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Roar and Against: The grand final is the best way to decide the A-League champion

Adelaide United struggled in the Asian Champions League this season. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
28th April, 2016
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This week’s Roar and Against debate is about the best way to decide the A-League title and whether a grand final is the fairest way in the context of an Australian league.

Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across on one of the big sporting issues of the week.

It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.

To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Daniel Jeffrey is the challenger to take on Roar editor Patrick Effeney.

The grand final is the best way to decide the A-League champion

AGREE
Patrick Effeney (Roar Editor)

Here’s the thing about a league format that doesn’t account for finals – it doesn’t account for the glorious contingency of sport, and the associated revelry and heartbreak it brings.

Emotion is the essence of sport. A grand final is the ultimate expression of that – an entire season, ten teams’ blood, sweat and tears, boiled down into 90 minutes on a pitch.

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That is drama. That is emotion.

As a relative newcomer to the game of football, first as a fan and then as a committed player, I love that the A-League has a finals series.

I feel as though it’s aimed at people like me; people who love sport but don’t know everything about the round ball code, or rugby league, or AFL. But come A-League finals time, or NBA playoffs, or Rugby World Cup, I love to throw myself into it as a spectator.

For me a finals series ticks both a marketing and an emotion box. And those two boxes are the two most important in mondern day sport.

Create genuine emotion for your teams, your game, and your supporters. The A-League gets a big tick.

Market that emotion to your sponsors, and get your well-earned TV ratings and dollars. It’s a winning formula.

So keep the A-League finals, because it harnesses the best things about sport in a beautifully marketable format. That’s kicking goals.

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A-League trophy

DISAGREE
Daniel Jeffrey (Roar Guru)

Australians certainly love a good ol’ fashioned decider to wrap up a season. And I will admit, it often guarantees a climactic finale.

Unless, of course, it’s an AFL grand final involving a bunch of guys wearing yellow and brown. Bloody party poopers, that bunch.

But, for all the excitement (and TV revenue) a grand final offers, it isn’t an accurate reflection of a season. The whole idea of a grand final is to determine the competition’s best side, yet it’s very small sample space to decide from.

Compare that to the English Premier League, where a champion is decided over the course of 38 gruelling matches, not 90 minutes of pressure-cooker football. It’s a far truer representation of each team’s quality.

It’s not as if determining a champion based on regular-season results doesn’t test teams under high-pressure scenarios – Liverpool were found wanting in that area against Chelsea in 2014.

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Oftentimes fans are treated to a thrilling finale even without a grand final. One need look no further than Manchester City in 2012 to realise that, although Arsenal’s 1989 triumph and Manchester United’s title in 1999 are other excellent examples.

The A-League itself would have been well-served without a finals series this year, with four teams all in contention for top spot coming into the final week. Imagine the finale that would have been, had it been the competition’s conclusion.

With the FFA Cup now providing an avenue for teams to be tested on their prowess in sudden-death football, it’s time for the A-League to ditch its finals series.

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