Musolino is editor of V8X Magazine, and has written as an expert on The Roar since 2008, cementing himself as a key writer who can see the big picture in sport. He freelances on other forms of motorsport, football, cycling and more.
Passionate about your football? Then sign up to The Roar's brand new daily football email, delivering Roaring articles directly to you day-in, day-out. You'll love it!
Click here to join now!
Looking to join The Roar team? We're searching for an experienced Group Sales Manager to lead our team in Sydney. Yes, this does mean you get to work with the site all day long! If you're a digital media sales star, we want to hear from you. Apply now.
September 25th 2012 @ 4:12am
Zolton said | September 25th 2012 @ 4:12am | Report comment
Hi Roarers, this is the second in a short series outlining how our expert football columnists would fix Australian football. We hope it will generate positive discussion about the game in this country.
Tomorrow, Vince Rugari will focus on the Socceroos as they push to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, to be followed with Tony Tannous on Thursday, who will look at youth development, and Davidde Corran on Friday, who will offer insight into ways to continue to boost fan engagement across football in Australia.
You can read Mike Tuckerman’s first piece in the series here.
Enjoy,
Zolton (Roar Publisher)
September 25th 2012 @ 5:29am
Johnno said | September 25th 2012 @ 5:29am | Report comment
Originally the ex AFC chairman Bin Hammam was pretty firm on Australian soccer getting a 2nd division. As most Asian nations do now. I agree we need a 2nd division. Places like Canberra, Carins Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, shepperton, Albury-wodonga, wagger wagger, Newcastle, cairns, gold coast, Lismore, Armidale, fremantle, hobart, davenport, burnie,beaconsfield, launceston. MT Gambier, Morwell, sturt, Ipswish, Quenbeyan, Darwin, Alice Springs, a 2nd Adelaide team, all these places need to be part of football in OZ. And sydney untied, sth melbourne, these type of places too. So a 2nd division is needed. And a Youth league too expansion.
So as part of the football family guys, we are moving in the right direction our football family in Australia we just have to find the right business model , for Australia a middle size nation of 22 million. But heck Irleand has a pro comp, as do countires smaller than OZ, finland, norway,sweden, scotland,denmark, hungary,bulgaria, so we can have a 2nd division these countires have 2nd divisions as do smaller countries like Uruguay, and Paraguay have 2nd divisions where players in all these countries at 2nd division get paid good money. So it can work in OZ to a 2nd division, fans want to see there team.
Promotion/relegation won’t work yet in Australia still need more time but 1 day maybe with in 10 years.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:57am
Mantis said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Mate you need to do a bit more thinking before writing.
Everyone would love a second division, promotion and relegation is exciting as hell. But you said it in your article yourself; plenty of smaller countries have a second division. Australia is too big to realistically have a second division. The money is not there. How do you expect all those towns you mentioned to be able to get the money up to travel around the country as well as being a professional, even semi professional team?
Adrians suggestion is much more realistic.
September 25th 2012 @ 5:06pm
kid said | September 25th 2012 @ 5:06pm | Report comment
Agree. Being realistic with cash and talent depth is hard but getting it right is fundamentally important to the sucess of ANY whole of sport strategy.
Would love to see FFA think outside the box more. For example instead of melbourne having victory play the heart (yawn). How about toorak vs frankston. Now that is something to watch! I want conspiracy theorys as to why cabramatta players always get sent off and Brisbane city players always dive. I want a team of west aussie miners from Broome giving it to the bottle blonds of Bondi… Natural rivalrys that aren’t invented just for football. It would be great for sponsorship and would bring out the best thing about football which is the passion for clubs.
Got a bit off topic sorry but its worth thinking about in terms of how to fix the game. I know people are going to say I already have passion but sadly there just isn’t enough of us and I think tapping into natural rivalries is how to build it.
September 25th 2012 @ 1:32pm
fadida said | September 25th 2012 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
While I like your enthusiasm randomly picking places from a map won’t get us far! Beaconsfield don’t even have a team and has ? 1000 people, burnie are a shambles and Devonport too small. Hobart is the only option from Tasmania
September 25th 2012 @ 7:04am
LuKe said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:04am | Report comment
i think the FFA have it fight in the fact that the APL will be a development league. Then like in america and japan these development teams will be promoted to the A League or a 2nd tier then using there youth league team to replace them in the APL.
September 25th 2012 @ 7:51am
tk said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:51am | Report comment
I don’t necessarily see the need to pay players in what would be a 2nd division. Clubs would then be able to spend on coaches, facilities and promotion. All things more beneficial to the game at large than a players wages bill. Just putting the thought out there I expect some opposition to the idea but I’ve always thought club money could be better spent than on player payments in the amatuer ranks below the A league.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:16am
nordster said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:16am | Report comment
There’s a good case to be made for abolishing any wage floors through caps and CBAs. That way each club can spread their expenditure to what suits them. Especially for clubs looking to plan for the future and develop players. Others will prefer to spend more on wages and in some cases try and buy success. All part of the rich fabric of club football the world over. But yes expect some disagreement here. In the case of a future second tier, wage caps/floors and CBAs are totally unrealistic. But same goes for the top tier over time. Let small clubs be small clubs, thats sustainability.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:55am
Kasey said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:55am | Report comment
Eff me:) Nordster, do you have that spiel on a ready-to-use basis? just bring up the word doc, copy and paste into your web browser then “Add comment” I seem to read it on every football piece here on the Roar;)
September 25th 2012 @ 10:09am
nordster said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:09am | Report comment
As relevant now as it was when it was first written
(forgive the attempted simpsons quote)
(It only sounds repetitive as i’m singularly swimming against a sea of collectivism!)
fixed wage costs are just one enemy of club sustainability. I’m sure the union lawyers in the crowd would rather people not even realise there is such a thing as a CBA or wage floor. Unionists, gotta love em
September 25th 2012 @ 7:54am
SlickAs said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:54am | Report comment
Johnno, you don’t want to artificially create franchises in places they shouldn’t exist, but allow the world to naturally place them organically. That is how North Queensland and Gold Coast fell over, they were artificially placed there.
Here is the way it works in a natural environment without salary caps and with promotion and relegation: Good players win matches. Good players cost money. Clubs with lots of supporters earn more money to be able to buy good players. Clubs located in cities with large populations can attract lots of supporters. Therefore towns with large populations will naturally have competitive football teams. Under promotion and relegation, big cities (like London) have lots of supporters and those supporters allow lots of clubs to buy quality players to win games to get them promoted to the premier league (Tottenham, Chelsea, Aresenal, QPR, Fulham, etc). Industrial 2nd tier centres like Manchester, Liverpool, Burmingham can have multiple teams too (Burmingham clubs: Aston Villa, Wolves, West Brom, etc.). A large town like Newcastle can afford to coalesce around a single club, and don’t actually need to win the Premier League, their supporters are happy enough just to be there and have the Carlos Tevez show come to town.
Now in Australia, under promotion and relegation, we saw what the natural organic league would look like (NSL). In setting up a false league, it bodes well to set it up as closely as possible to what the natural league would look like. Hobart, Davenport, Alice Springs is a pipe dream frankly. But hey, if we want to try to get teams there, set up the teams and let promotion and relegation sort it out. IMO they would be relegated, and more Melbourne and Sydney teams would be promoted. Failing P&R, you place those clubs where NSL clubs were already viable in a natural survival of the fittest competition (Morwell Falcons for example).
September 25th 2012 @ 12:38pm
Brisvegas said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Well there’s a classic case of arguing a point after the fact. Let’s just ignore history … and reality … and make ignorant sweeping statements based on (probably) little knowledge of how the country is organised.
“A large town like Newcastle can afford to coalesce around a single club, and don’t actually need to win the Premier League, their supporters are happy enough just to be there and have the Carlos Tevez show come to town.” I just hope you were having a dig because I fear for your rationality if you think this is true.
September 26th 2012 @ 3:57am
cjones said | September 26th 2012 @ 3:57am | Report comment
slickas Just to correct your comment West Brom and Wolves are NOT Birmingham clubs and Newcastle Fans are not happy to have the odd visit from a star player in lieu of winning the league.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:09am
Futbanous said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:09am | Report comment
No doubt some football fans will pick at this, but the basic idea’s & timing seem logical enough IMO.
You can fine tune whats stated here somewhat,but that the game needs to be streamlined & connected from top to bottom is not in question. The bottom line is that Football in Australia has always been disjointed.
Traditional football nations developed their Promotion & relegation up & down the divisions 100 or more years ago,not so here for varied reasons.Small population, large distances between states & up until post war migration the sport was amateur at best.
Also being a member of Oceania gave Australia little incentive to improve because we were the alpha male.
Once we joined Asia we have to develop enough to challenge a whole heap of alpha males both in the A-League(ACL) & Socceroos(Nations).
Thats really what this article is all about for me ,setting football up nationally so that we get the maximum development possible for our players to compete first in Asia,then on the world stage.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:30am
MV Dave said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:30am | Report comment
Huge changes are being implemented at the state level and tough decisions being made which will effect some older, traditional football clubs. In Victoria the new competitions including a state wide elite competition (in place of the VPL) is due to kick off in 2014. The goal of bringing all the competitions, from junior development leagues, through to the HAL in one coordinated calendar is required and overdue. There will be short term pain but hopefully long term gain.
This process, with the ironing out of issues that will arise, will take years. In the meantime the HAL needs to be a viable, strong, self sustaining 10-12 team competition. Any talk of promotion and relegation should be thrown out the window for at least a decade…clubs wouldn’t survive relegation. The linking of the state and national competitions will initially be through an FFA Cup.
For the 2nd tier l would also like to see a national championship whereby the top team from each state league plays in a competition, perhaps staged in Canberra, to determine the state champions of Oz and perhaps they could get fast tracked into one of the later rounds of the following seasons FFA Cup (with the HAL clubs).
Interesting times ahead for the game in Oz…
September 25th 2012 @ 8:52am
MelbCro said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:52am | Report comment
The fact you think there will be long term gain in Victoria just shows how out of touch you are with the second tier. If people are genuine about a proper restructure of the VPL the first thing that needs to be done is the total dismantling of the FFV.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:59am
MV Dave said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:59am | Report comment
Think l’m reasonably in touch…saw 22 VPL games this year and visited every ground. If you think this competition as is, can keep going then you are even more out of touch…but then again l don’t have the inherent bias that you have.
The problem is that the broom should have been brought in years ago…but hey l’m just the average Joe Blow football fan in Victoria.
September 25th 2012 @ 1:07pm
MelbCro said | September 25th 2012 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
@ Mahony
You have no idea. The FFV along with all the other state federations are killing the game. They are the leftovers of the old Soccer Australia. The hypocrisy amuses me greatly from you guys, so happy over the dismantling of Soccer Australia yet are not willing to support the same thing happening to the state federations. I’m not surprised that you lot at South are collaborating with the FFV, its what your club does best.
September 27th 2012 @ 12:16pm
mahony said | September 27th 2012 @ 12:16pm | Report comment
No – I do have an idea and it is informed. I believe the long term approach being adopted by the FA’s is in the interest of the game and should be applauded. Why on Earth would I support dismantling the State Federations when they are required to operate under a model constitution developed from the Crawford reforms of Soccer Australia. This is not “hypocrisy” – the State Federations WERE abolished and now a model constitution and democratic elections will determine the future of Victorian football. I think you have misunderstood the very nature of a ‘federation’ and how the Crawford reforms worked in a legal and technical sense. As to the cheap shot at Souths, our collaborating with the FFV will see us succeed. I expect other clubs will follow. Every time I drive the 2 kms from my home to Somers Street I wish the same for the Knights. Their community aspires and deserves to be represented at the national level again. If only their leaders had the same vision. In summary, your argument is to dismantle an already reformed FA because your club does not want to cooperate with it and/or seek to change policy democraticaly? Good luck with that.
September 25th 2012 @ 1:11pm
MelbCro said | September 25th 2012 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
@ MV Dave
Perhaps you can show where I stated the competition should remain as is? The FFV is the number one problem in Victoria, the game cannot move forward with the status quo remaining. there needs to be cleanout of the administrators before a true reform can take place. DO you think the A-League would have come about if Soccer Australia was not scrapped? get real people
September 25th 2012 @ 3:21pm
MV Dave said | September 25th 2012 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
Are the FFV not working under the umbrella of and in consultation with the FFA?
I for one am glad to see a strategic plan to link up football in the state and hopefully give youth a better pathway to elite competition whilst at the same time maintaining a decent state based elite competition. Personnel at the FFV come and go…the plan and its implementation is the main point.
September 25th 2012 @ 7:21pm
MelbCro said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:21pm | Report comment
So having an incompetent and corrupt organisation that is structured and governed more disastrously than the old Soccer Australia is perfectly fine? Wow, just wow. Mark Rendell at the FFV is the number 1 enemy to the sport, that man and the organistaion he leads needs to be scrapped. And it should have been done years ago. This site is full of apologists for the state federations and its really becoming pathetic.
September 27th 2012 @ 12:18pm
mahony said | September 27th 2012 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Go and vote!
September 25th 2012 @ 12:02pm
mahony said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
That is nonsense. I go to a lot of VPL games and my son and I love our time a Lakeside (and our less frequent visits to Somers St, Altona etc…) but I am under no illusions about the fragility of the VPL in commercial terms (let alone less viable States) and the need for nationalisation of the competition and the application of quality standards in all areas of club and competition operations. The broad approach mooted by the FFA/FFV through the NCR is long overdue and I (as do South Melbourne FC) welcome it. Reform of this scale and scope will take time, but it puts football first and does so by ensuring players have every opportunity to participate, develop and move through a rational, viable pathway in both their and the nations interest. I am tremendously proud of the way South Melbourne FC are engaging with the football reform agenda in Australia – we will be here in another 50 years because of our far sighted approach to embracing the future while building on our past.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:33am
mwm said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:33am | Report comment
Promotion and relegation is a pipe dream…and if it is a reality…it is at least 50 years away..not 10 years. Those countries that have promotion and relegation have football as the absolute and unequivocal number 1 sport…sure people play other sports in those countries but it is Football 1st and daylight 2nd. That means if a club is relegated.. (take Newcastle or Leeds in England) the club still has a viable support base as it is their local area’s sporting club and the public will naturally always watch and support them because that is their sport of choice.
These countries had a chance to develop promotion and relegation in the amatuer era for decades…where most players were payed a pittance and natural attrition wore out the pretenders. You want to develop it in the professional era? with fickle fans and corporate dollars
In Australia, regardless who wins the ‘code wars’ their will always be four types of football competing competing for the interest and dollars of the public. Surely ARF and Rugby League have other teams that want to play top flight football. Why don’t they have promotion/relegation..because they know it wouldn’t work
All the work the FFA and the football public have done in setting up a fresh professional league would be wasted if those teams instantly fall out of the exposure of playing top flight football.
As Football fans we need to stop looking at other countries for our football culture and develop one here ourselves. Who cares if we only get 2 AFC places…we can just develop stronger teams here and win it .
Our professional culture has fixed teams that remain as community outposts for football fans, we have a final’s knockout systems, and we have silly mascots (ok maybe that last one can change). I like Adrian’s idea….but lets just try and keep the teams we have now …stability is what we need.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:51am
nordster said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:51am | Report comment
The point with pro rel is that it isnt viable in a fully professional context. It would require the elite level to be more open to semi professional and youth orientated set ups. Small, medium and large size clubs. That model can work in any nation, whether football is the no 1 sport or not. Its completely realistic provided ye olde eggball ideas of competition/club equalisation are cast off. “Even competitions” are not worth the effort of contriving, especially for those of us who have experienced the alternative. On a sporting level, there is no competition.
September 25th 2012 @ 8:21pm
Heart_Away13 said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:21pm | Report comment
Please explain to me why if I was a supporter of a smaller club why I’d want to support a competion that my club has exactly zero chance of winning, that’s why I don’t follow other leagues around the world, because in most leagues only 2 – 6 teams can win which just personally is essentially boring
September 26th 2012 @ 9:38am
nordster said | September 26th 2012 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Because the area i am from only has its local team…or two or three for larger cities…even if a side is in the second div, if u want local football u stay with your club. Too much of a test of loyalty for the opening decade of the league, i would agree.
In football, winning a spot in a first division is a prize in itself for a smaller club. Puts a premium on the top tier. There is also Asia qualification and playoffs.
If u think there is no reason to follow your team, you do not understand football.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:56am
Midfielder said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Already happens in NSW in the state leagues…. as for the A-League it is a way off at this stage…
September 25th 2012 @ 11:19am
King Of Swing said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:19am | Report comment
Another point is that our country is far too large for a truly national second-tier. The cost of travel for potential second-tier clubs would be crippling. The reason why promotion-relegation works in Europe is not just because it is a traditional thing, it’s because of the relatively small size of their countries,
September 25th 2012 @ 11:39am
nordster said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:39am | Report comment
Would it be more viable re travel costs if clubs could choose to fly in the day of the game? Not quite FIFO but almost! How many nights do they stay away now?
Many sports at all sorts of levels manage national travel costs. A 21 game second tier is another level. But if travel cost is the main barrier surely there are smart solutions provided the regulations are flexible enough.
September 25th 2012 @ 1:14pm
wisey_9 said | September 25th 2012 @ 1:14pm | Report comment
How much money do you expect these APL teams to have? Any fixture that has teams flying and staying overnight on a regular basis is not viable.
It is going to be hard enough to co-ordinate state wide competitions, let alone a national one…
September 25th 2012 @ 2:36pm
nordster said | September 25th 2012 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
The ideal would be to have them spend less time and just fifo ideally lol …but i was under the impression there were league regs saying they had to spend a certain number of nights per away trip. Some coaches early on were suggesting flying in day of the game if my memory serves..?….
September 25th 2012 @ 9:15am
Roger said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:15am | Report comment
I can certainly see the value in drawing together the State Leagues under a nationally coordinated umbrella during the A-League’s off season, and the addition of a pre-season cup. However, something that wasn’t touched on is the potential for A-League clubs and State League clubs to forge formal relations, and provide improved pathways for players to become recognised and grow.
In relation to promotion/relegation, I agree that it’s not an option at this stage, and I honestly can’t see it happening in our lifetimes. The absolute unavoidable problem with promotion/relegation is that Australia is too sparse to support it. Imagine if Perth Glory (for example) got relegated, and Dandenong Thunder got promoted. We’ll have a situation where the nearest club for Perth fans is halfway across Australia, and Victoria suddenly has 3 teams. Not viable for WA, and not viable for Vic.
Same goes for Brisbane Roar (or is it Queensland Roar again?) and Adelaide United. When you have 1 state, 1 team, you simply can’t afford relegation.
Perhaps when the A-league can support at least 2-3 clubs per state, and State League clubs are consistently drawing 5,000 + crowds, we can look at it.
September 25th 2012 @ 5:30pm
Nathan of Perth said | September 25th 2012 @ 5:30pm | Report comment
Well, no, the nearest club for Perth fans would be … Perth Glory! When you’re in top flight the objective is staying in and winning top flight – when you’re in second tier its about fighting back to the top-flight! Your club doesn’t die a gruesome death just because it is now playing locally.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:18am
Fussball ist unser leben said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Some very useful suggestions, Adrian – well done.
I do agree the off-season is too long for football but, this may just be an Australian thing – maybe it fits with an inherently lazy Australian culture?
The 2 professional sports competitions that are, most often, used as comparisons for HAL have similar long off-season:
AFL: 175 days from 2011 Grand Final to 2012 Opening match
NRL: 151 days from 2011 Grand Final to 2012 Opening match
1. Australian Premier League
* love this suggestion, but it might take time to get the right structure & funding
* my vision would have the APL being the 2nd tier of competition with promotion to the A-League
2. FFA Cup
* this is a given and, by all reports, this will commence next season
* I’d have a straight knock-out competition, with the 10 HAL teams entering at the Round of 32
* the preliminary competition would be state-based & the top teams from this state-based cup competition move to the Ro32 with the HAL teams
Round of 32 would be:
* top 4 teams from: NSW, QLD, VIC = 12
* top 2 teams from: WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT = 10
* 10 HAL teams (Nix are included in this competition)
= Total 32 teams
(note: HAL teams must always be the ‘away’ team if drawn to play a State-based opponent)
3. A-League
* extend the season by 9 rounds and have every team play every opponent TWICE at home, which removes the inherent bias in the current fixture where teams play some opponents twice at home & only once away
* Season starts in October & finishes end of May (which coincides beautifully with the European leagues & international FIFA competitions)
September 25th 2012 @ 10:14am
Nathan of Perth said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:14am | Report comment
Good post, Fuss, I like a lot of that.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:48am
Elisha Pearce said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:48am | Report comment
Seems like you’ve thought about that a lot Fuss and there is some good detail there.
Liked the overall ideas in the article too. Seems like a logical adjustment to time spacings is needed. You want to have as much clean air as possible in the crowded Australian market. Apart from the Big Bash League in the summer of cricket you’re going to be the only local attractions if you wait til footy is all done and dusted. Great move I think.
I’ll admit that I’m not a real rusted on Australian football supporter. I’ve always followed it, but definitely more a european snob type football follower. With that in mind, the FFA cup is fantastic to me. I’d be there with bells on if the Wanderers had to play Sydney Olympic away or some such brilliant scenario. It would be absolutely fantastic!
And I’m really intrigued about the Wanderers in general this year. The A-League has probably nabbed itself another follower starting this year I think.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:52am
Brendo said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Good post Fuss, they should have gotten you to write the article
1. APL
Its a great idea but the State Feds still have too much power in Aus. We are going to be end up with each state with their own version of the implementation of the NCR. This is a disaster waiting to happen, this was the big chance to put a broom through state feds and launch a coordinated second tier based on state comps. I highly doubt it will happen now.
The biggest issue is FFA want to establish it but not provide any funding. With large states like QLD a state wide comp has huge funding issues due to travel costs. Whereas Victoria there is a issue around the gap in quality between country and city.
I agree a APL is the long term solution but there is a lot of water to go under the bridge before we see a standard comp at each state. I still think we are a long way from Pro/Rel
2. Tick, tick tick. Just about every football fan wants it and the overwhelming majority want it as a straight knock out. The A-league teams entering at the knockout round of 32 makes sense and running it as preseason comp also make the most sense currently. Even your suggested allocation of spots feels right (maybe SA to have 3 spots and NT only 1)
3. I agree extend season by 9 weeks and play H/A twice. 36 Rounds. I prefer the season starting in August but I think this one will be a hard sell at FFA at this time. The move to October seems to be working from a media prespective and the FFA will be reluctant to move back to August start at the moment. It will happen but just not sure how soon.
September 25th 2012 @ 12:35pm
mahony said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Good stuff….
October 1st 2012 @ 1:21am
El Fauno said | October 1st 2012 @ 1:21am | Report comment
Well they have the long off seasons due to being full contact sports. Due to the greater physicality and this goes for American and Gaelic football as well they have settled on playing a maximum of 25 to 30 game seasons as this is the most that the players are physically capable. For example in the AFL the maximum number of games a season is 30 including finals and preseason matches, while in the NRL it is 28 matches a season excluding pre season games and in the NFL it is 24 matches a season. It is 24 matches a season for Rugby Union in the UK as well. Anyway mainly due to injuries it is rare for an AFL player to play every match during a season.
October 1st 2012 @ 7:44am
Fussball ist unser leben said | October 1st 2012 @ 7:44am | Report comment
@ El Fauno
“Anyway mainly due to injuries it is rare for an AFL player to play every match during a season.”
Absolute NONSENSE!
Each year, the best teams in the AFL are the ones that play the fewest number of players – i.e. the teams are settled & the majority of players play every match of the season.
In relation to American Football – I know little about the game – but, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal & other researchers …
… the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.
That’s 11 minutes in TOTAL per game. When you allow for “offensive” & “defensive” players being rotated depending on the situation in the game, it’s likely the average NFL player only exerts himself for 5 minutes per game.
Other than elite marathon runners, I can’t think of too many sports which require a 6 month break for recovery.
Full story: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html