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It doesn’t say much for the A-League’s finals series when a team can potentially qualify despite having lost more games than they’ve won.
Does anyone seriously think the Western Sydney Wanderers deserve to qualify for the playoffs?
Perhaps they will if they win their remaining seven A-League fixtures – but that seems about as likely as Ange Postecoglou coaching a Chinese Super League club.
Yet if the finals were to start today, the Wanderers would have qualified for the top six on the back of an insipid display in Perth and a negative goal difference.
It’s not like the Wanderers might be the only team to benefit from a finals system that rewards mediocrity.
Since the six-team finals series was introduced in 2009-10, no less than four teams – the Newcastle Jets, Wellington Phoenix, Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar – have all qualified for the finals despite all losing a staggering 13 games during the regular season.
The Wanderers are on track to match that unwanted record, even if history shows that only two teams have qualified for a grand final after finishing a premiership campaign outside the top two.
After finishing third in the 2005-06 and 2011-12 seasons respectively, both the Central Coast Mariners and Perth Glory went on to lose the title decider.
And there’s been nothing in the recent past to suggest that run is likely to change any time soon, with last season’s fifth and sixth-place finishers, the Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory, exiting in the first week of the finals.
The crux of the matter, however, is not the fact that teams might qualify for the finals on the back of losing campaigns.
The problem is that the A-League is in stasis, with the game’s governing body seemingly crippled by a case of performance anxiety.
A six-team finals series arguably made more sense in 2009 when Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury had just been added to the league and Melbourne Heart were soon to follow.
But since then we’ve gone backwards, shedding two clubs and adding only one more – the Wanderers.
And if the FFA is going to prevaricate on the topic of expansion, with no criteria in sight, then the least they could do is re-jig a finals series which features 60 per cent of the teams that started the regular season.
It’s not like the first week of the finals typically attract big crowds – attendances for the elimination finals have been atrocious recently – so FFA can hardly point to the bottom line as the only reason for a six-team series, even if they do keep the gate receipts.
However, it’s hard to escape the feeling that when it comes to the big issues, the FFA is too cautious to pull the trigger.
It certainly felt that way when the Wanderers were handed a $20,000 fine for the Red and Black Bloc’s offensive Sydney derby banner, despite a suspended points penalty hanging over their heads.
Given that it took the Wanderers an entire week to apologise to Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold, the message from headquarters seems to be, “mess up and we’ll give you another chance… then another one, and possibly another one after that.”
And while there’s no point being negative for the sake of negativity, when it comes to sending the right message, the FFA often seems to be nowhere to be found.
It’s taking away from the football on the pitch – on a weekend in which Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix, Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory all turned in impressive performances.
The F3 derby was likewise an entertaining encounter, however Mariners coach Paul Okon was right when he told Fairfax Media the game deserves more than a Sunday afternoon slot every time.
And if the FFA wants to get the critics off their back, they should make some more changes next season – starting with making the finals series a straight shootout between the top four.