The Roar
The Roar

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The race for A-League mediocrity is heating up

13th February, 2017
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Tony P has the Perth G on fire. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
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13th February, 2017
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For a while there, the A-League was segmenting out, like a three carriage train racing down the rails, each carriage unclasped from the others, slowly separating as it hurtled toward the final destination.

The top four appeared absolutely set, the belt of mediocrity was thick and well-defined in the middle, and the stragglers, wretched and numerous, were obvious.

That was a few months ago, and since then only Sydney FC, the Melbourne Victory and Adelaide have really set themselves apart, the former two at the table’s summit, the latter crushed and smouldering, one wheel spinning, at the deathly base of the ravine.

As for the rest, well, a congealing has occurred, and now only ten points separate third from ninth. As the Wanderers and Melbourne City’s form has slid, Newcastle, Central Coast and Perth have surged, and it’s all made the race for the sixth finals spot a very tasty prospect indeed.

The that the sixth-placed team should be rewarded with a finals spot has been the subject of much heated debate for some time in the league. In a ten-team competition, should a team that does worse than the majority of its competitors really be rewarded at the end of the regular season? As far as introducing some unexpected spice into the finals series, setting up the potential for an unfavored sixth-placer making a fairy tale run to the final, it’s a moot point; no team has won the grand final after finishing in a league position lower than second in the competition’s history.

Last season, the Victory finished sixth, and lost in the first round of the finals. Ditto for the Roar two seasons ago. Adelaide and Perth did the same in the years before that. You have to go back to 2009-10 to find the last instance of a sixth-placed team going past the first round of the finals, when Newcastle did it against the might of Gold Coast United. The presence of the sixth-placed team in the finals is rarely consequential, unsurprisingly.

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But then again, there are arguments for the inclusion of the sixth-best team. Three rounds ago, Central Coast had very little to play for, if not for the sixth placed spot. Three wins later and they’re two points off Western Sydney, having just beaten them last weekend, a superb result and further evidence of Paul Okon’s impressive ability to activate his young team now he’s had the time to grasp his hands fully around them.

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Newcastle had won one solitary game by Round 9, and were second-bottom, now they’re clinging onto that final post-season spot. When the bar for an extended season is set so low – although it waters down the quality in the finals – it also provides constant motivation to improve.

The manner in which Perth has surged up the table, finally making good on their attacking promise – they even reintroduced Rhys Williams back into the starting line-up against Adelaide on Friday – shows how quickly a team can change the complexion of its season, and be rewarded for it.

The Wanderers, in this conversation, are looking like the sorry lot to make way. The Jets failed to take the chance to seize sixth place outright, drawing 0-0 with the Victory last night. They are equal on points with the Wanderers, and ahead on goal difference. But with rumours of Tony Popovic being offered huge money deals from Shanghai Shenhua, and with a squad bearing the gashes of the yearly gutting the Wanderers insist on doing, their season is petering out into a highly disappointing experience.

If they lose the Sydney Derby on the 18th – which is likely – and their upcoming Asian Champions League campaign goes poorly, also a distinct possibility, things will seem pretty grim. Dropping out of the finals will apply the final cut, and a rigorous blood-letting awaits over the off-season, as it always does for them.

With Adelaide looking up, architects of the league’s worst ever title defence, at the situation, the Phoenix, the Jets, the Mariners and the Wanderers are all in the hunt.

How relevant is this micro-narrative to the final story arc of the 2016-17 A-League season? Well, not very, what with Sydney FC’s Invincibles-in-the-making, and the fiery city rivalry fizzing down in Melbourne. But it does stop the bottom half of the league from drifting away into obscurity and irrelevance, down the tracks, left in the dusty wake of the motoring front-runners.

When there are fourteen teams in the league, the top six will seem less overtly generous, and more like an actual contest fit for only the best. But with no relegation, the race for a finals spot is the only non-title story line going on, so let’s get among it.

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