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How the FFA Cup can solve the A-League's mid-season malaise

Does Australia's football future sit with the FFA cup? (AAP Image/Ben Macmahon)
Roar Guru
23rd February, 2017
21

All entertainment hits a dull patch – it’s not even confined to the world of sports: books, movies and TV shows always have a quiet part. Heck, even Married at First Sight has a dull bit (admittedly it begins about two minutes into the first episode.)

A lull is a useful tool in any narrative. It lets us take stock, raid the fridge, take a deep breath for the impending climax.

Even in the Rambo movies, Sly Stallone occasionally has to reload before filling the bad guys with lead.

What you don’t want is this lull to drag out. And as much as I love the A-League, the dull patch lasts too long, which means it takes a while to realise it’s finished.

This year’s A-League is now at a rip-roaring stage, with the race for the premiership and the championship heating up nicely. But the torpor from the mid-season malaise means many people haven’t woken up to it yet.

Now is the time to get excited about the domestic football season. Wake up people!

Brun Fornaroli dribbles the ball

At the root of the problem is our 27-round competition. Not that 27 rounds is too long by world standards, but playing every team three times drags it out. And it’s made worse by poor scheduling, seeing teams play the same opponent within a few weeks.

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That is why the FFA needs to be bold, bypass 12 teams and expand to 14 as soon as possible. This will give a 26-round season, where every team plays each other home and away, thus reducing the mid-season malaise.

For whatever reason, football in Australia has never taken off during the school holidays period. Is it poor marketing by FFA? Possibly. This year’s ‘Summer of Football’ slogan of ten matches in 11 days was insipid, considering there are normally ten matches played every 11 days anyway. It’s hard to market it as something different.

So here is the next part of my fix: take a mid-season break of five to six weeks during the school holiday period. It’s not unusual in the world of football; the Bundesliga takes a six-week, mid-season break to avoid the worst of the winter weather.

Does this mean that football will give up January to the Big Bash League? No. This is where the third part of my solution comes in: play the FFA cup from the round of 32 onwards during the A-League mid-season break.

This idea is not as crazy as you may think. If you remember when the FFA cup was first introduced, the aim was to hold the final on Australia Day (January 26), so the FFA must have given some consideration to playing cup ties in January.

Playing the round of 32 onwards in the school holidays would allow FFA to tailor their marketing for the length of the tournament. If scheduled correctly, a game could be played almost every day throughout the break.

How would the A-League clubs treat the tournament? Besides the lure of winning the cup, there would be the reward of keeping players match-fit throughout January during an extended cup run.

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What about the semi-professional teams? Would they be competitive over the summer months? It’s a tough one, but countering this is that by reducing the window of the tournament, a club could focus their preparation on a five or six-week campaign, and if they got through the first round they could build some momentum.

Won’t this make the domestic season run longer? Not necessarily. Some A-League mid-week rounds could be played earlier in the year. This may not be crowd friendly, but would work well on TV. Who wouldn’t want to watch competitive mid-week A-League fixtures?

And the competition could start earlier. I don’t see why football needs to wait for the AFL and NRL finals to finish. Most of the grounds become available at the conclusion of the home-and-away rounds of these competitions.

After the FFA cup is done and dusted, and our football minds refreshed, the focus would return to the A-League for the downhill run and the mid-season malaise would be gone in a heartbeat.

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