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From suburban parks to stadiums: Football’s star in Australia has never burnt brighter

1st July, 2014
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Media coverage of women's sport often neglects coverage of the sport itself. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Roar Guru
1st July, 2014
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1561 Reads

It is a great time to be a football fan in Australia and the news that David Villa will be playing a 10-game stint for Melbourne City is just another little win.

I pondered this while helping babysit my three-year-old nephew.

Today, I bought him his first little football and, along with my wife, had taken him to a suburban park to try it out.

I decided to show my nephew how David Villa scored his goal against the Socceroos. Facing the ball but not the goal, Villa stepped over it with his left foot then dragged it with his right in almost a back-heel style motion. This seemed as good a point as any to start my young protégé’s education in football.

So I asked him to roll the ball towards me. Of course, things didn’t go to plan; my left foot landed on the ball, I rolled my ankle then fell like a shot bird to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

From this literal grassroots vantage point, I could make out hundreds of pairs of football-booted legs stretching out as far as my slightly dazed vision could see. At Queens Park in Sydney’s east, home of the Queens Park junior football club, there are dozens of playing fields constantly in use on a Saturday morning, with hundreds of boys and girls playing football. It is a scene played out all over the country.

When I was growing up, girls used to be dragged along to ‘watch’ their brothers play. In 2014 things have changed completely. You see almost as many girls as boys playing, and up to a certain age girls and boys play together. It becomes a great winter family activity – and perhaps provides some gender respect lessons along the way.

And what of the women’s senior game in Australia? There is now a national competition, the W-League, and with less theatrics and on-field bickering it is refreshing to watch. Our national team, the Matildas, are going like a house on fire, having been Asian Cup winners and currently ranked ninth in the world. The women’s game in Australia has never been better.

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Just two weeks after the World Cup final, the first games of the FFA Cup competition proper will commence. A nationwide knockout competition with clubs from all levels of the game, it will go some way towards bridging the gap between ‘old sockah’ and new football. It is something other sports in Australia could not hope to pull off.

The A-League itself has come a long way in 10 years. As a Sydney FC fanm we were taught early on that we must hate the Melbourne Victory. It made sense – since we could never beat them in Aussie Rules and they couldn’t touch us in rugby, football was the only sport (other than Sheffield Shield cricket) that we could have a fair contest.

Then a few years ago there was a new kid on the block. We didn’t need to be told to hate the Western Sydney Wanderers, it just seemed a natural fit. With their noisy fans and the fact they could play a bit, you couldn’t help but respect them.

Come 2014 and the intensity is raised again. The daggy old Heart are gone, transformed by overseas capital into the suddenly sexy Melbourne City. With their fancy badge and marquee signing (who I hold responsible for my throbbing ankle) you would think they are trying to out-bling Sydney FC. Hey, there is room in the A-League stable for only one show-pony you know.

However it gives us a chance to hate another team. We have big hearts in Sydney and have plenty of room to hate all three clubs. Clubs and the rivalries between them are feeling less manufactured all the time. Heck, even names such as Roar, Victory and Glory are starting to grow on me.

Of course the hatred lasts for only 90 minutes and when the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League come around, I like many fans around the country, will put aside differences to cheer for the Wanderers. If you had suggested that local teams would be playing in a continental knockout competition even just a few years ago you would have been laughed out of town. Now, it is a reality.

After the inaugural FFA cup final in December, we move on to the Asian cup. Yes, Asian teams under-performed at the World Cup but this is a chance for redemption. Australian fans will be able to see first-hand the team that provided such excitement in Brazil. Before our entry to the Asian confederation we could only dream of hosting such a prestigious tournament.

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Since the birth of the A-League in 2004, the football landscape has improved immensely. There has never been a better time to be involved in football in this country. Sure there are still some issues, but my optimistic view is that for every one step back the FFA has taken two steps forward.

My nephew was getting a bit tired. When asked what he wanted to do next he said, “Could you do that falling down thing again?” I took it as the cue to leave.

As we trudge up the hill towards Bondi, a whole panorama opens out. On this absurdly warm and sunny winter’s day, you can see all the way to the Blue Mountains.

In the foreground, near the light towers of the SCG, you can make out the saddle roof of Allianz stadium. This is Sydney’s footballing theatre of dreams, home to Sydney FC and occasionally the national team.

I look down at my nephew, exhausted from his first ‘grassroots’ football experience at a suburban park, back to the stadium, and in my mind draw a line between the two. It’s a connection you wouldn’t bother with when I used to play.

Yes, football’s star has never burned brighter.

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