- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
For so many, the football pitch is more than a patch of grass. It’s a sanctuary. The dirt patches on the local field for an all-age Division 12 match can feel like Suncorp Stadium if you try hard enough.
It’s an escape. An escape from a mundane work week, an escape from the kids for 90 minutes, an excuse for a few Sunday arvo beers.
It’s no different for professionals. They sweat through the hard yards of junior football and toil through a week of training, all to be on that hallowed piece of turf come game day.
For some it’s a means to escaping inner demons. For others, it’s the release point of an overwhelming sense of passion that simply can’t be explained.
It’s the same passion that makes every seat in a stadium just as sacred. The passion that will allow fans across the country to breathe a sigh of relief when they wake up tomorrow.
The A-League season is here.
Each year the arduous off-season seems longer than the season itself, even more so when off-field headlines make it difficult to remember the beautiful simplicity of kicking a ball into a net.
Plenty has happened since Melbourne Victory’s 3-0 grand final win against Sydney FC, only some of it good.
The game lost one of its great characters in Josep Gombau, a messy situation at the Newcastle Jets thankfully ended with the volatile mining magnate Nathan Tinkler being booted out, while Kenny Lowe has had to rebuild almost-champions-elect Perth Glory, and the NSW police very nearly sucked the life out of football support as we know it.
The Bakrie Group threatened the security of Brisbane Roar, the Professional Footballers’ Association went to war with the FFA and the governing body caused a storm by keeping its leadership in the family.
For 450 minutes at least this weekend, all of that will pale into insignificance. This is what football fans live for. The chants, the cheers, the boos, the jeers, the victory, the beers. Nothing beats the game day experience.
As fans we have to accept football is much more intricate than winning and losing. But watching the young talents, local products and fresh-faced marquees do their thing is all we really care about.
Though dozens of subplots will continue to murmur in the background, it’s time for the football to do the talking.
Defending champions Melbourne Victory will head in as favourites, European target Graham Arnold will be on the sideline for Sydney FC, rejuvenated Jets and Glory take important steps on the road to recovery and Western Sydney’s fans will be allowed to talk to their pals and some.
All iced off by a Socceroos World Cup qualifier.
This is why we love the game.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.